XXVI. A.D. 1715-1716…

XXVI. A.D. 1715-1716

BRITISH SOVEREIGN:--George I., 1714-1727.

Re-capture of Inverness by the Royalists--Preparations for opening the campaign--Mar’s departure from Perth--Junction of the western clans--Advance of Argyle towards Dunblane--Preparations for battle--Battle of Sheriffmuir--Mar returns to Perth and Argyle to Stirling--Arrival of the Chevalier--Goes to Perth --Preparations of Argyle--Jacobites retreat from Perth--Departure of the Chevalier for France--Dispersion of the insurgents.

Having, for the sake of continuity, brought the narrative of the English branch of the insurrection to a close, in the preceding chapter, we now proceed to detail the operations of the royalist and Jacobite armies under Argyle and Mar respectively, and the other transactions in the north which preceded its total suppression.

Before, however, entering upon an account of the doings of the main body of the rebels in Scotland, we must notice briefly the re-capture by the royalists of Inverness, partly through the instrumentality of our old friend Simon Fraser, afterwards Lord Lovat. Finding it impossible to gain the confidence of the court of St. Germains, Simon, on the breaking out of the rebellion, resolved to seek the favour of King George by using his power as head of his clan on behalf of the royalists. The clan had sent over some of their number to France to bring Simon home, in order that he might tell them what side he desired them to espouse; these had got the length of Dumfries on the day in which that town was thrown into a state of consternation by the Lord Justice-Clerk’s letter, announcing its proposed capture by the rebels. Simon was received there with much suspicion, and he and his followers placed under guard, notwithstanding the pass he had managed to obtain from Lord Townshend. This he obtained on volunteering to accompany the Earl of Sutherland to the north, and induce the clan Fraser to abandon the Jacobites and join the royalists. Although the estates and honours were in possession of the daughter of the late Lord Lovat, and although her husband, Mackenzie of Fraserdale, had joined the rebels with a number of the clan, still, according to Highland custom, Simon was the real head of the clan, and as such his influence was paramount.[722]

On arriving in the north “he found three hundred men, who had refused to follow the Jacobite banner of his rival, ready at his call. Placing himself at their head, like a sovereign with an army, he sent notice to the disaffected clansmen who had followed the legal owner of the estates, to return immediately to their duty to their true chief, threatening them with ejection from their holdings, and military execution against their families and possessions, if they failed. As men exorcised by a command which it would be wicked and futile to resist, the Frasers left Mar’s camp, just before the momentous battle of Sheriffmuir, and joined their brethren. Lovat found Duncan Forbes, afterwards the great and good Lord-President, defending the old fortalice of Culloden, while his father-in-law, Hugh Rose, held his neighbouring tower of Kilravock against repeated attacks, and with a well-ordered force of 200 men, made his mansion do the proper service of a fort in protecting the surrounding country. Their efforts were important from their position. Northward of Loch Ness, and the chain of minor lakes, the power of the Earl of Sutherland, on the government side, balanced that of Seaforth, Glengarry, and the other Jacobite leaders; and in their absence at Mar’s camp, was superior. Thus the fortified houses near Inverness, had all the importance of border fortresses; and the reduction of Inverness, for the Hanover interest, would relieve their owners of their perilous position, by giving their friends the command of the pass between the North Highlands and the rest of Scotland. The small body under Rose and Forbes, with Lovat’s, and a party of the Grants, amounted in all to about 1,300 men--a considerable force in that war of small armies. They laid plans for systematically investing Inverness; but before it was necessary to operate on them, the garrison silently evacuated the place, dropping down the river in boats on the night of the 13th of November, and sailing for the northern coast of the Moray Frith. This affair seems to have cost no other casualty than the death of a brother of Rose of Kilravock, in a premature and rash attack. Thus the government had the command of the eastern pass between the North Highlands and the low country, leaving passable only such routes, beyond the western extremity of Loch Ness, as were not liable to be interrupted by the garrison at Fortwilliam.”[723]

When the Jacobite general took the field he was so unprovided with money, that after Colonel Hay entered Perth he could spare him only fifty guineas for the use of his detachment, and so exhausted had his little treasury become shortly after he took up his quarters there, that he was reduced to the necessity of laying the surrounding country, and the shires of Fife, Kinross, and Clackmannan under contribution. By an order dated from the camp at Perth on the 4th October, he required every man of substance attending the standard of the Chevalier, to raise amongst his tenants and possessors, the sum of twenty shillings on every hundred pounds Scots of valued rent, and such landed proprietors as did not immediately or before the 12th of October, attend his standard, were mulcted in double that amount. This order appears to have had little effect, as it was renewed on the 21st of October, when it was rigorously enforced, and the penalty of military execution threatened against those who should refuse to implement it.

To compel compliance, parties of horse and foot were despatched through the adjoining country. One of these, consisting of 200 foot and 100 horse, being sent towards the town of Dunfermline, information of their march was brought to the Duke of Argyle on Sunday, the 23d of October. His grace immediately despatched Colonel Cathcart with a detachment of dragoons to intercept them, who, receiving intelligence that the insurgents had passed Castle Campbell, and had taken up their quarters for the night in a village on the road to Dunfermline, continued his march during the whole night, and coming upon the village unperceived at five o’clock in the morning, surprised the party, some of whom were killed and others taken while in bed. Among these were eleven gentlemen, including Gordon of Craig, Gordon younger of Aberlour, and Mr. Murray brother to the laird of Abercairney.[724]

After this affair, and for want of more stirring excitements, a sort of paper war was carried on between the two generals, which, if attended with little practical effect on either side, served at least to keep up in a more marked manner the distinction between the adherents of the government and the partizans of the Jacobite interest. When informed of the Earl of Mar’s order for an assessment, the Duke of Argyle issued a counter one, on the 25th of October, prohibiting and discharging all persons from giving or furnishing the insurgents with money or provisions, under the pains of high treason, and for greater publicity he directed the same to be intimated at each parish church door after divine service, and before the dismissal of the congregation. This mandate was followed two days thereafter by another from the duke, requiring all well-affected noblemen, gentlemen, justices of the peace, magistrates, and ministers, “to persuade and encourage all able-bodied and well-affected men,” in their respective parishes, in town and country, to enlist in the regular army, and promising a bounty of forty shillings sterling, and a discharge from the service, if required, at the end of three months after the suppression of the insurrection. This order was answered by a proclamation from the Earl of Mar, dated November 1st, prohibiting and discharging all persons whatever, under the highest penalties, from giving obedience to it; and whereas he had promised his protection, as he observes, to all ministers who behaved themselves dutifully, and did not acknowledge “the Elector of Brunswick as king, by praying for him as such in their churches and congregations;” yet as several of them continued the practice, and might thus “involve and mislead innocent and ignorant people into traitorous and seditious practices,” he expressly prohibited “all ministers, as well in churches as in meeting-houses, to acknowledge the Elector of Brunswick as king, and that upon their highest peril.” And he ordered all officers, civil and military, to shut up the church doors of such ministers as should act in contempt of the order, to apprehend their persons and bring them prisoners to his camp. Many ministers, to avoid compliance with this order, absented themselves from their charges, but others who ventured openly to brave it, were apprehended and treated with severity. Mar, however, found a more pliant body in the non-jurant episcopal clergy, some of whom attached themselves to his camp, and harangued his troops from time to time on the duties they owed to their lawful sovereign, “King James VIII.”

Although the earl seems to have calculated greatly upon the assistance of France, yet his stay at Perth appears to have been prolonged rather by the tardiness of the Earl of Seaforth, in reaching the insurgent camp, than by any intention of waiting for supplies from France, or the expected invasion of England by the Duke of Ormond; for no sooner did Seaforth arrive with the northern clans, about the beginning of November, than Mar began to concert measures with his officers for opening the campaign. The march of the Earl of Seaforth had been retarded by the Earl of Sutherland, at the head of a considerable number of his own men, and of the Mackays, Rosses, Munroes, and others; but having compelled them to disperse, he proceeded on his march with about 3,000 foot and 800 horse, leaving a sufficient force behind to protect his own country, and keep the royalist clans in check.

Hitherto the Jacobite commander, from the procrastinating system he had pursued, and from jealousies which had arisen in his camp among his officers, had experienced considerable difficulty in keeping his forces together. Of all men, the Highlanders were the most unlikely to relish the inactive duties of a camp, and as the duration of their services lay entirely with themselves, it was evident that the longer Mar delayed bringing them into action, the risk of their abandoning him was proportionably increased. It was not therefore without reason that one of the leaders remarked that he was afraid the Highlanders would desert their colours in three cases:-- 1. If they were long without being brought to action, they would tire and go home; 2. If they fought and were victorious, they would plunder and go home; 3. If they fought and were beaten, they would run away and go home.

To counteract the injurious effect which a state of inaction might produce upon the minds of his men, Mar buoyed up their hopes by issuing from time to time, by means of a printing press brought from Aberdeen, and superintended by Freebairn of Edinburgh, a variety of fabricated accounts, highly favourable to their cause, respecting the progress of the rebellion in the south, and the great exertions making by the Chevalier’s friends in France, all which accounts were swallowed with the utmost credulity by his unsuspecting adherents.

About the time the Earl of Seaforth arrived at Perth, General Gordon had advanced as far as Castle Drummond with the western clans on his way to Perth; and as Mar had now resolved to attempt the passage of the Forth, he despatched an express to Gordon, to join him on his march. At a council of war, which was held on the 9th of November, the Jacobite chiefs came to the determination of leaving Perth the following day for Dunblane. On obtaining possession of this town, Mar’s design was to detach three different bodies, of 1,000 men each, to Stirling bridge, and the two adjacent fords above, for the purpose of amusing Argyle, while he himself with the main body of his army, consisting of nearly 8,000 men, should attempt to cross the river at a ford a little way above those selected for the intended ruse. In the event of success, the three detached bodies were to be directed to form a junction and follow the main body without delay, but in case the Duke of Argyle abandoned Stirling to oppose the passage of the main body, they were to enter the town and fall upon his rear.

Accordingly, on the morning of Thursday, the 10th of November, Mar departed from Perth, leaving a garrison behind under Colonel Balfour, besides a scattered force of about 3,000 men quartered in different parts of Fife. The earl not calculating upon a return to Perth, took all his baggage along with him, and provisions sufficient to support his army for twelve days. The insurgents took up their quarters for the night at Auchterarder, and on the following day were joined by the western clans under General Gordon. The army rested the whole of the 11th. On the morning of the 12th, Mar ordered General Gordon to march forward with 3,000 men of the clans, and eight squadrons of horse under Brigadier Ogilvie and the Master of Sinclair, and take possession of Dunblane. After ordering the rest of the army to parade on the moor of Tullibardine, he departed for Drummond castle to hold an interview with the Earl of Breadalbane, having previously directed General Hamilton to follow Gordon with the main body.

As early as the morning of Thursday the 10th[725] of November, the Duke of Argyle had received intelligence from some of his spies at Perth, of Mar’s intended march, and of his plan for effecting the passage of the Forth. Fortunately for Argyle, his little army had been lately almost doubled by reinforcements from Ireland, and it now amounted to 2,300 foot, and 1,200 cavalry, all in the best order and condition; but though formidable from its composition when united, it was too weak to divide into detachments for resisting at different points the passage of an army thrice as numerous, in an attempt to cross the Forth. As Argyle, therefore, saw he could no longer retain his position on the banks of the river, which, from its now beginning to freeze, would soon be rendered more passable than before, he determined to cross and offer the insurgents battle before they should reach its northern bank. Though he exposed himself by this bold step to the disadvantage of fighting with a river in his rear, he considered that the risk would be sufficiently counterbalanced by the advantage which his cavalry would have by engaging the enemy on level ground.

Having called in several small detachments which were quartered at Glasgow, Kilsyth, and Falkirk, Argyle crossed Stirling bridge on the morning of the 12th of November, for Dunblane, much about the same time that Mar’s forces had begun to advance upon that town in an opposite direction from Auchterarder. In a short time after their setting out, Argyle’s advanced guard took possession of Dunblane, of which circumstance General Gordon was apprised on his march. Having halted his division, Gordon sent an express, announcing the intelligence to General Hamilton, who despatched it to the Earl of Mar, and in a short time he forwarded a second express confirming the previous news, and adding that the enemy were in great force. Hamilton, upon receipt of this last despatch, halted his men on the ground adjoining the Roman camp at Ardoch, about five miles from Dunblane, till he should receive instructions from the earl. Mar soon thereafter returned from Drummond castle, and being desirous of obtaining additional intelligence from the general in advance, ordered Hamilton to remain in his position, and to hold his men in readiness to march on a moment’s notice. This order had, however, been scarcely issued, when a fresh despatch arrived from General Gordon, announcing that the Duke of Argyle was in Dunblane with his whole army. Mar thereupon desired Gordon to remain where he was till the main body of the army should come up, and having ordered three guns to be fired, the signal agreed upon to be given Hamilton for putting his men in marching order, the latter immediately formed his division and put it in motion. After a junction between the two divisions of the army had been formed, the insurgents marched to the bridge of Kinbuck, about four miles from Dunblane, where they passed the frosty night under arms without covering or tent. The Duke of Argyle, who had the most exact intelligence brought to him of the motions of the insurgents, left Dunblane and formed his army in order of battle in the evening, on a rising ground above the house of Kippenross, about two miles north-east of the town. His army was drawn up in one extended line. In the centre were eight battalions of foot under the command of Major-General Wightman. The right wing consisted of five squadrons of dragoons, under Lieutenant-General Evans, and a similar number, at the head of whom was Lieutenant-General Witham, composed the left wing. After thus drawing up his men, his grace issued orders that no tent should be pitched during the night either by officer or private soldier; that all the officers without distinction should remain at their posts; and that the troops should rest on their arms in the exact order in which they had been formed. The severest penalties were threatened against those who should infringe these orders. Though the night was extremely cold, the troops lay down upon the bare ground, and snatched a few hours’ repose. The duke himself retired to a sheep-cot at the foot of a hill on the right of the army, where he passed the night sitting on a bundle of straw.

Although the two armies had bivouacked during the night within three miles of each other, and were only separated by the Sheriffmuir, an elevated and uneven waste, skirted on the west by the high road from Stirling to Perth, near the river Allan, yet so ignorant was Mar of the movements of Argyle, that so far from supposing him to be within such a short distance of his camp, he imagined that he still remained at Dunblane; and it was not until he observed a reconnoitring party of Argyle’s cavalry on the adjoining heights of the Sheriffmuir next morning, that he became aware of his immediate proximity. This party was headed by the duke himself, who had aroused his army by break of day, and who, after issuing instructions to his men to prepare for battle, had ascended at an early hour the hill where his advanced guard was posted, to survey the position of the insurgents.

The Earl of Mar had also put his men under arms shortly after break of day, and when Argyle’s party of observation was first noticed, Mar was busily engaged ranging his men in marching order, preparatory to advancing upon Dunblane. Conceiving that Argyle meant to offer him battle immediately, he instantly assembled all the chiefs, and after addressing them in an eloquent speech, in which he painted in glowing colours the wrongs of their prince and their country, and congratulated them that the day had at length arrived when they could revenge their injuries in open battle, he desired to know if they were willing to engage. The Marquis of Huntly alone raised some objections, and some few were heard in an under-tone to advise a return to Perth till the spring; but the voices of Huntly and his supporters were drowned by loud shouts of “fight, fight!” from the rest, who at once galloped off to their different posts.[726]

The Earl of Mar, thereupon, resumed the marshalling of his army, which formed into two lines with a rapidity and decision that would have done honour to veteran troops; but by accident, three squadrons of horse posted on the left, misled by a cry from the Highlanders, of “horse to the right,” left their position and took ground on the right, an unfortunate mistake for the insurgents, as it contributed to the defeat of their left wing. The centre of the first line was composed of ten battalions of foot, consisting of about 4,000 men under the command of the captain of Clanranald, Glengary, Sir John Maclean, the laird of Glenbucket, Brigadier Ogilvie, and the two brothers of Sir Donald Macdonald of Sleat. General Gordon, who had long served in the army of the Czar of Muscovy, was at the head of these battalions. On the right of this line were placed two of the Marquis of Huntly’s squadrons of horse, and another called the Stirling squadron, which carried the Chevalier’s standard. This squadron, which consisted wholly of gentlemen, also bore the title of “the Restoration regiment of horse.” The Perthshire squadron formed the left wing. The centre of the second line consisted of eight battalions of foot, viz., three of the Earl of Seaforth’s foot, two of the Marquis of Huntly’s, the Earl of Panmure’s battalion, and those of the Marquis of Tullibardine, of Drummond, commanded by the Viscount of Strathallan, and of Logie-Almond, and Robertson of Strowan. On the right of this second line were posted two squadrons of horse under the Earl Marischal. The Angus squadron was on the left. The whole of the force thus formed for action may be estimated at 8,000, besides which there was a corps de reserve of 400 horse posted considerably in the rear.

While this formation was going on, the Duke of Argyle observed for several hours with great attention the various evolutions of the insurgents; but from the nature of the ground[727] occupied by them he could not obtain a full view of their line which extended through a hollow way, the view of which was obstructed by the brow of a hill occupied by a party of Mar’s troops. From Mar’s advanced guards looking towards Dunblane, the duke conjectured that the insurgents intended to march in that direction; but he was undeceived in this idea by a movement on the part of a mass of the insurgents towards his right, as if they intended to cross the moor and fall upon the flank of his army. As a large morass lay in the way of the insurgents, Argyle, in advancing from Dunblane, had conceived himself free from danger on that side; but it had now been rendered quite passable for foot as well as horse by a keen frost during the preceding night. As soon as Argyle saw this large body advance up the face of the moor, which, from the right wing of the insurgents being concealed from his view by a rising ground, he supposed was the main body of Mar’s army, he requested the advice of the officers who surrounded him as to how he should act. It was the general opinion, an opinion in which the duke himself concurred, that there would be less risk in engaging the insurgents on the high grounds than in waiting for them in the position occupied by the duke’s army; but although most of the officers thought that there would not be sufficient time to bring forward the troops and to change the order of battle, a change which was absolutely necessary, the duke resolved to draw out his troops upon the moor.

Having come to this determination, the duke returned quickly to the army, and ordered the drums to beat the General. This order was given about eleven o’clock; but although the drums instantly beat to arms, an hour elapsed before the troops were ready to march. The new order of battle was as follows. The duke’s first line consisted of six battalions of foot, all old troops, amounting scarcely to 1,800 men. On the right were posted three squadrons of dragoons, being the best in the army, namely, Evans’s, the Scots Greys, and the Earl of Stair’s. On the left there were placed three squadrons of dragoons, namely, Carpenter’s, Ker’s, and a squadron of Stair’s. The second line was composed of only two battalions of foot, with a squadron of dragoons on each wing. The right wing of the army was commanded by the duke himself, the centre by General Wightman, and the left by General Witham. Behind Evans’s dragoons, on the right wing, a body of about sixty horse, noblemen and gentlemen volunteers, took up a station.

The body which Argyle had observed coming up the face of the moor, was a squadron of the Earl Marischal’s horse and Sir Donald Macdonald’s battalion, under their respective commanders. These had been despatched by the Earl of Mar, to drive away the reconnoitring party under the Duke of Argyle from the height; but on its disappearing, they returned and reported the circumstance to the earl. On receiving this intelligence, Mar gave orders to his troops to march up the hill in four columns. The whole army was accordingly put in motion, but they had not proceeded far when the Earl Marischal, who was in advance, observed Argyle forming his lines on the southern summit of the hill, at a short distance from him. He notified the circumstance to Mar, who instantly gave orders to his men to quicken their pace up the hill. In the hurry of their ascent, the second line pressed so closely upon the first as to occasion some confusion on the left when again getting into line, and it was in consequence of this disorder that the squadrons of horse forsook their position on the left, and took ground on the right.

Before the insurgents reached the summit of the moor, Argyle’s right wing was fully formed, but the greater part of his centre and left, who were moving up the ascent by a gradual progression from right to left, had not yet reached their ground. Argyle’s right now found itself within pistol-shot of Mar’s left, but from the greater extent of Mar’s line, it considerably outflanked Argyle’s left.

As soon as the Earl of Mar perceived that Argyle’s line was only partially formed, he resolved instantly to attack him before he should be able to complete his arrangements; and having sent orders to his right and left to fall simultaneously upon the enemy, Mar placed himself at the head of the clans, and being apprised by a firing on his left that the action had commenced, he pulled off his hat, which he waved, and with a huzza led forward his men upon the half-formed battalions which composed the left wing of the enemy. Arrived within pistol-shot, the Highlanders, according to custom, poured in a volley upon the English infantry. The fire was instantly returned, and, to the dismay of the Highlanders, Alan Muidartach, the captain of Clanranald, was mortally wounded. He was instantly carried off the field, and, as his men clustered around him, he encouraged them to stand firm to their posts, and expressed a hope that the result of the struggle in which they were engaged would be favourable to the cause of his sovereign. The loss of a chief, who, from the stately magnificence with which he upheld his rank, and the urbanity of his disposition, had acquired an ascendency over the minds of his people, could not fail to depress their spirits, and make them almost overlook the danger of their situation. While absorbed in grief, they were in a moment roused from their dejection by Glengary, who, observing their conduct at this juncture, sprung forward, and throwing his bonnet into the air, cried aloud, in the expressive language of his country, “Revenge! Revenge! Revenge to-day, and mourning to-morrow!” No sooner had this brave chieftain pronounced these words, than the Highlanders rushed forward, sword in hand, with the utmost fury, upon the royalist battalions. The government troops attempted to stem the impetuosity of the attack, by opposing the Highlanders with fixed bayonets, but the latter pushed them aside with their targets, and rushing in with their broad-swords among the enemy, spread death and terror around them. The three battalions on Argyle’s left, which had never been properly formed, unable to rally, instantly gave way, and falling back upon some squadrons of horse in their rear, created such confusion, that within seven or eight minutes after the assault, the form of a battalion or squadron was no longer discernible. A complete rout ensued; and there seems no doubt that the whole of Argyle’s left would have been completely destroyed, had not General Witham, at the head of the squadrons which were upon the left of the battalions, checked the advance of Mar’s horse by a charge, in which he succeeded in capturing a standard. Afraid of being outflanked by Argyle’s left wing, which extended far beyond his position, and being ignorant of what was passing on the right wing of the royalists, the view of which was concealed by the unevenness of the ground, Witham retired in the direction of Dunblane. The Earl of Mar pursued the disordered mass to the distance of only half a mile, and having ordered his foot to halt till he should put them in order, resolved to follow the enemy and complete the victory; but receiving intelligence that his left wing and second line had given way, and that his artillery had been taken, he retraced his steps, and took up a position on the top of the stony hill of Kippendavie, till he should receive further information respecting the fate of his left wing.

This wing, which was the first to begin the attack, opened a fire upon Argyle’s right wing when almost within pistol shot. The Highlanders thereafter steadily advanced, and pouring a second volley among the enemy, with a precision and effect not to be surpassed by the best disciplined troops, rushed up, sword in hand, to the very muzzles of their muskets. Though the fire was destructive, and made Evans’s dragoons reel for a time, the English troops maintained their ground, and the foot kept up a platooning, which checked the fury of their assailants. The struggle continued for some time without any decided advantage on either side; but as Argyle began to perceive that he could make no impression in front upon the numerous masses of the insurgents, and that he might be out-flanked by them, he resolved to attack them on their flank with part of his cavalry, while his foot should gall them with their fire in front. He therefore ordered Colonel Cathcart to move along the morass to the right with a strong body of cavalry, and to fall upon the flank of Mar’s left wing, a movement which he executed with great skill. Cathcart, after receiving a fire from the insurgent horse, immediately charged them, but they sustained the assault with great firmness. Borne down by the superior weight of the English dragoons, whose horses were much larger than those of the insurgents, the Scottish horse, after nearly half-an-hour’s contest, were compelled to give way. The foot of Argyle’s right having made a simultaneous attack upon Mar’s first line of foot, the latter also were forced to fall back, and Mar’s horse and foot coming into contact with his second line, they mixed indiscriminately, and a general rout in consequence ensued.

After receding a short distance, the insurgent horse, which consisted principally of the Jacobite gentry of Perthshire and Angus, attempted to rally, and even to charge Argyle’s cavalry in their turn, but they were again forced to retire by the pressure of the English dragoons, who kept advancing in regular order upon the receding masses of the insurgents. Determined, however, not to yield one inch of ground without the utmost necessity, the cavalier horse made repeated efforts to drive the enemy back, and, in the course of their retreat, made ten or twelve attempts at different places to rally and charge the advancing foe; but unable to resist the overwhelming pressure of the English cavalry, they were, after three hours’ hard fighting, driven across the river Allan by Argyle’s dragoons. Some idea may be formed of the obstinacy of the contest, when it is considered that the distance from the field of battle to the river is scarcely three miles. To the gallant stand made by the horse may be ascribed the safety of the foot, who would have been probably all cut to pieces by the dragoons, if the attention of the latter had not been chiefly occupied by the horse. The foot, however, suffered considerably in the retreat, notwithstanding the humanity of the Duke of Argyle, who endeavoured to restrain the carnage. Besides offering quarter to such of the Jacobite gentlemen as were personally known to him, he displayed his anxiety for the preservation of his countrymen so far, that on observing a party of his dragoons cutting down a body of foot, into which they had thrown themselves, he exclaimed with a feeling of deep emotion, “Oh, spare the poor Blue-bonnets!”

As Mar’s right wing had been concealed from the view of Argyle, the latter conceived that the numerous body he was driving before him formed the entire insurgent army. He, therefore, resolved to continue the pursuit till dark, and to support him, he ordered General Wightman, who commanded his foot upon the right, to follow him with his battalions as quickly as possible. Wightman accordingly proceeded to follow the duke with a force of rather more than three regiments; but he had not marched far, when he heard a firing on his left, to ascertain the cause of which, he sent his aide-de-camp in the direction whence the firing proceeded. This officer returned in a short time, and reported that the half of Argyle’s foot, and the squadrons on the left, had all been cut off by the right of the insurgents, which was superior in point of numbers to Argyle’s left. Wightman thereupon slackened his pace, and despatched a messenger to inform the duke of the fate of his left wing. Afraid of being attacked in his rear by Mar’s right wing, he kept his men in perfect order, but no demonstration was made to follow him. When informed of the defeat of his left wing, Argyle gave over the pursuit, and joining Wightman with five squadrons of dragoons, put his men in order of battle and marched boldly to the bottom of the hill, on the top of which the enemy, amounting to 4,000 men, were advantageously posted. Argyle had now scarcely 1,000 men under him, and as these were already greatly exhausted, he judged it expedient to act on the defensive; but the insurgents showed no disposition to engage, and both parties, as if by mutual consent, retired from their positions in different directions. The duke filed off his men to the right, in marching order, towards Dunblane; but as he still dreaded an attack, he formed his men several times on the march, wherever he found the ground convenient, and waited the approach of the enemy. Mar drew off his men toward Ardoch, where he passed the night, and Argyle’s troops lay under arms during the night in the neighbourhood of Dunblane.

As might have been expected, on an occasion of such dubious success on either side, both parties claimed a victory, but impartiality will confer the palm on neither.[728] Argyle, it is true, visited the field of battle the following morning, which Mar might also have done had he been inclined, and this circumstance, therefore, can afford no argument in support of his pretensions. Neither can the capture of standards and colours by Argyle be considered as a proof of success, for although he took fourteen colours and standards, including the royal standard called “the Restoration,” besides six pieces of cannon and other trophies, Mar, according to the official Jacobite account, captured four stands of colours, several drums, and about 1,400 or 1,500 stands of arms. Accounts the most contradictory have been given by both parties of the losses sustained by them. According to the rolls of Argyle’s muster-master general, his loss amounted to 290 men killed, 187 wounded, and 133 prisoners, making a grand total of 610, while the Jacobite account makes the loss in killed and wounded on the side of Argyle amount to between 700 and 800. On the other hand, the Jacobites state their loss in killed at only 60, and that very few of their men were wounded, while the royalists say that they lost, in killed and wounded, about 800 men.[730] Supposing the royalist statement correct, the comparative loss of the insurgents scarcely exceeded one-third of that sustained by the government forces.

Several officers were killed on the royalist side. Among the wounded was the Earl of Forfar, a brave officer who commanded Morison’s regiment. He received a shot in the knee, and sixteen other wounds, of which he died at Stirling about three weeks after the battle. Several persons of distinction were killed on the side of the insurgents, among whom were the Earl of Strathmore, and the Captain of Clanranald. A considerable number of gentlemen were taken prisoners by Argyle, but many of them escaped, and he was able to carry only 82 of them to Stirling. Of this number were Lord Strathallan, Thomas Drummond his brother, Walkinshaw of Barrowfield, Drummond of Logie-Drummond, and Murray of Auchtertyre.

On whichsoever side success lay, the battle, in its consequences, was most important in many respects to the government, as it was immediately followed by the desertion of a considerable number of the clans. With the exception of the Macdonalds, who particularly distinguished themselves on the right, and the Perthshire and Angus horse who withstood the repeated shocks of Argyle’s cavalry, the remainder of the insurgent army made little resistance. The Macphersons and the Macgregors, (the latter commanded by Rob Roy,[731] the chief’s uncle), did not join in the contest at all, but looked on as if unconcerned about the result. Some of the clans, disgusted at the pusillanimity or indifference exhibited by their associates, and others dispirited by the firmness displayed by the government forces, returned to their homes, thus verifying the observation made by a Jacobite in reference to the clans, that whether victorious or beaten, they would run away and go home. The defection of these clans was a severe blow to Mar, and made him abandon the idea of crossing the Forth. He, therefore, returned to Perth with the remains of his army, and to encourage the friends of the Jacobite interest, circulated the most favourable accounts of his alleged success at Sheriffmuir, and of the state of the Chevalier’s affairs, although he himself began to consider them desperate.[732] The Duke of Argyle, on the other hand, retired to his head-quarters at Stirling, intending to resume offensive operations as soon as some expected reinforcements should arrive.

The attempt of Mar to disguise the real state of matters was too gross to deceive his adherents, and there were not a few who already began to entertain thoughts of making their own terms with the government: but the Highland chiefs and the principal officers remained firm, and urged Mar to risk another battle even with his reduced forces. The earl, however, though personally brave, was not the man to comply with an advice so opposed to the rule he had laid down for himself, never to engage without a very superior force on his side. But had he been of a different opinion, the receipt of the news of the re-capture of Inverness would probably have precluded him from moving a second time upon Stirling.

It has been remarked as a singular circumstance in this history of Mar’s insurrection, that the three important events which decided its fate should have occurred in regular daily succession. Inverness was captured on the 13th of November,[733] and on the same day Mackintosh’s forces, cooped up in Preston, had to maintain a precarious struggle against the attacks of Wells’s army. Next day witnessed the battle of Sheriffmuir, and at the very time the insurgents in Preston were offering terms of surrender, the right wings of Argyle’s and Mar’s armies were pursuing, with all the confidence of victory, the wings to which they were respectively opposed. And lastly, while on the 14th the insurgents in England were capitulating at Preston, the two rival armies in the north were retiring to their head-quarters, each of them claiming a victory.

The arrival of the Chevalier had been long anxiously looked for by his friends in Scotland. He was now about to gratify their desire of beholding his person; but James had already missed the golden opportunity, which presented itself at an early stage of the insurrection, of recovering his father’s crown. Had he, on arriving at St. Malo, whither he proceeded from Lorraine at the breaking out of the insurrection, instantly taken shipping, he would not only have complied with the declared wishes of his adherents, but would have evinced at once a determination to maintain his claim. Instead of embarking, however, immediately, as he should have done, he spent so much time in the shipment of supplies, which he was desirous should precede his departure, that he was at last altogether prevented from sailing by some men-of-war, which appeared off the harbour of St. Malo, and which had been sent by the British government to intercept him. That he might not disappoint the expectations of his partisans, he resolved to go to Dunkirk in quest of shipping, and having traversed the country in disguise, he embarked at that port, about the middle of December, on board a small French vessel of eight guns, which had formerly been a privateer. He was attended by five persons only, who, to prevent suspicion, were disguised as French officers. Among these were the Marquis of Tynemouth, son of the Duke of Berwick, and Lieutenant Allan Cameron, a son of Lochiel.

Regardless of the evident risk which he ran, by attempting a descent upon the eastern coast of Scotland, he sailed from Dunkirk in the small vessel in which he had embarked, after leaving instructions to despatch after him two other vessels that lay in the harbour with his domestics, and some stores for the use of his army. It was the Chevalier’s intention to have landed in the vicinity of the Frith of Tay, and accordingly, after steering in a northerly direction, he stood across for the coast of Angus, which was descried after a voyage of five days; but observing, at some distance, a sail, which he judged to be unfriendly, he altered his course to northward with the design of landing at Peterhead, of which the Earl Marischal was the feudal superior. The vessel which carried the Chevalier came, however, sufficiently near to land to intimate by signals to the friends of the prince in the neighbourhood that he was on board, which intelligence was immediately conveyed to the camp at Perth, where it was received with a feeling of intense delight.

The Chevalier arrived off Peterhead, on the 22d of December, seven days from the date of his departure from Dunkirk, and immediately landed with his small retinue of five persons, all disguised as seamen. After despatching the vessel to France with the news of his arrival, he and his companions took up their abode in the town for the night. He passed the next night at Newburgh, a seat of the Earl Marischal, having previously sent Lieutenant Cameron to Perth with the intelligence of his landing. The Chevalier continued his journey towards Perth, and on the 24th passed incognito through Aberdeen, and arrived at Fetteresso, the principal seat of the Earl Marischal, where he remained several days. As soon as Lieutenant Cameron reached Perth, the Earl of Mar, the Earl Marischal, General Hamilton, and about thirty other gentlemen, mounted their horses, and set off to meet the Chevalier. This cavalcade arrived at Fetteresso on the 27th, and the persons composing it were introduced to “the king,” and had the honour of kissing his hand. After the breaking up of the court, the Chevalier was proclaimed at the gates of the house, and printed copies of the declaration which he had issued in Lorraine were immediately dispersed.[734]

The Chevalier intended to have proceeded next day on his journey to Perth, but he was detained at Fetteresso till the 2d of January, by two successive fits of ague, which, however, did not prevent him from receiving addresses from the “Episcopal clergy of the diocese of Aberdeen,” and from the magistrates, town council, and Jacobite inhabitants of the town.

While at Fetteresso the Chevalier exercised some of the functions of royalty, by conferring titles of dignity on some of his adherents. He raised the Earl of Mar to a dukedom; and, according to report, conferred the honour of knighthood upon Bannerman, the Jacobite provost of Aberdeen, who presented the address from that city. Having recovered from his attack, the Chevalier left Fetteresso on the 2d of January, and went to Brechin, where he passed the night. Next day he moved forward to Kinnaird, and on the 4th reached Glammis Castle, the principal seat of the Earl of Strathmore. At Glammis Mar drew up a letter, in which he gave a very flattering account of the Chevalier. As the object of this letter was to impress the people with a favourable opinion of the Chevalier, Mar ordered it to be printed and circulated as widely as possible. The letter is written with address, and may still be perused with interest:

“Glames, 5 Jan. 1716.

“I met the king at Fetteresso on Tuesday se’enight, where we staid till Friday; from thence we came to Brechin, then to Kinnaird, and yesterday here. The king designed to have gone to Dundee to-day, but there is such a fall of snow that he is forced to put it off till to-morrow, if it be practicable then; and from thence he designs to go to Scoon. There was no haste in his being there sooner, for nothing can be done this season, else he had not been so long by the way. People, everywhere, as we have come along, are excessively fond to see him, and express that duty they ought. Without any compliment to him, and to do him nothing but justice, set aside his being a prince, he is really the first gentleman I ever knew: He has a very good presence, and resembles King Charles a great deal. His presence, however, is not the best of him. He has fine parts, and despatches all his business himself with the greatest exactness. I never saw any body write so finely. He is affable to a great degree, without losing that majesty he ought to have, and has the sweetest temper in the world. In a word, he is every way fitted to make us a happy people, were his subjects worthy of him. To have him peaceably settled on his throne, is what these kingdoms do not deserve; but he deserves it so much that I hope there is a good fate attending him. I am sure there is nothing wanting to make the rest of his subjects as fond of him as we are, but their knowing him as we do; and it will be odd if his presence among us, after his running so many hazards to compass it, do not turn the hearts, even of the most obstinate. It is not fit to tell all the particulars, but I assure you he has left nothing undone, that well could be, to gain every body; and I hope God will touch their hearts.

“I have reason to hope we shall very quickly see a new face of affairs abroad in the king’s favour, which is all I dare commit to paper.

“MAR.”

On the morning of the 6th of January the Chevalier left Glammis for Dundee, which town he entered about eleven o’clock a.m. on horseback, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants, the Earl of Mar riding on his right hand, and the Earl Marischal on his left, and followed by a train of nearly 300 adherents on horseback. To gratify the people who flocked round him eager to behold him and to kiss his hand, he, at the request of his friends, remained about an hour on horseback at the cross of the burgh, after which he rode out to the house of Stewart of Grandtully in the neighbourhood, where he dined and passed the night. On the following day he proceeded along the Carse of Gowrie to Castle Lyon, a seat of the Earl of Strathmore, where he dined, and thence to Fingask, the seat of Sir David Threipland, where he spent the night. Next day, being Sunday, he took up his abode in the royal palace of Scone, where he intended to stay till the ceremony of his coronation should be performed.

On Monday the Chevalier made his public entry into Perth. He met, however, with a cold reception, and he himself felt evidently disappointed at the appearance of the camp. He had heard much of the Highland chiefs and the clans, and being desirous to see “those little kings (the chiefs,) with their armies,” a select body of Highlanders exhibited before him. Their appearance gave him great satisfaction, but when he ascertained the paucity of the number in the camp, he could not repress the chagrin and disappointment he felt. On the other hand, the friends of the Chevalier were equally disappointed. Neither his appearance nor demeanour on the present occasion tended in any shape to justify the exaggerated encomiums of Mar, and his lugubrious deportment while at Perth tended more to alienate the affections of his adherents, and depress their spirits, than even the disappointment of supplies from France. The following is an account, doubtfully attributed to the Master of Sinclair, of the appearance of the Chevalier on his arrival at Perth, his behaviour while there, and their consequent effects upon his followers.

“His person was tall and thin, seeming to incline to be lean rather than to fill as he grows in years. His countenance was pale, but perhaps looked more so than usual, by reason he had three fits of ague which took him two days after his coming on shore. Yet he seems to be sanguine in his constitution, and there is something of a vivacity in his eye that perhaps would have been more visible if he had not been under dejected circumstances, and surrounded with discouragement, which it must be acknowledged were sufficient to alter the complexion even of his soul as well as of his body. His speech was grave, and not very clearly expressive of his thoughts, nor over much to the purpose; but his words were few, and his behaviour and temper seemed always composed. What he was in his diversions we know not: here was no room for such things. It was no time for mirth. Neither can I say I ever saw him smile. Those who speak so positively of his being like King James VII. must excuse me for saying, that it seems to say they either never saw this person, or never saw King James VII.; and yet I must not conceal that when we saw the man whom they called our king, we found ourselves not at all animated by his presence; and if he was disappointed in us, we were tenfold more so in him. We saw nothing in him that looked like spirit. He never appeared with cheerfulness and vigour to animate us. Our men began to despise him; some asked if he could speak. His countenance looked extremely heavy. He cared not to come abroad amongst us soldiers, or to see us handle our arms or do our exercise. Some said the circumstances he found us in dejected him. I am sure the figure he made dejected us; and had he sent us but 5,000 men of good troops, and never himself come among us, we had done other things than we have now done. At the approach of that crisis when he was to defend his pretensions, and either lose his life or gain a crown, I think, as his affairs were situated, no man can say that his appearing grave and composed was a token of his want of thought, but rather of a significant anxiety grounded upon the prospect of his inevitable ruin, which he could not be so void of sense as not to see plainly before him, at least when he came to see how inconsistent his measures were, how unsteady the resolution of his guides, and how impossible it was to make them agree with one another.”[735]

The Chevalier returned to Scone in the evening, and notwithstanding the ominous symptoms of the day, proceeded to form a council preparatory to exercising the functions of royalty. From Scone he soon issued no less than six proclamations; one for a general thanksgiving for his safe arrival; another enjoining the ministers to pray for him in the churches; a third, establishing the currency of foreign coin; a fourth, ordering a meeting of the convention of estates; a fifth, commanding all fencible men from sixteen to sixty to repair to his standard; and a sixth, fixing the 23d of January for his coronation at Scone. These assumptions of sovereign authority were, however, of a very evanescent character, as they had scarcely been issued when the Chevalier and his principal friends resolved to abandon the contest as hopeless. Indeed, from the reduced state of the army, and its deficiency in arms and ammunition, a determination had been come to by his party, a month before he landed, to retire from Perth as soon as Argyle should march against it; but being ignorant of that resolution, and believing that the insurgents intended to defend Perth, Argyle delayed his advance till he should be joined by large reinforcements from England and Holland.

Though continued in the command of the army, Argyle, for some reason or other, was not a favourite at court. Of his fidelity there could be no suspicion, and his conduct had lately shown that he wanted neither zeal nor ability to perform the task which had been assigned him. It has been conjectured that the leniency which he was disposed to show towards his unfortunate countrymen was the cause of that hidden displeasure which ended in the dismissal of himself and of his brother, the Earl of Islay, from all their employments. The rejection of an application which he made to the government for extended powers to treat with the insurgents after the battle of Sheriffmuir, goes far to support the supposition. But whatever were his views, he appeared to be in no hurry to pursue the insurgents, probably from an idea that they would disperse of their own accord. By the arrival of a body of 6,000 Dutch auxiliaries, and other reinforcements from England, Argyle found himself, early in January, at the head of upwards of 10,000 men, besides a large train of artillery. Desirous of expelling the insurgents from Fife before advancing north, a detachment of Dutch and Scotch troops crossed the Frith of Forth by the duke’s orders, and under cover of some men-of-war, landed at Burntisland, of which they took possession. On receiving this intelligence the insurgents immediately abandoned all the towns on the north side of the Frith, a circumstance which was attended with serious consequences to their friends at Perth, who were in consequence entirely cut off from their supplies of coals, at an unusually inclement season.

About the end of January, Argyle was in full condition to march north, but the snow, which had fallen to a great depth, appeared to him to offer a formidable obstruction to the march of an army unaccustomed to a winter’s campaign; and which, from the insurgents having burnt and destroyed the villages on the road, would have to bivouac two or three nights in the open air, exposed to all the rigours of a northern winter. For these reasons Argyle urged, at a council of war, which was held at Stirling, a postponement of the march; but General Cadogan,[736] who had been sent down to Scotland to hasten the duke’s motions, insisting upon an immediate advance, and having openly accused Argyle of a want of zeal, his Grace made preparations for marching, and to facilitate the transport of his cannon and waggons, issued orders for assembling some thousands of the country people to clear away the snow.

Although the Jacobite leaders had come to the resolution of abandoning Perth as soon as the Duke of Argyle should advance upon it, they nevertheless gave indications as if they really meant to hold out. Pursuant to an order of a council, which was held on the 16th of January, the most strenuous exertions were made to fortify the town, and both officers and men vied with one another in hastening the completion of the works. What the motives of the leaders may have been in thus practising a deception upon the army it is impossible to conceive; perhaps the distant hope of being joined by the more remote clans, the chance of some fortunate, though unlooked for, occurrence in the chapter of accidents, or an idea that their men could not be otherwise kept together, may have been the inducing causes of these defensive preparations; but whatever their motives were, the apparent determination shown by the leading men to meet the enemy, had the most beneficial effect upon the army, which evinced a strong desire to engage. In this wish they thought they were to be gratified sooner than they expected, by the arrival of some country people at Perth who brought intelligence that Argyle was advancing with all his cavalry, and 4,000 foot mounted on horses. This news was, however, premature, and had originated in the appearance of a reconnoitring party of 200 dragoons, which Argyle had sent forward on the road to Perth, on the 21st of January, and which the fears of the people had magnified into an army.

All doubts, however, were removed in a few days, by the receipt of authentic intelligence at Perth, that Argyle having completed his arrangements, was to leave Stirling for Perth on the 29th of January, with his whole army. The councillors of the Chevalier were dismayed at this intelligence, but it had quite an opposite effect upon the mass of the army. Nothing was to be heard in the Jacobite camp but the voice of joy and rejoicing, and congratulations, on the expected happy result of an encounter with the enemy, were exchanged on all sides--between the officers and gentlemen volunteers, and the common soldiers and clansmen. While the former were pledging each other in their cups and drinking to “the good day,” so near at hand, as they thought, which was to crown the Chevalier’s arms with victory, the latter, amid the din of the warlike bagpipe, were to be seen giving each other a cordial shake of the hand as if fully assured of success.

Whilst these congratulatory exhibitions were going on, the councillors of the Chevalier were deliberating upon the course they should pursue; but although they sat during the whole night they could come to no decided resolution. When the irresolution of the council became generally known, the men could not restrain their indignation, and a general opinion began to prevail among them that they had been betrayed. Impressed with this feeling, they became mutinous, and carried their insubordination so far as to insult the officers, whom they supposed had betrayed them, in the streets, and to load them with reproachful epithets. The gentlemen volunteers also participated in the same sentiments; and one of them from the higher parts of Aberdeenshire was heard to declare before a group of malcontents assembled in the streets, that the clans should take the person of the Chevalier out of the hands of the weak councillors who surrounded him, adding that he would find 10,000 gentlemen in Scotland who would hazard their lives for him, if he was equally ready as a prince to risk his own life in vindicating his right to the crown. A friend of the Earl of Mar, after remonstrating with this party, asked what they wished their officers to do.--“Do,” replied a Highlander, “what did you call us to take arms for? Was it to run away? What did the king come hither for? Was it to see his people butchered by hangmen, and not strike a stroke for their lives? Let us die like men and not like dogs.”[737]

Amid the confusion and perplexity occasioned by such a state of things, Mar convened another meeting of the council on the evening of the 29th, at which a resolution to retreat was entered into chiefly at Mar’s suggestion. His reasons for advising an abandonment of the enterprise for the present, were, 1st, the failure of the Duke of Ormond’s attempt to invade England; 2dly, the great accession of force which Argyle had received from abroad; and, lastly, the reduced state of the Jacobite forces, which did not exceed 4,000 men, and of whom only about 2,500 were properly armed.[738] Besides these there were, according to the Master of Sinclair, other reasons of a private nature which influenced Mar to give the advice he did, the chief of which, says the above-named authority, was that the Earl of Seaforth, the Marquis of Huntly, and other Jacobites who were in treaty with the government, had basely resolved to deliver up the Chevalier to the Duke of Argyle, that they might procure better terms for themselves than they could otherwise expect. This odious charge, which is not corroborated by any other writer, must be looked upon as highly improbable.

Before communicating to the army the resolution to retreat, a general meeting of all the officers was held at Scone on the following day, when they were informed of the determination of the previous evening, and of the reasons which had led to it. It was then secretly resolved that the Chevalier and his principal officers should take shipping at Montrose for France, and that the army should be disbanded as soon as it reached the Highlands, or as soon as circumstances permitted; but to save appearances with the men, it was given out, that as Perth was untenable, it became necessary to retire to a stronger position, where they could not only defend themselves, but keep up a more secure and direct communication with their friends in the north. At this time there were three ships lying in the Tay off Dundee, which had lately arrived with supplies from France; and to secure these for the conveyance of the Chevalier and his followers, a French officer and clergyman were despatched to Dundee with orders to send them down the coast to Montrose, there to wait his arrival.[739]

On the return of the officers to the camp, they promulgated the order to retreat to their men, and, as might have been anticipated, it was received with scorn and contempt. Among the Jacobite inhabitants of the town who had shown themselves very zealous in the cause of the Chevalier, the intelligence caused nothing but dismay, as from the prominent and decided part they had taken, they had incurred the penalties of treason against the government. The morning of the 31st of January was fixed upon for the retreat, but a body of about 800 Highlanders, disliking the aspect of affairs, and displeased with the conduct of the principal officers, quitted Perth the preceding night for the Highlands by way of Dunkeld. Preparatory to his departure, the Chevalier went from Scone to Perth in the evening, and took up his residence in the house of Hay the provost, a stanch Jacobite, where he supped and passed the night. At ten o’clock next morning the rebels began their march across the Tay, which was covered with ice of extraordinary thickness. About noon the whole army had passed, and was on the march to Dundee along the Carse of Gowrie.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Argyle was advancing upon Perth as fast as the nature of the difficulties he had to contend with would admit of. He had left Stirling on the 29th of January, and marched to Dunblane. Next day he advanced as far as Auchterarder, which had been entirely burnt by the rebels. Here they passed the night upon the snow without “any other covering than the fine canopy of heaven.”[740] On the following day a detachment of 200 dragoons and 400 foot, which had been sent forward to protect the country people who were engaged in clearing away the snow, took possession of the castle of Tullibardine, the garrison of which had capitulated. The Duke of Argyle had resolved to take up his quarters for the night in this fortress; but receiving intelligence that the rebels had retired from Perth that morning, he ordered a party of 400 dragoons and 1,000 foot to hasten forward to take possession of that town. The duke, at the head of the dragoons, arrived at Perth about two o’clock in the morning of the 1st of February; but the foot, who were greatly fatigued, did not come up till ten o’clock. The remainder of the duke’s army reached Perth that evening.

The distance from Stirling to Perth is only 34 miles, yet such was the obstruction that Argyle’s army met with from the snow, that their march occupied three entire days. The difficulties of the march and the privations which his men had suffered by resting two nights on the snow, exposed to all the severities of the weather, had so exhausted his men, that it was not till the day after his arrival at Perth that the duke could muster a force sufficiently strong to pursue the enemy.

On the 2d of February Argyle left Perth at the head of six squadrons of dragoons, three battalions of foot, and 800 Highlanders. He stopped at Errol that night, and entered Dundee next day. Having learned that the Chevalier had left Dundee the preceding day on his way to Montrose, the duke sent forward a detachment towards Arbroath, and being joined by the remainder of his army on the 4th of February, he despatched on the same day three battalions of foot, 500 of his own Highlanders, and 50 dragoons, towards Arbroath, and another detachment of 300 foot, and 50 dragoons, in the direction of Brechin; but their march was retarded for some time by the snow. On the 5th the duke followed with the remainder of the army; and while he himself, at the head of the cavalry, took the high road to Brechin, General Cadogan with the infantry marched in the direction of Arbroath.

During the retreat to Montrose, suspicions began to be entertained in the Chevalier’s army, that it was his intention to embark for France, notwithstanding the assurances of the principal officers to the contrary. The unusual route along the sea-coast gave credence to the rumour; but when they approached Montrose, and saw some French vessels lying at anchor off the shore, their suspicions were confirmed, and the men began to manifest symptoms of discontent. The insurgent army arrived at Montrose on the 3d of February, where it was intended they should pass the night; but the Chevalier’s advisers, alarmed at the murmurings of the troops, ordered them to march the same night towards Aberdeen, where it was given out they meant to make a stand till succours should arrive from abroad. This assurance had the desired effect upon the troops, who accordingly began their march in the expectation that the Chevalier would follow them. To prevent suspicion, his horses were ordered to be brought before the door of the house where he lodged at the hour appointed for the march, and his guards were ordered to mount, and to hold themselves in readiness to accompany him.

Meanwhile the Chevalier was busily employed in making the necessary preparations for his approaching departure. To relieve his memory from the imputation of having voluntarily abandoned the brave men who had taken up arms in his cause, it is due to him to state that he had been all along opposed to such a step, and it was not until he had been repeatedly and earnestly urged by his friends that he could be prevailed upon to give his consent to retire beyond seas. He said he was ready to suffer every hardship, and expose himself to every danger, rather than abandon those who had risked their all in his service; but being assured by his friends, that the course they advised might be ultimately beneficial to both, he reluctantly yielded to their entreaties. His principal motive for acceding to their wishes was the consideration that, if relieved from his presence, the government might be disposed to give better terms to his followers than they would be otherwise disposed to grant.[741]

Before his departure he ordered a commission to be drawn up, by which he appointed General Gordon commander-in-chief, with all necessary powers, and particularly with authority to treat with the enemy. He wrote, at the same time, a paper containing his reasons for leaving the kingdom, and along with which he delivered to the general all the money in his possession, (excepting a small sum which he reserved for defraying the expenses of himself and suite,) with instructions, after paying the army, to apply the residue in indemnifying the inhabitants of the villages[742] which had been burned, for the losses sustained by them. At the same time the Chevalier put the following letter to the Duke of Argyle, which he dictated to a secretary, into the hands of General Gordon, respecting the appropriation of the money so left. It is an interesting document, and exhibits the humanity of the prince in a favourable point of view:--

“FOR THE DUKE OF ARGYLE.

“Montrose, 4th February, 1716.

“It was the view of delivering this my ancient kingdom from the hardship it lay under, and restoring it to its former happiness and independency, that brought me into this country; and all hopes of effectuating that at this time being taken from me, I have been reduced much against my inclination, but by a cruel necessity, to leave the kingdom with as many of my faithful subjects as were desirous to follow me, or I able to carry with me, that so at least I might secure them from the utter destruction that threatens them, since that was the only way left me to show them the regard I had for, and the sense I had of their unparalleled loyalty.

“Among the manifold mortifications I have had in this unfortunate expedition, that of being forced to burn several villages, &c., as the only expedient left me for the publick security, was not the smallest. It was indeed forced upon me by the violence with which my rebellious subjects acted against me, and what they, as the first authors of it, must be answerable for, not I: however, as I cannot think of leaving this country without making some provision to repair that loss, I have, therefore, consigned to the magistrates of ---- the sum of ----, desiring and requiring of you, if not as an obedient subject, at least as a lover of your country, to take care that it be employed to the designed use, that I may at least have the satisfaction of having been the destruction and ruin of none, at a time I came to free all. Whether you have yet received my letter,[743] or what effect it hath had upon you, I am as yet ignorant of; but what will become of these unhappy nations is but too plaine. I have neglected nothing to render them a free and prosperous people; and I fear they will find yet more than I the smart of preferring a foreign yoak to that obedience they owe me; and what must those who have so obstinately resisted both my right and my clemency have to answer for? But however things turn, or Providence is pleased to dispose of me, I shall never abandon my just right, nor the pursuits of it, but with my life; and beseech God so to turn at last the hearts of my subjects, as that they may enjoy peace and happiness by submitting to what their interest and duty equally require of them. As for your own particular, you might, if you had pleased, joined interest and greatness in your own person; but, though you have refused to do that, I must earnestly request of you to do at least all in your power to save your country from utter ruin, and to be just at least to them, since you are it not to me.

“[744]I thought to write this in my own hand, but had not time.

“JAMES R.”

This letter was accompanied by a note of the following letter to General Gordon, written in the Chevalier’s own hand:--

“General Gordon is hereby empowered, as soon as he has no other further occasion for the money left in his hands for the subsistence of the troops, to forward, if he thinks fitt, the enclosed letter to the duke of Argil, and to fill up the blanks of my letter with the name of the town where he shall leave the money, and the summ he shall leave.

“JAMES R.”

It was not until the eve of his departure, that James thought of selecting the persons he wished to accompany him in his flight, but the near approach of the enemy, of whose motions he had just received intelligence, and the murmurings and jealousies of his troops compelling him to hasten his departure, he was narrowed in his choice, as some of the friends, whose presence he desired, were at some distance from Montrose. The first individual he pitched upon was Mar; but the earl begged that he might be left behind with the army. The Chevalier, however, insisted that he should go; and on representing to him that reasons almost equally strong existed for Mar’s departure as for his own, that his friends would make better terms with the government without him than with him, and that his services could be of no use in Scotland under existing circumstances, he gave his consent.

Matters being adjusted, the Chevalier left his lodgings privately about nine o’clock on the evening of the 4th of February, accompanied only by one of his domestics, and having met Mar at his lodgings, they both proceeded by a private way to the beach, where a boat was lying in readiness to receive them, which carried them on board a small French vessel that lay at a little distance from the shore. The boat was immediately sent back, and returned in about a quarter of an hour with the Earl of Melfort, Lord Drummond, and the remainder of the Chevalier’s suite. Being favoured with a fresh breeze from the west-south-west, the vessel stood directly out to sea, and after a voyage of five days, arrived in safety at Waldam, near Gravelines in French Flanders.

The insurgents, under General Gordon, marched to Aberdeen, which they entered on the morning of the 6th of February. Here he communicated to his men the paper of instructions he had received from the Chevalier, which, he informed them, he had been ordered not to open till their arrival at Aberdeen. In this writing the prince complained of the disappointments he had met with, particularly from abroad, and informed the army of the necessity he was under, for his own preservation, to leave the country. He thanked them for having entered so cheerfully into his service, and imputed the failure of the enterprise to the apathy of others, who had not seconded their efforts as they had promised to do. He advised them to consult their own safety by keeping together in a body under General Gordon till he should order them to disperse, and concluded by encouraging them to hope for better times. After reading this document, the General notified to his men that their pay would cease after that day.

General Cadogan arrived at Montrose on the afternoon of the 5th of February with three regiments of foot, and 600 of Argyle’s Highlanders, and the duke reached Brechin with the dragoons the same night. The whole royalist forces continued their march the following day towards Aberdeen, but they could not overtake the insurgents, who were nearly two days’ march in advance. The latter left Aberdeen on the 7th, and the Duke of Argyle entered it the following day at the head of 400 dragoons. The main body of the insurgents, chiefly foot, marched in the direction of Old Meldrum, but a party of about 200 horse, among whom were many officers and gentlemen-volunteers, took the route to Peterhead, where some vessels were lying to carry them to France. The Duke of Argyle, without waiting for the coming up of the rest of his army, immediately sent 200 dragoons, and a party of foot under Major-General Evans, to cut off the retreat of the latter, but he did not overtake them. Upwards of 100 of the gentlemen composing this party escaped to France.

Meanwhile the insurgents continued their march westwards into Moray, and after marching through Strathspey, retired into Badenoch, where they quietly dispersed. During their retreat, however, many, whose houses lay contiguous to their route, gradually withdrew from the ranks, so that before their arrival in Badenoch a considerable reduction had taken place in their numbers. Though closely pursued by Argyle’s troops, the insurgents did not lose 100 men during the whole retreat, so well and orderly was it conducted by the Jacobite commander.

After the dispersion of the insurgents, about 160 officers and gentlemen-volunteers who had followed the army into the Highlands, hearing that two French frigates, destined to receive on board such of the adherents of the Chevalier as might be inclined to retire abroad, had arrived off the Orkney coast, sallied from the hills on horseback, and crossing the low country of Moray embarked in boats at Burgh-head, and landed in Caithness. From Caithness they proceeded to the Orkney islands, where they had the good fortune to reach the French ships, which carried them to Gottenburg. Among this party were Lord Duffus, who, being a seaman, entered into the naval service of the King of Sweden, Sir George Sinclair, Sir David Threipland of Fingask, and General Eckline. Most of these refugees entered into the Swedish army then about to invade Norway.

Thus ended an enterprise badly contrived, and conducted throughout with little judgment or energy. Yet notwithstanding the disadvantages under which it was attempted, it might have succeeded, if the efforts of the Scottish Jacobites had been seconded by the Jacobites of England; but the latter, though decidedly hostile to the House of Brunswick, were not inclined to risk their lives and fortunes in a doubtful contest, in support of the pretensions of a prince known to them only by name, and to whose religion many of them felt a deep-rooted repugnance.

FOOTNOTES:

[722] Burton’s Scotland (1689-1748), vol. ii. p. 151.

[723] Burton’s Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 188, 189.

[724] Rae, p. 294. Life of Argyle, p. 187.

[725] It must be remembered that these dates are according to the Old Style of reckoning, and that to make them accord with the New Style, eleven days must be added: thus, the 10th of November O. S. is the same as the 21st N. S.

[726] MS. referred to in Lord John Russell’s History of Europe, p. 345. Jacobite Official Account of the battle, printed at Perth, 1715.

[727] “The muir is a hill, but a very gentle one; and it has the peculiarity of being a regular curve, presenting in all parts a segment of a sphere, or rather an oblate spheroid. There are no rapid declivities and no plains. Hence, in every part of the hill, there is a close sky line, caused by the immediate curve, and where there is so much of the curve, as will reach a perpendicular of some eight feet between two bodies of men, they cannot see each other.”--Burton’s Scotland (1689-1748), vol. ii. p. 193.

[728] “There’s some say that we wan, and some say that they wan, And some say that nane wan at a’ man; But one thing I’m sure, that at Sherramuir A battle there was that I saw, man. And we ran, and they ran, and they ran, and we ran, But Florence[729] ran fastest of a’ man.”

The Battle of Sheriffmuir in Hogg’s Jacobite Relics.

[729] Marquis of Huntly’s horse.

[730] Colonel Harrison’s account.

[731] “Rob Roy there stood watch on a hill, for to catch The booty, for ought that I saw, man; For he ne’er advanc’d from the place he was stanc’d, Till no more was to do there at a’ man.”

Battle of Sheriffmuir.

“A short time previous to the Earl of Mar’s rising, their (the Macgregors’) depredations in the Lennox, and on the lower banks of Lochlomond, had been carried to such an extremity, that the military force of the west country was raised against them, and all the warriors of the clan seem to have been driven from their country, and to have retreated to the north, even as far as the mountains of Loch-Arkaig and Glengarry. Accordingly we find Rob Roy there in September and October 1715.

“From thence he came down with the rest of the clans, and joined general Gordon in Strathfillan. He was with the clans before Inverary, and was active in making some reprisals both by carrying off cattle on the banks of Loch-Fyne, and capturing ships that lay at anchor in the loch.

“He marched with the clans to Ardoch, and was present at the battle of Sheriffmuir, but kept a shy distance, thereby weakening that wing of the army to which the Macgregors were placed as a corps-de-reserve, on what principle it is not easy to determine, if it was not, as the bard suggests, to watch who gained the day, and then assist them in disposing of the booty.

“Before the friends of the Stuarts, however, could be properly brought to a head, Rob performed a very signal service to many of them by an act worthy of his character, and exactly in his own way. At the great hunting of Brae Mar, it has been mentioned what a number of noblemen and chiefs signed the bond of faith and mutual support. By the negligence of a chieftain to whose charge this important and dangerous document was committed, it fell into the hands of Captain Campbell, then at Fort William; and when it became known that a man of such determined Whig principles held this bond, those who signed it were seriously alarmed, and various plans were suggested for recovering it. Rob Roy Macgregor, who was at this clan meeting, had also affixed his name; but on his own account he was indifferent, as he regarded neither king nor government. He was, however, urged by several chiefs, particularly his patron, to exert himself, and if possible to recover the bond. With this view he went to Fort William in disguise, not with his usual number of attendants, and getting access to Captain Campbell, who was a near relation of his own, he discovered that, out of revenge for the contemptuous manner in which the chieftains now treated the captain, he had put the bond into the possession of the governor of the garrison, who was resolved to forward it to the privy council; and Rob, learning by accident the day on which it was to be sent, took his leave, and went home. The despatch which contained the bond was made up by Governor Hill, and sent from Fort William, escorted by an ensign’s command, which in those countries always accompanied the messages of government. On the third day’s march, Rob and 50 of his men met this party in Glendochart, and ordering them to halt, demanded their despatches. The officer refused; but Rob told him, that he would either have their lives and the despatches together, or the despatches alone. The ferocious looks and appearance of Rob and his men bespoke no irresolution. The packet was given up; and Rob, having taken out the bond he wanted, begged the officer would excuse the delay he had occasioned, and wishing him a good journey, left the military to proceed unmolested. By this manœuvre many chieftains kept on their heads, and the forfeiture of many estates was prevented.

“The following notices are from Mr. Moir’s MSS.

“One of the causes of the repulse of part of Mar’s forces was the part which Rob Roy acted; this Rob Roy, or Red Robert, was uncle to the laird of Macgregor, and commanded that clan in his nephew’s absence; but on the day of battle he kept his men together at some distance, without allowing them to engage, though they showed all the willingness imaginable; and waited only an opportunity to plunder, which was it seems the chief design of his coming there. This clan are a hardy rough people, but noted for pilfering, as they lie upon the border of the Highlands, and this Rob Roy had exercised their talents that way, pretty much in a kind of thieving war he carried on against the Duke of Montrose, who had cheated him of a small feudal estate.

“The conduct of this gentleman (who was wont, as occasion served, to assume the name of Campbell, his own being prohibited by act of parliament) was the more surprising, as he had ever been remarked for courage and activity. When desired by one of his own officers to go and assist his friends, he remarked, ‘If they cannot do it without me, they cannot do it with me.’ It is more than probable, however, that his interference would have decided the day in favour of his own party. He continued in arms for some years, and committed great depredations in the shires of Dumbarton and Lennox, particularly on the Duke of Montrose’s lands, defeating several detachments sent to reduce him.”--Jacobite Relics, vol. ii. pp. 248-251.

[732] Journal of Mar’s proceedings, printed at Paris.

[733] “The coincidence in time, of this achievement, with the reduction of Preston, and the battle of Sheriffmuir, is remarkable, and was much dwelt on at the time. But perhaps the day of the capture of Inverness not being exactly known--though it was certainly about the middle of November--it is not unlikely that the coincidence may have created a tendency to assign it to the 13th.”--Burton’s Scotland (1689-1747), vol. ii. p. 189 (note).

[734] Annals of 2d year of George I., p. 189.

[735] A true account of the proceedings at Perth, by a Rebel.

[736] This officer appears to have been very suspicious of Argyle’s motives, and did not hesitate to communicate his opinion to his superiors. In a letter to the Duke of Marlborough, he says: “Argyle grows so intolerably uneasy, that it is almost impossible to live with him any longer; he is enraged at the success of the expedition, though he and his creatures attribute to themselves the honour of it. When I brought him the news of the rebels having ran from Perth, he seemed thunderstruck; and was so visibly concerned, that even the foreign officers that were in the room took notice of it.... Since the rebels quitting Perth, he (Argyle) has sent 500 or 600 of his Argyleshire men, who go before the army a day’s march, to take possession of the towns the enemy have abandoned, and to plunder and destroy the country, which enrages our soldiers, who are forbid under pain of death to take the value of a farthing, though out of the rebels’ houses. Not one of these Argyle-men appeared whilst the rebels were in Perth, and when they might have been of some use.”--Cox’s Marlborough, vol. iii. p. 612.

[737] True Account of the Proceedings at Perth, by a Rebel.

[738] Mar’s Journal.

[739] True Account of the Proceedings at Perth.

[740] Annals of George I., vol. ii. p. 222.

[741] Mar’s Journal.

[742] Dunning, Auchterarder, Blackford, Crieff, Muthil.

[743] It is presumed this is the letter alluded to in a conversation between Lockhart of Carnwath and Captain Dougall Campbell, who is represented by him as “a person of great worth and loyalty, and a bosome friend of Argyle’s.” “Being with me (says Lockhart) at my country house, he (Campbell) asked me if I heard Argyle blam’d for having received and given no answer to a letter writt to him by the king whilst he was at Perth. I told him I had, but could not agree with those who censured him, for I had such an abhorrence of breach of trust, that had I been the duke’s adviser, it should have been to doe as he did; for tho there was nothing I so much desired as to see him engaged in the king’s cause, I wisht it done in a way consistent with his honour. Captain Campbell smiled and told me, he was to acquaint me of a secret which he must previously have my solemn word I would communicate to none, which he had given when it was revealed to him, having however obtained liberty afterwards to speak of it to me. After giving him the assurance he demanded, he told me that the letter was not delivered to the duke, for in his late Highland progress, he saw it and another to Lord Isla in the hands of the person to whose care they were committed, (but who that person was he would not tell me), who receiving them unseal’d, did not, after perusal, think it for the king’s service to deliver them, that to the duke being writt in a style by no means to be approved of; ‘and, indeed,’ added Campbell, ‘when I read them, I was entirely of the same mind, and could not but think that Mar or some other person, with a view of rather widening than healing the breaches, had prevail’d with the king to write after that manner.’ The letter to Isla was writt as to a man of business, insisting on the unhappy state of Scotland, and that nothing but a dissolution of the union by the king’s restoration, could prevent the utter ruin of that country. That to the duke did invite him to return to his loyalty and duty, threatening him, if he neglected, with revenge and the utter extirpation of his family, for what he and his predecessors had done in this and the last century. I doe not pretend to narrate the precise words of this letter, nor did Campbell mention them as such to me; however, I have narrated what he said was the aim and purport of the letter.”--Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 14, 15.

[744] What follows is in the Chevalier’s own handwriting. The original document is in the Fingask family; of course, it had never been delivered to the duke.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXVII. A.D. 1716-1737

BRITISH SOVEREIGNS:--George I., 1714-1727.--George II., 1727-1760.

Trial and execution of the prisoners taken in the rebellion--Bills of attainder against the Earl of Mar and others--Proceedings of General Cadogan in the Highlands--Trials of the prisoners in Scotland--Act of grace--Removal of the Chevalier from France--Duke of Argyle dismissed from office--Continental affairs--Confederacy to restore the Chevalier--Threatened Spanish invasion--Disarming of the Highlanders--Means taken to prevent further disturbances by building forts, making roads, &c.--Aversion of the Highlanders to these innovations--The Chevalier appoints trustees to manage his affairs in Scotland--Discovery of a new Jacobite conspiracy--Habeas-corpus act suspended--Bolingbroke--Meeting of Highland chiefs at Paris--The disarming act--Disgrace of the Earl of Mar--His ambiguous conduct--Atterbury’s charges against him--The Chevalier’s domestic affairs--Death of George I.--Views of the Chevalier--Prospects of the Jacobites.

After the flight and dispersion of the insurgents, the Duke of Argyle returned to Edinburgh about the end of February, where he was magnificently entertained by the magistrates of the city, whence he set off for London on the 1st of March. He had left instructions with General Cadogan to keep up a communication with the Whig leaders in the north, and to distribute the troops in quarters contiguous to the adjoining Highlands, that they might be the more readily assembled to repress any fresh insurrection which might break out. To keep some of the disaffected districts in check, parties of Highlanders were placed by Lord Lovat and Brigadier Grant, in Brahan castle, and in Erchles and Borlum; the former the seat of the Chisholm, the latter that of Brigadier Mackintosh.

The fate of the prisoners taken at Preston remains now to be told. The first who were tried were Lord Charles Murray, Captain Dalziel, brother to the earl of Carnwath, Major Nairne, Captain Philip Lockhart, brother to Lockhart of Carnwath, Captain Shaftoe, and Ensign Nairne. These six were tried before a court-martial at Preston, and all, with the exception of Captain Dalziel, having been proved to have been officers in the service of government, were condemned to be shot. Lord Charles Murray received a pardon through the interest of his friends. The remainder suffered on the 2d of December.

The English parliament met on the 9th of January, 1716. The commons agreed, on the motion of Mr. Lechmere, to impeach Lords Derwentwater, Nithsdale, Wintoun, Carnwath, and Kenmure, of high treason. The articles of impeachment were carried up to the lords the same night, and on the next day these peers were brought to the bar of the house of lords to hear the articles of impeachment read. They were brought back from the Tower on the 19th, when they all pled guilty to the charge of high treason, except the Earl of Wintoun, who petitioned for a longer time to give in his answers. The rest received sentence of death on the 9th of February, in Westminster-hall. The Countess of Nithsdale and Lady Nairne surprised the king as he was passing through his apartments at St. James’s, and throwing themselves at his feet implored his mercy in behalf of their husbands; but he turned away from them with contemptuous indifference. The Countess of Derwentwater was equally unsuccessful, though introduced by the Dukes of Richmond and St. Albans into the king’s bed-chamber, and accompanied by the Duchesses of Cleveland and Bolton.

This refusal on the part of the king raised up a number of advocates in both houses of parliament, in behalf of the unfortunate noblemen. Availing themselves of this feeling, the ladies of the condemned lords, accompanied by about twenty others of equal rank, waited in the lobby of the house of peers, and at the door of the house of commons, and solicited the intercession of both houses. Next day they petitioned the houses. The commons rejected the application, and to get quit of further importunity adjourned for six or seven days, by a small majority; but the result was different in the house of lords. Petitions, craving the intercession of that house, were presented from the condemned peers, which being read, after considerable opposition, a motion was made to address his majesty to grant them a reprieve. This occasioned a warm debate; but before the vote was taken, an amendment was proposed to the effect, that his majesty should reprieve such of the peers as should seem to deserve his mercy. It was contended by the supporters of the original address, that the effect of this amendment would be to destroy the nature of the address, as from the nature of the sentence which had been passed, none of the condemned peers could deserve mercy; but the amendment was substituted, and on the vote being taken, whether the address should be presented, it was carried present, by a majority of five votes. It is said that on one of the peers afterwards observing to the mover of the amendment, that it looked as if its object was to defeat the vote, and make it of no use to the persons for whose benefit it was intended, the proposer observed, that such was his intention in moving it.[745]

The king was evidently chagrined at the conduct of the house, and when the address was presented, he informed the deputation, that on this as on all other occasions, he would do what he thought most consistent with the dignity of the crown, and the safety of his people. The Earl of Nottingham, president of the council, who had supported the petitions of the condemned lords, together with Lord Aylesford, his brother, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Finch, his son, one of the lords of the treasury, and Lord Guernsey, master of the jewel office, were all removed from office; and to show the determination of the king, orders were issued on the same day the address was delivered, for executing the Earls of Derwentwater and Nithsdale, and Viscount Kenmure the following day. The other three peers were reprieved to the 7th of March. The Earl of Nithsdale, by the assistance of his heroic wife, made his escape the night before the execution, dressed in female attire. When the king heard of his escape next morning, he observed, that “it was the best thing a man in his condition could have done.”[746]

On the morning of the 24th of February the Earl of Derwentwater and Viscount Kenmure were beheaded on Tower-hill. On ascending the scaffold, Derwentwater knelt down, and having spent some time in prayer, he got up, and drawing a paper out of his pocket, read a short address. He hoped for forgiveness through the passion and death of his Saviour; apologised to those who might have been scandalized at his pleading guilty at his trial, excusing himself for doing so on the ground that he was made to believe that it was only a consequence of having submitted to mercy, acknowledged as his only right and lawful sovereign, King James III., and earnestly hoped for his speedy restoration; and died, as he had lived, a Roman Catholic. He displayed the utmost coolness and perfect self-possession.

As soon as the remains of the Earl of Derwentwater were removed, Viscount Kenmure was brought up to the scaffold. Like Derwentwater, he expressed his regret for pleading guilty to the charge of high treason, and prayed for “King James.” After praying a short time with uplifted hands, he advanced to the fatal block, and laying down his head, the executioner struck it off at two blows.

The Earl of Wintoun, on various frivolous pretences, got his trial postponed till the 15th of March, when he was brought finally up, and, after a trial which occupied two days, was found guilty, and received sentence of death; but his lordship afterwards made his escape from the Tower and fled to France.

On the 7th of April a commission for trying the other rebels met in the court of Common Pleas, Westminster, when bills of high treason were found against Mr. Forster, Brigadier Mackintosh, Colonel Oxburgh, Mr. Menzies of Culdares, and seven of their associates, and on the 10th bills were found against eleven more. Forster escaped from Newgate, and so well had his friends concerted matters, that he reached Calais in less than 24 hours. The trials of Brigadier Mackintosh and others were fixed for the 4th of May, but about eleven o’clock the preceding night, the brigadier and fifteen other prisoners broke out of Newgate, after knocking down the keepers and disarming the sentinels. Eight were retaken, but Mackintosh and seven others escaped. The trials of the prisoners who remained proceeded: many of them were found guilty; and five, among whom were Colonel Oxburgh and Mr. Paul, a non-jurant clergyman of the Church of England, were executed at Tyburn. Twenty-two prisoners were executed in Lancashire. The remainder of the prisoners taken at Preston, amounting to upwards of 700, submitted to the king’s mercy, and having prayed for transportation, were sold as slaves to some West India merchants; a cruel proceeding, when it is considered that the greater part of these men were Highlanders, who had joined in the insurrection in obedience to the commands of their chiefs.[747]

The severities exercised by the government, and the courage and fortitude displayed by the unfortunate sufferers, wrought an extraordinary change in the dispositions of the people, who began to manifest great dissatisfaction at proceedings so revolting to humanity. Though the rebellion was extinguished, the spirit which had animated it still remained, being increased rather than diminished by the proceedings of the government; and the Tories longed for an opportunity of availing themselves of the universal dissatisfaction to secure a majority favourable to their views at the next general election. The Whigs, afraid of the result of an early election as destructive to themselves as a party and to the liberties of the country, had recourse to a bold measure, which nothing but the most urgent necessity could justify. This was no other than a plan to repeal the triennial act, and to prolong the duration of parliament. It is said that at first they intended to suspend the triennial act for one election only, but thinking that a temporary measure would appear a greater violation of constitutional law than a permanent one, they resolved to extend the duration of parliament to seven years. A bill was accordingly brought into the house of lords on the 10th of April by the Duke of Devonshire, which, notwithstanding much opposition, passed both houses, receiving the royal assent on the 7th of May. On the same day an act of attainder against the Earls Marischal, Seaforth, Southesk, Panmure, and others, also received his majesty’s sanction. An act of attainder against the Earl of Mar, the Marquis of Tullibardine, the Earl of Linlithgow, Lord Drummond, and other leaders of the insurrection, had received the royal assent on the 17th of February preceding. Besides these bills, three others were passed, one attainting Mr. Forster and Brigadier Mackintosh; another for more effectually securing the peace of the Highlands; a third appointing commissioners to inquire into the estates of those persons who had been attainted or convicted.

While the parliament was thus engaged in devising measures for maintaining the public tranquillity, General Cadogan was employed in dispersing some hostile bands of the clans which still continued to assemble with their chiefs in the remoter parts of the Highlands. Hearing that the Earl of Seaforth had retired into the island of Lewis, where he had collected a considerable body of his men under the command of Brigadier Campbell of Ormundel, an officer who had just arrived from Muscovy, where he had served in the army of the Czar, he sent a detachment into the island under the command of Colonel Cholmondely to reduce it. The earl, on the appearance of this force, crossed into Ross-shire, whence he escaped to France; and Campbell being abandoned by his men after he had formed them in order of battle, was taken prisoner while standing in a charging posture. Another detachment under Colonel Clayton, was sent into the isle of Skye, where Sir Donald Macdonald was at the head of about 1,000 men; but the chief made no resistance, and having no assurance of protection from the government in case of a surrender, retired into one of the Uists, where he remained till he obtained a ship which carried him to France. About this time three ships arrived among the western islands from France with military supplies for the use of the insurgents, but they came too late to be of any service. Two of them, after taking 70 gentlemen on board, immediately returned to France, and the third, which carried fifty chests of small arms, and one hundred and fifty barrels of gunpowder, and other military stores, was captured while at anchor near Uist by an English ship of war.

In consequence of instructions from government, General Cadogan issued an order, which was intimated at the different parish churches in the north, requiring the rebels to surrender themselves and to deliver up their arms, assuring them, that such as complied should have liberty granted to return home in safety, but threatening to punish rigorously those who refused to comply. This order was generally obeyed by the common people in the Lowlands, who had been engaged in the insurrection; but few of the Highlanders seemed to regard it. To enforce compliance, Cadogan despatched different detachments through the Highlands, and took up his quarters at Blair Athole, where he could more easily communicate with the disaffected districts. He next removed to Ruthven in Badenoch, and afterwards proceeded to Inverness, where he received Glengary’s submission. Lochiel, Keppoch, and Clanranald, had resolved to oppose by force the delivery of their arms; but on hearing that Clayton, who had returned from Skye, had resolved to march from Fortwilliam to Lochiel’s house to disarm the Camerons, these chiefs retired, and their men delivered up their arms without resistance. Having succeeded in disarming the Highlands, the general left Inverness on the 27th of April, leaving General Sabine in command, and proceeded to London. The rebellion being now considered completely extinguished, the Dutch auxiliaries were withdrawn from Scotland, and in a short time thereafter were embarked for Holland.

To try the prisoners confined in the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, Blackness, and other places in Scotland, a commission of Oyer and Terminer was appointed to sit at Carlisle in December, 1716. There were nearly seventy arraigned. Of twenty-nine who were brought to trial, twenty-five pled guilty. Brigadier Campbell of Ormundel, Tulloch of Tannachie, Stewart of Foss, and Stewart of Glenbuckie, entered a plea of not guilty. The two last having satisfied the solicitor-general of their innocence, he allowed a writ of noli prosequi to be entered in their behalf, and Campbell having escaped from the castle of Carlisle, Tulloch alone stood his trial, but he was acquitted. Sentence of death was passed upon the twenty-five who had admitted their guilt, and thirty-six were discharged for want of evidence; but the sentence of death was never put into execution. It was wise in the government to pacify the national disaffection by showing mercy.

Following up the same humane view, an act of grace was passed in 1717 by the king and both houses of parliament, granting a free and general pardon to all persons who had committed any treasonable offences, before the 6th of May of that year, with the exception of those who, having committed such offences, had gone beyond the seas, and who, before the said day, had returned into Great Britain or Ireland without his majesty’s license, or who should on or after the said day return into either of the kingdoms without such license. All persons of the name and clan of Macgregor were also excepted, as well as all such persons as should, on the 5th of May, 1717, remain attainted for high treason. But all such persons so attainted, unless specially named, and who had not escaped out of prison, were freely pardoned and discharged. Under this act the Earl of Carnwath, and Lords Widdrington and Nairne, were delivered from the Tower: seventeen persons confined in Newgate, the prisoners still remaining in the castles of Lancaster and Carlisle, and those in the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling, and other places in Scotland, including Lords Strathallan and Rollo, were likewise released.

While the Chevalier was preparing to embark for Scotland, the Earl of Stair, (the ambassador at the court of France,) had used every effort to prevent him. Duclos and others say that Stair not only applied to the Duke of Orleans, the regent, to have the Chevalier arrested, but that finding the regent insincere in his promises of compliance, he sent persons to assassinate the Chevalier on the road when crossing France to embark for Scotland. That Stair made such an application, and that he employed spies to watch the progress of the prince, are circumstances highly probable; but both Marshal Berwick and the Earl of Mar discredited the last part of the story, as they considered Stair incapable of ordering an action so atrocious as the assassination of the prince.[748]

On the return of the Chevalier, Stair, afraid that he and his partisans in France would intrigue with the court, presented a memorial to the regent in name of his Britannic majesty, in which, after notifying the flight of the Chevalier, and the dispersion of his forces, he requested the regent to compel the prince to quit France. He next insisted that such of the rebels as had retired to France should be ordered forthwith to depart from that country. The removal of the Jacobite exiles from the French court was all that the earl could at that time obtain from the regent. By an agreement, however, which was shortly thereafter entered into between France and England, mutually guaranteeing the succession to the crown of France, and the Hanover succession according to the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht, it was stipulated that the Pretender should be sent beyond the Alps, and should never be allowed to return again to France or Lorraine on any pretence whatever, and that none of the rebellious subjects of Great Britain should be allowed to reside in France.

After the suppression of the insurrection, the leading supporters of government in Scotland repaired to London to congratulate George I. on the success of his arms, and to obtain the rewards they expected. The Duke of Argyle, to whose exertions chiefly the king was indebted for his peaceable accession to the throne, and the extinction of the rebellion, was already so overloaded with favours that he could scarcely expect any addition to be made to them, and would probably have been contented with those he had obtained. The “squadron” party, however, which had been long endeavouring to ruin him, now made every exertion to get him disgraced; and being assisted by the Marlborough faction, and a party which espoused the interests of Cadogan, they succeeded with the king, who dismissed the duke and his brother, the Earl of Islay, from all their employments, which were conferred on others. General Carpenter, to whom the success at Preston was entirely ascribed, succeeded Argyle in the chief command of the forces in North Britain; and the Duke of Montrose was appointed Lord-Register of Scotland in the room of the Earl of Islay.

The aspect of affairs in the north of Europe requiring the king’s presence in his German dominions, an act was passed repealing the clause in the act for the further limitation of the crown, which restricted the sovereign from leaving his British dominions. He closed the session on the 26th of June, and embarked at Gravesend on the 7th of July for Holland, where he arrived on the 9th. He proceeded to Loo incognito, and thence set out for Pyrmont.

For reasons which need not be stated here, Alberoni, the Spanish prime minister, was eager that Great Britain should enter upon an alliance with his country, and in his appeal to George I. he was backed by the English minister at Madrid. George thus found himself placed in a singular but fortunate situation. Equally courted by France and Spain, he had only to choose between them, and to form that connexion which might be most conducive to uphold the Protestant succession and to maintain the peace of Europe, with which the internal peace of Great Britain and the safety of the reigning family were intimately connected. The alliance with France being considered as more likely to secure these advantages than a connexion with Spain, the English minister at Madrid was instructed by the cabinet at home to decline the offers of Spain. “His majesty,” said secretary Stanhope, in his letter to the minister, “is perfectly disposed to enter into a new treaty with the Catholic king, to renew and confirm the past; but the actual situation of affairs does not permit him to form other engagements, which, far from contributing to preserve the neutrality of Italy, would give rise to jealousies tending to disturb it.”[749]

This was followed by the agreement with France, to which allusion has been made, and in January, 1717, a triple alliance was entered into between England, France, and Holland, by which the contracting parties mutually guaranteed to one another the possession of all places respectively held by them. The treaty also contained a guaranty of the Protestant succession on the throne of England, as well as that of the Duke of Orleans to the crown of France.

Baffled in all his attempts to draw England into an alliance against the Emperor of Austria, Alberoni looked to the north, where he hoped to find allies in the persons of the King of Sweden and the Czar of Muscovy. Both Peter the Great and Charles XII. were highly incensed against the Elector of Hanover, the former for resisting the attempts of Russia to obtain a footing in the empire, the latter for having joined the confederacy formed against him during his captivity, and for having accepted from the King of Denmark the duchies of Bremen and Verden, Swedish possessions, which had been conquered by Denmark during the absence of Charles. Charles, to revenge himself, formed the design of restoring the Stuarts, and by his instructions, Goertz, his minister in England, began to cabal with the English Jacobites, to whom, in name of his master, he promised to grant assistance in any efforts they might make to rid themselves of the elector. It was whispered among the Scottish Jacobites, that “the king,” as they termed the Chevalier, had some hopes of prevailing on Charles to espouse his cause, but the first notice on which they could place any reliance was a letter from the Earl of Mar to one Captain Straiton, which he directed to be communicated to the Bishop of Edinburgh, Lord Balmerino, and Mr. Lockhart of Carnwath, and in which he suggested, that as there was a great scarcity in Sweden, the friends of the Chevalier should purchase and send 5,000 or 6,000 bolls of meal to that country. Their poverty, however, and the impracticability of collecting and sending such a large quantity of food out of the kingdom, without exciting the suspicions of the government, prevented the plan from being carried into execution.[750] Shortly thereafter, Straiton received another letter from Mar, in which, after stating that there was a design to attempt the restoration of the prince by the aid of a certain foreign sovereign, and that it would look strange if his friends at home did not put themselves in a condition to assist him, he suggested, that as the want of money had been hitherto a great impediment in the way of the Chevalier’s success, the persons to whom this and his first letter were to be communicated, should persuade their friends to have in readiness such money as they could procure, to be employed when the proper opportunity offered. Mr. Lockhart, who received a letter from the Chevalier at the same time, undertook the task of acquainting the Chevalier’s friends in Scotland with Mar’s wish, and obtained assurances from several persons of rank that they would attend to the prince’s request. Lord Eglinton in particular made an offer of 3,000 guineas.

The intrigues of Goertz, the Swedish minister, being discovered by the government, he was arrested and his papers seized at the desire of King George. This extraordinary proceeding, against which the foreign ministers resident at the British court remonstrated, roused the indignation of Charles to the highest pitch, and being now more determined than ever to carry his project into effect, he, at the instigation of Alberoni, reconciled himself to the Czar, who, in resentment of an offer made by King George to Charles to join against Russia, if the latter would ratify the cession of Bremen and Verden, agreed to unite his forces with those of Sweden and Spain for placing the Pretender on the throne of England. To strengthen the interest of the Chevalier in the north, Alberoni sent the Duke of Ormond into Russia to negotiate a marriage between the son of the Chevalier, and Anne the daughter of Peter, but this project did not take effect. The Chevalier himself, in the meantime, contracted a marriage with the Princess Clementina Sobieski, but she was arrested at Inspruck by order of the imperial government, when on her journey to meet her betrothed husband, and sent to a convent.

King George returned to England towards the end of January, 1717. The parliament met on the 20th of February, when he informed them of the projected invasion, and mentioned that he had given orders for laying copies of papers connected therewith before them. From these documents it appeared, that the plan of invasion was ripe for execution, but that it was not intended to attempt it till the Dutch auxiliaries should be sent back to Holland.

In consequence of the conduct of his Swedish majesty, parliament passed a bill prohibiting all intercourse with Sweden, and a fleet was despatched to the Baltic under the command of Sir George Byng, to observe the motions of the Swedes; but the death of Charles XII. dissolved the confederacy between Sweden and Russia.

War was declared against Spain in December 1718; but a respectable minority in parliament, and the nation at large, were opposed to it, as hurtful to the commercial interests of Great Britain. France also followed the same course.

The war with Spain revived the hopes of the Jacobites, and the Duke of Ormond repaired to Madrid, where he held conferences with Alberoni, and concerted an invasion of Great Britain. The Dutch, alarmed at Ormond’s appearance at Madrid, remonstrated with Alberoni, as they had guaranteed the Protestant succession, which might be endangered if an insurrection in favour of the Chevalier de St. George was encouraged by Spain; but the cardinal assured them that the duke had no other design in coming into Spain but to consult his personal safety. Meanwhile, under the pretence of sending reinforcements into Sicily, preparations were made at Cadiz and in the ports of Galicia for the projected invasion, and the Chevalier himself proceeded to Madrid, where he was cordially received and treated as King of Great Britain. On the 10th of March, 1719, a fleet, consisting of ten men-of-war and twenty-one transports, having on board 5,000 men, a great quantity of ammunition, and 30,000 muskets, sailed from Cadiz, with instructions to join the rest of the expedition at Corunna, and to make a descent at once upon England and Ireland. The Duke of Ormond was appointed commander of the fleet, with the title of Captain-general of his most Catholic Majesty; and he was provided with declarations in the name of the king, stating, that for many good reasons he had sent forces into England and Scotland to act as auxiliaries to King James.

To defeat this attempt the allied cabinets adopted the necessary measures. His Britannic majesty having communicated to both houses of parliament the advices he had received respecting the projected invasion, they gave him every assurance of support, and requested him to augment his forces by sea and land. He offered a reward of £10,000 to any one who should apprehend the Duke of Ormond. Troops were ordered to assemble in the north and west of England, and a strong squadron, under Admiral Norris, was equipped and sent out to sea to meet the Spanish fleet. The Dutch furnished 2,000 men, and six battalions of Imperialists were sent from the Austrian Netherlands; and the Duke of Orleans ordered ships to be prepared at Brest to join the English fleet, and made an offer of twenty battalions for the service of King George.

The expedition under Ormond, with the exception of two frigates, never reached its destination, having been dispersed and disabled, off Cape Finisterre, by a violent storm which lasted twelve days. These two ships reached the coast of Scotland, having on board the Earls Marischal and Seaforth, the Marquis of Tullibardine, some field officers, 300 Spaniards, and arms for 2,000 men. The expedition entered Loch Alsh about the middle of May, and the small force landed in the western Highlands, when it was joined by some Highlanders, chiefly Seaforth’s men. The other Jacobite clans, with the disappointment they formerly experienced from France still fresh in their recollection, resolved not to move till the whole forces under Ormond should arrive. A difference arose between the Earl Marischal and the Marquis of Tullibardine about the command, but this dispute was put an end to by the advance of General Wightman from Inverness, with a body of regular troops. The Highlanders and their allies had taken possession of the pass at Glenshiel; but on the approach of the government forces they retired to the pass at Strachell, which they resolved to defend. General Wightman attacked and drove them, after a smart action of three hours’ duration, and after sustaining some loss, from one eminence to another, when night put an end to the combat. The Highlanders seeing no chance of making a successful resistance, dispersed, during the night, among the mountains, and the Spaniards, on the following day, surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Marischal, Seaforth, and Tullibardine, with the other officers, retired to the Western Isles, and managed to escape to the continent.[751]

After government had succeeded in putting an end to the rebellion, it felt the necessity of doing something, not only to allay the consequent disorders in the Highlands, but also to render the Highlanders less capable in future of entering into rebellion, and make them more accessible to the strong arm of the law. The estates of most of the chiefs and proprietors who had been engaged were forfeited, although practically in some cases it was found difficult to carry the forfeiture into effect; as in the case of the Earl of Seaforth, one of whose retainers seized the office of receiver, and transmitted the rents to the exiled earl.

Lord Lovat, who, on account of his loyal conduct, had risen high in the royal favour, drew up, in 1721, a memorial to George I. concerning the state of the Highlands, characterised by great insight into the source of the existing evils, and recommending to government the adoption of measures calculated to remedy these.

From this memorial we learn that King William, possibly in accordance with the recommendation of Breadalbane, formerly referred to, had organized a few independent Highland companies, which appear to have been of some service in repressing the disorders so prevalent in the north.[752] “The independent companies, raised by King William not long after the revolution, reduced the Highlanders to better order than at any time they had been in since the restoration. They were composed of the natives of the country, inured to the fatigue of travelling the mountains, lying on the hills, wore the same habit, and spoke the same language; but for want of being put under proper regulations, corruptions were introduced, and some, who commanded them, instead of bringing criminals to justice, (as I am informed) often compounded for the theft, and, for a sum of money set them at liberty. They are said also to have defrauded the government by keeping not above half their numbers in constant pay, which (as I humbly conceive) might be the reason your majesty caused them to be disbanded.”[753]

These companies being broken up in 1717, according to Lovat and Wade, robberies went on “without any manner of fear or restraint, and have ever since continued to infest the country in a public and open manner.”[754]

Wade entered upon his investigation in 1724, and his report shows he was competent to undertake such a task. He computed that of the 22,000 Highlandmen able to bear arms, 10,000 were “vassals to superiors,” well affected to government, and the remainder had been engaged in rebellions, and were ready, when called upon by their chiefs, “to create new troubles.” One of the greatest grievances was the robberies referred to by Lovat, accompanied with the levying of black mail. According to the general, “the clans, in the Highlands, the most addicted to rapine and plunder, are the Camerons, on the west of the shire of Inverness; the Mackenzies and others, in the shire of Ross, who were vassals to the late Earl of Seaforth; the M’Donalds of Keppoch; the Broadalbin men and the M’Gregors, on the borders of Argileshire. They go out in parties from ten to thirty men, traverse large tracks of mountains, till they arrive at the low lands, where they design to commit their depredations, which they choose to do in places distant from the glens which they inhabit. They drive the stolen cattle in the night time, and in the day remain on the tops of the mountains or in the woods, (with which the Highlands abound), and take the first occasion to sell them at the fairs or markets that are annually held in many parts of the country.

“Those who are robbed of their cattle (or persons employed by them), follow them by the tract, and often recover them from the robbers, by compounding for a certain sum of money agreed on; but if the pursuers are in numbers superiour to the thieves, and happen to seize any of them, they are seldom or never prosecuted, the poorer sort being unable to support the charges of a prosecution. They are likewise under the apprehension of becoming the object of their revenge, by having their houses and stacks burnt, their cattle stolen, or hocked, and their lives at the mercy of the tribe or clan to whom the banditti belongs. The richer sort, to keep, as they call it, good neighbourhood, generally compound with the chieftain of the tribe or clan for double restitution, which he willingly pays to save one of his clan from prosecution; and this is repaid him by a contribution from the thieves of his clan, who never refuse the payment of their proportion to save one of their own fraternity. This composition is seldom paid in money, but in cattle stolen from the opposite side of the country, to make reparation to the person injured.”[755]

To remedy these evils, an act for the disarming of the Highlanders was passed in the year 1716, but it was so badly put into force that the most disaffected clans remained better armed than ever. By the act, the collectors of taxes were empowered to pay for the arms delivered up; but none were given in except such as were broken and unfit for use, which were valued at a price far beyond what they were worth. Not only so, but a brisk trade appears to have been carried on with Holland and other countries in broken and useless arms, which were imported and delivered up to the commissioners at exorbitant prices. Wade also found in the possession of the Highlanders a great number of arms which they had obtained from the Spaniards engaged in the affair at Glen Shiel. Altogether he computed that the Highlanders hostile to his majesty were in possession of about five or six thousand arms of various kinds. Wade further reports that to keep the Highlanders in awe, “four barracks had been built in different parts of the Highlands, and parties of regular troops, under the command of Highland officers, with a company of 30, established to conduct them through the mountains, was thought an effectual scheme, as well to prevent the rising of the Highlanders disaffected to your majesty’s government, as to hinder depredations on your faithful subjects. It is to be wished that, during the reign of your majesty and your successors, no insurrection may ever happen to experience whether the barracks will effectually answer the end proposed; yet I am humbly of opinion, that if the number of troops they are built to contain were constantly quartered in them (whereas there is now in some but 30 men, and proper provisions laid in for their support during the winter season), they might be of some use to prevent the insurrections of the Highlanders, though, as I humbly conceive (having seen them all), that two of the four are not built in as proper situations as they might have been. As to the Highland parties, I have already presumed to represent to your majesty the little use they were of in hindering depredations, and the great sufferings of the soldiers employed in that service, upon which your majesty was graciously pleased to countermand them.

“I must farther beg leave to report to your majesty, that another great cause of disorders in the Highlands is the want of proper persons to execute the several offices of civil magistrates, especially in the shires of Inverness, Ross, and some other parts of the Highlands.

“The party quarrels and violent animosities among the gentlemen equally well affected to your majesty’s government, I humbly conceive to be one great cause of this defect. Those here in arms for your majesty, who raised a spirit in the shire of Inverness, and recovered the town of that name from the rebels (their main body being then at Perth), complain that the persons employed as magistrates over them have little interest in the country, and that three of the deputy sheriffs in those parts were persons actually in arms against your majesty at the time of the rebellion, which (as I am credibly informed) is true. They likewise complain that many are left out of the commissions of lord lieutenants, deputy lieutenants, sheriffs, &c., and I take the liberty to observe, that the want of acting justices of the peace is a great encouragement to the disorders so frequently committed in that part of the country, there being but one now residing as an acting justice for the space of above an hundred miles in compass.”[756]

He also complained that the regular troops laboured under great disadvantages in endeavouring to penetrate in the Highland fastnesses from the want of roads and bridges.

As a remedy for these evils he proposed “that companies of such Highlanders as are well affected to his majesty’s government be established under proper regulations, and commanded by officers speaking the language of the country, subject to martial law, and under the inspection and orders of the governors of Fort-William, Inverness, and the officer commanding his majesty’s forces in those parts;”[757] that a redoubt or barrack be erected at Inverness, and an addition be made to the one already established at Killyhuimen (Fort Augustus), at the south end of Loch Ness, and that a small vessel, with oars and sails, be built on the loch, capable of holding from sixty to eighty soldiers, which would be a means of keeping up communication between Inverness and Fort Augustus, and of sending parties to the county bordering on the lake. Further, that the different garrisons and castles in North Britain, especially the castle of Edinburgh, be put in such condition as to guard against surprise, and that a regiment of dragoons be quartered in the district between Perth and Inverness. As to the civil government of the country, Wade recommended that proper persons be nominated for sheriffs and deputy sheriffs in the Highland counties, and that justices of the peace and constables, with small salaries, be established in proper places, and that quarter sessions be regularly held at Killyhuimen, Ruthven in Badenoch, Fort William, and if necessary, at Bernera, near the coast of the Isle of Skye.

By an act passed in 1725, Wade was empowered to proceed to the Highlands and summon the clans to deliver up their arms, and to carry most of his other recommendations into effect. After quelling the malt-tax riots in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Wade set out for the Highlands, and arrived in Inverness on the 10th of August 1725, and immediately proceeded to business. As his report contains much interesting and valuable information on the state of the Highlands at this time, we shall give here a large extract from it.

“The laird of the M’Kenzies, and other chiefs of the clans and tribes, tenants to the late Earl of Seaforth, came to me in a body, to the number of about fifty, and assured me that both they and their followers were ready to pay a dutiful obedience to your majesty’s commands, by a peaceable surrender of their arms; that if your majesty would be graciously pleased to procure them an indemnity for the rents that had been misapplied for the time past, they would for the future become faithful subjects to your majesty, and pay them to your majesty’s receiver for the use of the public. I assured them of your majesty’s gracious intentions towards them, and that they might rely on your majesty’s bounty and clemency, provided they would merit it by their future good conduct and peaceable behaviour; that I had your majesty’s commands to send the first summons to the country they inhabited; which would soon give them an opportunity of showing the sincerity of their promises, and of having the merit to set example to the rest of the Highlands, who in their turns were to be summoned to deliver up their arms, pursuant to the disarming act; that they might choose the place they themselves thought most convenient to surrender their arms; and that I would answer, that neither their persons nor their property should be molested by your majesty’s troops.--They desired they might be permitted to deliver up their arms at the castle of Brahan, the principal seat of their late superior, who, they said, had promoted and encouraged them to this their submission; but begged that none of the Highland companies might be present; for, as they had always been reputed the bravest, as well as the most numerous of the northern clans, they thought it more consistent with their honour to resign their arms to your majesty’s veteran troops;--to which I readily consented.

“Summonses were accordingly sent to the several clans and tribes, the inhabitants of 18 parishes, who were vassals or tenants of the late Earl of Seaforth, to bring or send in all their arms and warlike weapons to the castle of Brahan, on or before the 28th of August.

“On the 25th of August I went to the castle of Brahan, with a detachment of 200 of the regular troops, and was met there by the chiefs of the several clans and tribes, who assured me they had used their utmost diligence in collecting all the arms they were possessed of, which should be brought thither on the Saturday following, pursuant to the summons they had received; and telling me they were apprehensive of insults or depredations from the neighbouring clans of the Camerons, and others who still continued in possession of their arms. Parties of the Highland companies were ordered to guard the passes leading to their country; which parties continued there for their protection, till the clans in that neighbourhood were summoned, and had surrendered their arms.

“On the day appointed, the several clans and tribes assembled in the adjacent villages, and marched in good order through the great avenue that leads to the castle; and one after another laid down their arms in the court-yard, in great quiet and decency, amounting to 784 of the several species mentioned in the act of parliament.

“The solemnity with which this was performed, had undoubtedly a great influence over the rest of the Highland clans; and disposed them to pay that obedience to your majesty’s commands, by a peaceable surrender of their arms, which they had never done to any of your royal predecessors, or in compliance with any law either before or since the Union.

“The next summons were sent to the clans and countries in the neighbourhood of Killyhuimen and Fort William. The arms of the several clans of the M’Donalds of Glengary, M’Leods of Glenelg, Chisholms of Strathglass, and Grants of Glenmoriston, were surrendered to me at the barrack of Killyhuimen, the 15th of September; and those of the M’Donalds of Keppoch, Moidart, Aresaig, and Glencoe; as also the Camerons, and Stewarts of Appin, were delivered to the governor of Fort William. The M’Intoshes were summoned, and brought in their arms to Inverness; and the followers of the Duke of Gordon, with the clan of M’Phersons, to the barrack of Ruthven in Badenoch.

“The inhabitants of the isles of Skye and Mull were also summoned; the M’Donalds, M’Kinnons, and M’Leods delivered their arms at the barrack of Bernera; and those of the Isle of Mull, to the officer commanding at Castle Duart, both on the 1st day of October.

“The regiments remained till that time encamped at Inverness; and this service was performed by sending detachments from the camp to the several parts of the Highlands appointed for the surrender of arms. Ammunition bread was regularly delivered to the soldiers, and biscuits to the detachments that were sent into the mountains. The camp was plentifully supplied with provisions, and an hospital in the town provided for the sick men. This contributed to preserve the soldiers in health; so that notwithstanding the excessive bad weather and continued rains that fell during the campaign, there died of the three regiments no more than ten soldiers:--but the weather growing cold, and the snow falling in the mountains, obliged me to break up the camp, and send the troops into winter quarters.

“The new-raised companies of Highlanders were for some time encamped with the regular troops, performing the duty of the camp with the rest of the soldiers. They mounted guard, went out upon parties, had the articles of war read and explained to them, and were regularly paid with the rest of the troops. When they had made some progress in their exercise and discipline, they were sent to their respective stations with proper orders; as well to prevent the Highlanders from returning to the use of arms, as to hinder their committing depredations on the low country.

“The Lord Lovat’s company was posted to guard all the passes in the mountains, from the Isle of Skye eastward, as far as Inverness; the company of Colonel Grant in the several passes from Inverness southward to Dunkeld; Sir Duncan Campbell’s company, from Dunkeld westward, as far as the country of Lorn. The three companies commanded by lieutenants were posted, the first at Fort William; the second at Killyhuimen; and the third at Ruthven in Badenoch; and may in a short time be assembled in a body, to march to any part of the Highlands as occasion may require.

“The clans of the northern Highlands having peaceably surrendered their arms, pursuant to the several summonses sent them in your majesty’s name, and consequently exposed to the inroads of their neighbours, to prevent this inconvenience, (though the season of the year was far advanced) I thought it both just and necessary to proceed to disarm the southern clans, who had also joined in the rebellion, and thereby to finish the campaign by summoning all the clans and countries who had taken up arms against your majesty in the year 1715.

“Summonses were accordingly sent to the inhabitants of the Brea of Mar, Perth, Athol, Braidalbin, Menteth, and those parts of the shire of Stirling and Dumbarton included in the disarming act. Parties of the regular troops were ordered to march from the nearest garrisons to several places appointed for the surrender of their arms, and circular letters were sent to the principal gentlemen in those parts, exciting them to follow the example of the northern Highlands. The clans of these countries brought in their arms on the days and at the places appointed by their respective summonses, but not in so great a quantity as the northern clans had done. The gentlemen assured me they had given strict orders to their tenants to bring in all the arms they had in their possession; but that many of them, knowing they were not to be paid for them, as stipulated by the former act, several had been carried to the forges, and turned into working tools and other peaceable instruments; there being no prohibition by the act of parliament to hinder them from disposing of them in any manner they thought most to their advantage, provided they had no arms in their possession, after the day mentioned in the summons; and if the informations I have received are true, the same thing has been practised, more or less, by all the clans that have been summoned pursuant to the present act of parliament, which makes no allowance for arms delivered up, in order to prevent the notorious frauds and abuses committed by those who had the execution of the former act, whereby your majesty paid near £13,000 for broken and useless arms, that were hardly worth the expense of carriage.

“The number of arms collected this year in the Highlands, of the several species mentioned in the disarming act, amount in the whole to 2,685. The greatest part of them are deposited in the Castle of Edinburgh, and the rest at Fort William, and the barrack of Bernera. At the time they were brought in by the clans, there was a mixture of good and bad; but the damage they received in the carriage, and growing rusty by being exposed to rain, they are of little more worth than the value of the iron.

“In the execution of the power given me by your majesty, to grant licences to such persons whose business or occupation required the use of arms for their safety and defence, I have given out in the whole 230 licences to the foresters, drovers, and dealers in cattle, and other merchandise, belonging to the several clans who have surrendered their arms, which are to remain in force for two years, provided they behave themselves during that time as faithful subjects to your majesty, and peaceably towards their neighbours. The names of the persons empowered to wear arms by these licences are entered in a book, as also the names of the gentlemen by whom they were recommended, and who have promised to be answerable for their good behaviour.

“The several summonses for the surrender of arms have been affixed to the doors of 129 parish churches, on the market crosses of the county towns; and copies of the same regularly entered in the sheriff’s books in the method prescribed by the disarming act, by which these Highlanders who shall presume to wear arms without a legal qualification, are subject to the penalties of that law which has already had so good an effect, that, instead of guns, swords, durks, and pistols, they now travel to their churches, markets, and fairs with only a staff in their hands. Since the Highland companies have been posted at their respective stations, several of the most notorious thieves have been seized on and committed to prison, some of which are now under prosecution, but others, either by the corruption or negligence of the jailers, have been set at liberty, or suffered to make their escape.

“The imposition commonly called black-meal is now no longer paid by the inhabitants bordering on the Highlands; and robberies and depredations, formerly complained of, are less frequently attempted than has been known for many years past, there having been but one single instance where cattle have been stolen, without being recovered and returned to their proper owners.

“At my first coming to the Highlands, I caused an exact survey to be taken of the lakes, and that part of the country lying between Inverness and Fort William, which extends from the east to the west sea, in order to render the communication more practicable; and materials were provided for the vessel which, by your majesty’s commands, was to be built on the Lake Ness; which is now finished and launched into the lake. It is made in the form of a gally, either for rowing or sailing; is capable of carrying a party of 50 or 60 soldiers to any part of the country bordering on the said lake; and will be of great use for transporting provisions and ammunition from Inverness to the barrack of Killyhuimen, where four companies of foot have been quartered since the beginning of last October.

“I presume also to acquaint your majesty, that parties of regular troops have been constantly employed in making the roads of communication between Killyhuimen and Fort William, who have already made so good a progress in that work, that I hope, before the end of next summer, they will be rendered both practicable and convenient for the march of your majesty’s forces between those garrisons, and facilitate their assembling in one body, if occasion should require.

“The fortifications and additional barracks, which, by your majesty’s commands were to be erected at Inverness and Killyhuimen, are the only part of your majesty’s instructions which I have not been able to put in execution. There were no persons in that part of the Highlands of sufficient credit or knowledge to contract for a work of so extensive a nature. The stone must be cut out of the quarries; nor could the timber be provided sooner than by sending to Norway to purchase it; and, although the materials had been ready and at hand, the excessive rains, that fell during the whole summer season, must have rendered it impossible to have carried on the work. I have, however, contracted for the necessary repairs of the old castle at Inverness, which I am promised will be finished before next winter.

“I humbly beg leave to observe to your majesty, that nothing has contributed more to the success of my endeavours in disarming the Highlanders, and reducing the vassals of the late Earl of Seafield to your obedience, than the power your majesty was pleased to grant me of receiving the submissions of persons attainted of high treason. They were dispersed in different parts of the Highlands, without the least apprehension of being betrayed or molested by their countrymen, and, for their safety and protection, must have contributed all they were able to encourage the use of arms, and to infect the minds of those people on whose protection they depended. In this situation, they were proper instruments, and always ready to be employed in promoting the interest of the Pretender, or any other foreign power they thought capable of contributing to a change in that government to which they had forfeited their lives, and from whom they expected no favour. The greatest part of them were drawn into the rebellion at the instigation of their superiors, and, in my humble opinion, have continued their disaffection, rather from despair than any real dislike to your majesty’s government; for it was no sooner known that your majesty had empowered me to receive the submissions of those who repented of their crimes, and were willing and desirous for the future to live peaceably under your mild and moderate government, but applications were made to me from several of them to intercede with your majesty on their behalf, declaring their readiness to abandon the Pretender’s party, and to pay a dutiful obedience to your majesty; to which I answered, that I should be ready to intercede in their favour, when I was farther convinced of the sincerity of their promises; that it would soon come to their turn to be summoned to bring in their arms; and, when they had paid that first mark of their obedience, by peaceably surrendering them, I should thereby be better justified in receiving their submissions, and in recommending them to your majesty’s mercy and clemency.

“As soon as their respective clans had delivered up their arms, several of these attainted persons came to me at different times and places to render their submissions to your majesty. They laid down their swords on the ground, expressed their sorrow and concern for having made use of them in opposition to your majesty; and promised a peaceful and dutiful obedience for the remaining part of their lives. They afterwards sent me their several letters of submission, copies of which I transmitted to your majesty’s principal secretary of state.

“I made use of the proper arguments to convince them of their past folly and rashness, and gave them hopes of obtaining pardon from your majesty’s gracious and merciful disposition; but, being a stranger both to their persons and character, I required they would procure gentlemen of unquestioned zeal to your majesty’s government, who would write to me in their favour, and in some measure be answerable for their future conduct--which was accordingly done.

“When the news came that your majesty was graciously pleased to accept their submission, and had given the proper orders for preparing their pardons, it was received with great joy and satisfaction throughout the Highlands, which occasioned the Jacobites at Edinburgh to say, (by way of reproach,) that I had not only defrauded the Highlanders of their arms, but had also debauched them from their loyalty and allegiance.”[758]

Barracks were built at Inverness, a fort erected at Fort-Augustus, and at various places over the country small towers or forts, each capable of containing a small number of soldiers.

Wade at the same time received letters of submission from a considerable number of chiefs and other troublesome Highlanders who were lying under the taint of high treason. These were expressed in terms of excessive humility and contrition, and were full of the strongest promises of future good behaviour. Wade seems, as Burton[759] remarks, “to have known so little of the people as to believe in their sincerity. Yet the contemporary correspondence of the Jacobites indicates, what subsequent events confirmed, that the Highlanders, with the inscrutable diplomatic cunning peculiar to their race, had overreached the military negotiator, and committed a quantity of effective arms to places of concealment.”[760]

One of the greatest services rendered by Wade to the government, and that for which he is chiefly known to posterity, was the construction of roads through the Highlands, in order to facilitate the march of troops, and open up a communication between the various garrisons. Previous to this the only substitutes for roads existing in the Highlands were the rude tracts, sometimes scarcely distinguishable from the surrounding waste, made by many generations of Highlanders and their cattle over mountains, through bogs, across rapid rivers, skirting giddy precipices, and perfectly bewildering and fraught with danger to any but natives. Captain Burt, one of the engineers engaged in Wade’s expedition, gives in his Letters many graphic descriptions of the difficulties and dangers attendant on travelling in the Highlands before the making of these new roads. “The old ways,” he says, “(for roads I shall not call them,) consisted chiefly of stony moors, bogs, rugged, rapid fords, declivities of hills, entangling woods, and giddy precipices.”[761] As a specimen of what the traveller might expect in his progress among the mountains, we give the following incident which occurred to Burt in one of his own journeys.[762] “There was nothing remarkable afterwards, till I came near the top of the hill; where there was a seeming plain, of about 150 yards, between me and the summit.

“No sooner was I upon the edge of it, but my guide desired me to alight; and then I perceived it was a bog, or peat-moss, as they call it.

“I had experience enough of these deceitful surfaces to order that the horses should be led in separate parts, lest, if one broke the turf, the other, treading in his steps, might sink.

“The horse I used to ride having little weight but his own, went on pretty successfully; only now and then breaking the surface a little; but the other, that carried my portmanteau, and being not quite so nimble, was much in danger, till near the further end, and there he sank. But it luckily happened to be in a part where his long legs went to the bottom, which is generally hard gravel, or rock; but he was in almost up to the back.

“By this time my own (for distinction) was quite free of the bog, and being frighted, stood very tamely by himself; which he would not have done at another time. In the mean while we were forced to wait at a distance, while the other was flouncing and throwing the dirt about him; for there was no means of coming near him to ease him of the heavy burden he had upon his loins, by which he was sometimes in danger to be turned upon his back, when he rose to break the bog before him. But, in about a quarter of an hour, he got out, bedaubed with the slough, shaking with fear, and his head and neck all over in a foam.

“As for myself, I was harassed on this slough, by winding about from place to place, to find such tufts as were within my stride or leap, in my heavy boots with high heels; which, by my spring, when the little hillocks were too far asunder, broke the turf, and then I threw myself down toward the next protuberance; but to my guide it seemed nothing; he was light of body, shod with flat brogues, wide in the soles, and accustomed to a particular step, suited to the occasion.

“This hill was about three quarters of a mile over, and had but a short descent on the further side, rough, indeed, but not remarkable in this country. I had now five computed miles to go before I came to my first asylum,--that is, five Scots miles, which, as in the north of England, are longer than yours as three is to two; and, if the difficulty of the way were to be taken into account, it might well be called fifteen. This, except about three quarters of a mile of heathy ground, pretty free from stones and rocks, consisted of stony moors, almost impracticable for a horse with his rider, and likewise of rocky way, where we were obliged to dismount, and sometimes climb, and otherwhile slide down. But what vexed me most of all, they called it a road; and yet I must confess it was preferable to a boggy way. The great difficulty was to wind about with the horses, and find such places as they could possibly be got over.”

Wade went vigorously to work in the construction of his roads, selecting from the regular troops and Highland companies 500 men, who were put on extra pay while at the work of road-making. Notwithstanding the many difficulties to be encountered, the inexperience of the workmen, and the inferior tools then at their command for such a purpose, the undertaking was satisfactorily accomplished in about ten years. A Scottish gentleman, who visited the Highlands in 1737, found the roads completed, and was surprised by the improvements which he found to have arisen from them, amongst which he gratefully notes the existence of civilized places for the entertainment of travellers. Formerly the only apologies for hostelries in the Highlands were wretched huts, often with only one apartment, swarming with lively insects, the atmosphere solid with smoke, and the fragile walls pierced here and there with holes large enough to admit a man’s head. Now, however, these were replaced by small but substantial inns built of stone, located at distances of about ten miles from each other along the new roads. The standard breadth of the roads was sixteen feet, although where possible they were made wider, and were carried on in straight lines, unless where this was impracticable.

Wade’s main road, commencing at Perth, went by Dunkeld and Blair-Athole to Dalnacardoch, where it was joined by another from Stirling by Crieff, through Glenalmond, to Aberfeldy, where it crossed the Tay, on what was then considered a magnificent bridge of five arches. From Dalnacardoch the road goes on to Dalwhinny, where it again branches into two, one branch proceeding towards the north-west through Garva Moor, and over the Corryarrick mountain to Fort-Augustus, the other striking almost due north to Ruthven in Badenoch, and thence by Delmagary to Inverness. Another road, along the shores of Lochs Ness and Lochy, joined the latter place with the strongholds of Fort-Augustus and Fort-William. One of the most difficult parts of the undertaking was the crossing of the lofty Corryarrick, the road having to be carried up the south side of the mountain by a series of about fifteen zigzags. The entire length of road constructed measured about 250 miles.

Although these roads were doubtless of considerable advantage in a military point of view, they appear to have been of very little use in developing the commercial resources of the country. “They were indeed truly military roads--laid down by a practical soldier, and destined for warlike purposes--with scarcely any view towards the ends for which free and peaceful citizens open up a system of internal transit.”[763] They appear to have been regarded with suspicion and dislike by all classes of the Highlanders. The chiefs, according to Burt,[764] complained that in time of peace they opened up their country to strangers, who would be likely to weaken the attachment of their vassals, and that in time of war they laid their fastnesses open to the enemy. The bridges, especially, they said would render the people effeminate, and less fit to ford the rivers in other places where there were no such means of crossing. The middle class again objected to them because, their horses being unshod,--and necessarily so on account of the places where they had to find pasture--the gravel would soon whet away their hoofs, and thus render them unserviceable. “The lowest class, who, many of them, at some times cannot compass a pair of shoes for themselves, allege that the gravel is intolerable to their naked feet; and the complaint has extended to their thin brogues.” For these reasons, allied no doubt to obstinacy and hatred of innovation and government interference, many of the Highlanders, despising the new roads, continued to walk in the wretched ways of their fathers.

Although the Chevalier still had many adherents in the south of Scotland, yet, as they were narrowly watched by the government, it was considered inexpedient and unsafe to correspond with them on the subject of the Spanish expedition. In the state of uncertainty in which they were thus kept, they wisely abstained from committing themselves, and when Marischal landed they were quite unprepared to render him any assistance, and unanimously resolved not to move in any shape till a rising should take place in England in favour of the Chevalier.

As many inconveniences had arisen from a want of co-operation among the friends of the Chevalier in the south of Scotland, Mr. Lockhart, in concert with the Bishop of Edinburgh, proposed to James that the Earls of Eglinton and Wigton, Lord Balmerino, the Bishop of Edinburgh, (the head of the nonjuring clergy,) Mr. Paterson of Preston-hall, and Captain Straiton, should be appointed commissioners or trustees for transacting his affairs in Scotland. This proposal on the whole was well received by the Chevalier, who, however, probably influenced by the jealous schemers who surrounded him, did not sanction the formation of a regularly organized authoritative commission. Writing to Lockhart in February, 1721, he says, “to appoint a certain number of persons for this effect by commission, is by no means, at this time, advisable, because of the inconveniences it might draw, sooner or later, upon the persons concern’d; since it could not but be expected that the present government would, at long run, be inform’d of such a paper which, by its nature, must be known to a great number of people; besides, that many who might be most fit to discharge such a trust might, with reason, not be fond of having their names exposed in such a matter; while, on the other hand, numbers might be disobliged for not having a share where it is not possible all can be concerned; but I think all these inconveniences may be obviated, the intent of the proposal comply’d with, and equal advantages drawn from it if the persons named below, or some of them, would meet and consult together for the intents above-mention’d. The persons you propose I entirely approve, to wit, the Earls of Eglinton and Wigton, Lord Balmerino, the Bishop of Edinburgh, Mr. Paterson and Captain Straiton, to whom I would have added Mr. Harry Maul, Sir John Erskine, Lord Dun, Pourie and Glengary.”[765]

Mr. Lockhart acquainted the different persons, therein named, of its contents, and all of them undertook to execute the trust reposed in them; but as they judged it advisable to conceal the powers they had received from their friends, they requested Mr. Lockhart, when their advice was wanted, to communicate with them individually, and having collected their sentiments, to give the necessary instructions with due caution.

In June 1721, a treaty of peace was signed at Madrid between Great Britain and Spain, and at the same time a defensive alliance was entered into between Great Britain, France, and Spain. As the two last were the only powers from whom the “Pretender” could expect any effectual aid in support of his pretensions, his long-wished-for restoration seemed now to be hopeless, and King George secure, as he imagined, from foreign invasion and domestic plots, made preparations for visiting his German dominions, and actually appointed a regency to act in his absence. But early in the year 1722, a discovery was made, on information received by the king from the regent of France, that the Jacobites were busy in a new conspiracy against the government. It appeared that the Chevalier de St. George, who was at Rome, was to sail from Porto-Longone for Spain, under the protection of three Spanish men-of-war, and there to wait the resolutions of his friends.[766] In following the clue given by the Duke of Orleans, it was ascertained that all the letters, in relation to the conspiracy, were carried to Mr. George Kelly, an Irish clergyman, who despatched them to their different destinations. The insurrection was to have taken place during the king’s absence in Hanover; but his majesty having deferred his journey in consequence of the discovery of the plot, the conspirators resolved to postpone their attempt till the dissolution of parliament.

The conspirators, finding they were watched by government, became extremely cautious, and the ministers, desirous of getting hold of the treasonable correspondence, ordered Kelly, the principal agent, to be arrested. He was accordingly apprehended, but not until he had, by keeping his assailants at bay with his sword, succeeded in burning the greater part of his papers. Although the papers which were seized from Kelly, and others which had been intercepted by government, bore evident marks of a conspiracy, yet it became very difficult, from the fictitious names used in them, to trace out the guilty persons. “We are in trace of several things very material,” observes Robert Walpole in a letter to his brother, in reference to this discovery, “but we fox-hunters know that we do not always find every fox that we cross upon.” Among other persons who were arrested on suspicion, were the Duke of Norfolk, Lords North and Grey, Strafford, and Orrery, Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Harry Goring.

To check the threatened insurrection, a camp was immediately formed in Hyde-park, and all military officers were ordered to repair to their respective regiments. Lieutenant-general Macartney was despatched to Ireland to bring over some troops from that kingdom, and the states of Holland were requested to have their auxiliary troops in readiness for embarkation. These preparations, and the many rumours which prevailed respecting the extent of the conspiracy, affected public credit, and a run took place upon the bank, but the panic soon subsided, and public confidence was restored.

Of all the persons seized of any note, the Bishop of Rochester was the only individual against whom a charge could plausibly be maintained. He was equally noted for his high literary attainments and a warm attachment to the exploded dogma of passive obedience. He had written Sacheverel’s defence con amore, and he had carried his partisanship for the house of Stuart so far, that, according to Lord Harcourt, he offered, upon the death of Queen Anne, to proclaim the Chevalier de St. George at Charing-cross in his lawn sleeves, and when his proposal was declined, he is said to have exclaimed, “Never was a better cause lost for want of spirit.”

After an examination before the privy-council, the bishop was committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason. The committal of the bishop was highly resented by the clergy, who considered it an outrage upon the Church of England and the Episcopal order, and they gave full vent to their feelings by offering up public prayers for his health in all the churches and chapels of London and Westminster.

The new parliament met in the month of October, and the first thing the king did was to announce, by a speech from the throne, the nature of the conspiracy. A bill for suspending the habeas corpus act for a whole year was immediately brought into the house of lords, but as the period of suspension was double of any suspension hitherto known, it met with some opposition. In the commons, however, the opposition was so violent, that Mr. Robert Walpole found himself necessitated to invent a story of a design to seize the bank and the exchequer, and to proclaim the “Pretender” on the royal exchange. This ridiculous tale, uttered with the greatest confidence, alarmed the commons, and they passed the bill.

As the Catholics were supposed to be chiefly concerned in the conspiracy, a bill was introduced into the house of commons for raising £100,000 upon the real and personal estates of all “papists,” or persons educated in the Catholic religion, towards defraying the expenses incurred by the late rebellion and disorders. This bill being justly regarded as a species of persecution, was warmly opposed by some members, but it was sent up to the house of lords along with another bill, obliging all persons, being “papists,” in Scotland, and all persons in Great Britain refusing or neglecting to take the oaths appointed for the king’s person and government, to register their names and real estates. As might have been anticipated, both bills were passed without amendments, and received the royal assent.

Atterbury was brought up for trial on the 9th of May, 1723, and sentenced to banishment under pain of death if he should ever return. He quitted the kingdom in June, and after a short stay at Brussels, finally settled in Paris. It is said that when crossing over to Calais he met Lord Bolingbroke, then on his way to England, whom he thus addressed with a smile, “My lord, you and I are exchanged!”

The return of this extraordinary person to England gave rise to much speculation, and many conjectures were hazarded as to the reasons which had induced Walpole to promote the return of a man whose impeachment he had himself moved; but the mystery has been cleared up by papers which have since met the public eye. From these it appears that several years before his appearance in England, Bolingbroke had completely broken with the Stuarts in consequence of his deprivation of the seals. It seems that the Earl of Mar and the duke had a violent difference with regard to the conduct of the expedition in 1715; and Mar, to revenge himself upon his rival, prevailed upon the Duke of Ormond to report in presence of the Chevalier de St. George certain abusive expressions which Bolingbroke, when in a state of intoxication, had uttered in disparagement of his master. The Chevalier, highly exasperated at Bolingbroke, sent for the seals, at which his lordship was so incensed that when the queen mother attempted to reconcile them, Bolingbroke said that he wished his arm might rot off if ever he drew his sword or employed his pen in the service of the Stuarts. He, thereupon, proffered his services to King George, and offered to do any thing but betray the secrets of his friends. This offer was followed by the celebrated letter to Sir William Wyndham, in which he dissuaded the Tories from placing any reliance on the Pretender, and exposed the exiled family to ridicule and contempt; but his overtures were rejected by the government, and when an act of indemnity was hinted at, Walpole expressed in the strongest terms his indignation at the very idea of such a measure. Bolingbroke, however, persevered; and Walpole having been softened by the entreaties of the Duchess of Kendal, one of the mistresses of the king, to whom Bolingbroke made a present of £11,000, he procured a pardon. In April, 1725, a bill was brought into the house of lords for restoring to Bolingbroke his family estate, which, after some opposition, passed both houses.

Upon the passing of the disarming act, some of the Highland chiefs held a meeting at Paris, at which they resolved to apply to the Chevalier de St. George, to know whether, in his opinion, they should submit to the new law. James returned an answer under cover to the restless Atterbury, in which he advised the chiefs rather to submit than run the risk of ruining their followers; but the bishop thought proper to keep up the letter, and having sent off an express to Rome, James was induced to write another letter altogether different from the first, requiring them to resist, by force, the intended attempt of the government to disarm the Highlanders. Meanwhile, the chiefs were apprised of James’s original sentiments by a correspondent at Rome, and of the letter which had been sent to Atterbury’s care. Unaware of this circumstance, the bishop, on receipt of the second letter, convened the chiefs, and communicated to them its contents; but these being so completely at variance with the information of their correspondent, they insisted upon seeing the first letter, but Atterbury refused in the most positive terms to exhibit it, and insisted upon compliance with the injunctions contained in the second letter. They, thereupon, desired to know what support they were to receive in men, money, and arms; but the bishop told them, that unless they resolved to go to Scotland and take up arms, he would give them no further information than this, that they would be assisted by a certain foreign power, whose name he was not at liberty to mention.[767] The chiefs, dissatisfied with the conduct of the bishop, refused to pledge themselves as required, and retired.

The great preparations made to carry the disarming act into effect, indicated a dread, on the part of the government, that the Highlanders would not deliver up their arms without a struggle. The Chevalier de St. George, deceived as it would appear by the representations of Atterbury, resolved to support the Highlanders, to the effect at least of enabling them to obtain favourable terms from the government. “I find,” says James, in a letter[768] to Mr. Lockhart, “they (the Highlanders) are of opinion that nothing less than utter ruin is designed for them, and those on this side are persuaded that the English government will meet with the greatest difficulties in executing their projects, and that the clans will unanimously agree to oppose them to the last, and if thereby circumstances will allow them to do nothing for my service, that they will still, by a capitulation, be able to procure better terms to themselves than they can propose by leaving themselves at the government’s mercy, and delivering up their arms; and, if so, I am resolved, and I think I owe it to them, to do all in my power to support them, and the distance I am at has obliged me to give my orders accordingly; and nothing in my power shall be wanting to enable them to keep their ground against the government, at least till they can procure good terms for themselves, though, at the same time, I must inform you that the opposition they propose to make may prove of the greatest advantage to my interest, considering the hopes I have of foreign assistance, which, perhaps, you may hear of even before you receive this letter. I should not have ventured to call the Highlanders together, without a certainty of their being supported, but the great probability there is of it makes me not at all sorry they should take the resolution of defending themselves, and not delivering up their arms, which would have rendered them, in a great measure, useless to their countrie; and as the designs of the government are represented to me, the laying down of their arms is only to be the forerunner of other methods, that are to be taken to extirpate their race for ever. They are certainly in the right to make the government buy their slavery at as dear a rate as they can. The distance I am at (Rome), and the imperfect accounts I have had of this law, (for disarming the Highlanders,) have been very unlucky; however, the orders I have sent to France I hope will not come too late, and I can answer for the diligence in the execution of them, which is all I can say to you at present from hence.”

A few days after the receipt of this letter, Mr. Lockhart went to Edinburgh, where he found the Duke of Hamilton and the Earl of Kincardine, two of James’s “trustees,” to whom he showed the letter, and requested their opinion as to the proposed attempt to resist the contemplated measures of the government. These noblemen considered that the attempt would be rash as well as fatal,--that the idea of obtaining better terms by a temporary resistance, was vain, unless the Highlanders succeed in defeating the government; but that if they failed, the utter extirpation of their race would certainly follow;--that the Highlanders being a body of men of such high value, as well in relation to the interests of the exiled family, as to those of the kingdom, it was by no means reasonable to hazard them upon an uncertainty, for though they should give up their arms, it would be easier to provide them afterwards with others, when their services were required, than to repair the loss of their persons;--that with regard to foreign assistance, as such undertakings were liable to many accidents, and as the best formed designs often turned out abortive, it was by no means advisable to hazard the Highlanders, who were hated by the government, upon the expectancy of such aid; and that if such foreign powers as could, and were willing to assist, would inquire into the true state of affairs in Scotland, they would find that wherever a feasible attempt should be made by them to restore the exiled family, the Scots would be ready to declare themselves.

This opinion was communicated by Mr. Lockhart to James,[769] and he informed him at the same time that a person of distinction, who had been sent by the Highland Jacobite chiefs to obtain intelligence and advice, had arrived in Edinburgh incognito, and had informed Kincardine that the Highlanders had resolved to make a show of submission, by giving up part of their arms under the pretence of delivering up the whole, while their intention was to retain and conceal the best and greater part of them. Kincardine, without giving any opinion on the subject, recommended to the gentleman in question, as foreign assistance might be speedily expected, the expediency of putting off the delivery as long as possible, and that as four or five weeks would be consumed before the forms required by the act could be complied with, they should retain their arms till the expiration of that period.

The advice given by Hamilton and Eglinton coincided with the view which James, upon being made acquainted with the resolution of the chief at Paris, had adopted; and in a letter written to Mr. Lockhart by Colonel Hay, whom he had appointed his secretary of state, and raised to the peerage under the title of Earl of Inverness, he signified his approbation of the advice given by his friends, which he said was entirely agreeable to his own sentiments from the beginning. He stated, moreover, that the orders he had given to assist the Highlanders were only conditional, and in the event only that they themselves should have resolved to oppose the government, and that if the Bishop of Rochester had pressed any of the chiefs at Paris to go to arms, it was more with a view to discover a correspondence which he suspected one of them had carried on independent of the others, than with any real design to induce them to order their followers to make opposition, as that was to have depended as much upon the chiefs at home as upon those abroad.[770]

When James ascertained that the Highlanders were resolved to submit, he withdrew the orders he had given for assisting them, and despatched a trusty messenger to the Highlands to acquaint them of his readiness to support them when a proper occasion offered, and to collect information as to the state of the country. Allan Cameron, the messenger in question, arrived in the Highlands in August, and visited the heads of the clans in the interest of James, to whom he delivered the message with which he had been intrusted. It is said that General Wade was aware of his arrival, but it does not appear that any measures were taken to apprehend him. After four months’ residence in the Highlands, Cameron ventured on a journey to Edinburgh, where, in the beginning of the year 1726, he held frequent conferences with the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Kincardine, and Lockhart of Carnwath, on the subject of his mission and the state of affairs, but nothing of importance was resolved upon at these meetings, and Cameron departed for the continent early in February.

About this time an event occurred, which, while it tended to create factions amongst the adherents of James, made many of them keep either altogether aloof from any direct management in his affairs, or abstain from entering into any plan of co-operation for his restoration. This was the dismissal of Mar from his post as minister of James at Paris, on the suspicion that he had betrayed the secrets of his master to the British government. From his situation he was intimately acquainted with all the Chevalier’s affairs, and knew the name of every person of any note in the three kingdoms who had taken an interest in the restoration of the exiled family, with many of whom he himself had corresponded. The removal, therefore, of such a person from the Jacobite councils could not fail to excite uneasy apprehensions in the minds of those who had intrusted him with their confidence, and to make them extremely cautious in again committing themselves by any act, which, if discovered, would place them in jeopardy. To this feeling may be ascribed the great reserve which for several years subsequent to this occurrence the Jacobites observed in their foreign relations, and the want of unity of action which formed so remarkable a characteristic in their subsequent proceedings. As this affair forms an important link in the historical chain which connects the events of the year 1715 with those of 1745, a short account of it is necessary.

During a temporary confinement at Geneva, Mar had obtained a sum of money, whether solicited or not does not appear, from the Earl of Stair, the British ambassador at Paris, without the knowledge of James. In a narrative afterwards drawn up by Mar in his own justification, he states, that being in great straits he received this money as a loan from the earl, who was his old friend; but Colonel Hay, in a letter to Mr. Lockhart of the 8th of September, 1725, states that Mar had no occasion for such a loan, as “the king” remitted him considerable supplies to Geneva, where his expense would be trifling, as he was entertained by the town.[771] This matter might have been overlooked, but he, soon thereafter, accepted a pension of £2,000 from the government, over and above the sum of £1,500 which his countess and daughter actually then received by way of jointure and aliment out of the produce of his estate. Mar states that before he agreed to receive this pension he took the advice of General Dillon, a zealous supporter of the interests of the Stuarts, whom he had been accustomed to consult in all matters of importance, and that the general advised him to accept of the offer, as by refusing it the government might stop his lady’s jointure, and that his estate would be sold and lost for ever to his family; and that as he had been released from his confinement at Geneva on condition that he should not act or take any part against the government of Great Britain during his abode in France, and should return when required to Geneva, that government might insist on his being sent back to Geneva, whence he had been allowed to go to the waters of Bourbon for his health. Mar communicated the proposal also to James, who at once sanctioned his acceptance of the pension, and assured him that his sentiments in regard to him remained unaltered. Notwithstanding this assurance, however, there is every reason to believe that James, not without good grounds, had begun to suspect his fidelity; and as he could clearly perceive that Mar had already taken his resolution to close with the government, he might consider it his wisest policy to conceal his displeasure, and not to break at once with a man who had so much in his power to injure him and his friends.

Having thus succeeded in their advances to Mar, the government, on receiving information of the conspiracy in which Atterbury was concerned, sent a gentleman to Paris in May, 1722, with a letter to Mar from Lord Carteret. This gentleman received instructions to sound Mar as to his knowledge of the intended plot. On arriving at Paris, the messenger, (who, it is understood, was Colonel Churchill,) sent a letter to Mar requesting a private interview. Dillon was present when this letter was delivered, and on reading it, Mar says he showed it to Dillon, upon which it was arranged that Mar should instantly call upon the person who had written the letter, and that Dillon should remain in the house till Mar’s return, when the object and nature of the interview would be communicated to him. On Mar’s return he and Dillon consulted together, and they both thought that the incident was a lucky one, as it afforded Mar an opportunity of doing James’s affairs a good service by leading the government off the true scent, and thereby prevent further inquiries. They thereupon drew up a letter with that view, to be sent by Mar in answer to Carteret’s communication, which being approved of by another person in the confidence of the Chevalier, was sent by Mar to the bearer of Carteret’s letter. Mar immediately sent an account of the affair to James and the Duke of Ormond, and shortly received a letter from the former, dated 8th June, 1722, in which he expressed himself entirely satisfied with the course pursued by Mar on the occasion. To justify himself still farther, Mar states, that among the vouchers of his exculpation, there was the copy of another letter from James, written by him to one of his agents at Paris, wherein he justifies and approves of Mar’s conduct, and expresses his regret for the aspersions which had been cast upon the earl about the plot.

Though James thus continued to profess his usual confidence in Mar’s integrity, he had, ever since he became acquainted with his pecuniary obligations to Stair, resolved to withdraw that confidence from him by degrees, and in such a manner as might not be prejudicial to the adherents of the exiled family in Great Britain. But Mar, who, as James observed,[772] had put himself under such engagements that he could not any longer serve him in a public manner, and who, from the nature of these engagements, should have declined all knowledge of James’s secrets, continued to meddle with his affairs as formerly, by taking the direction and management of those intrusted to Dillon, the confidential agent of James and the English Jacobites. In this way was Mar enabled for several years, when distrusted by James, to compel him in a manner to keep on good terms with him. From the natural timidity of James, and his anxiety to avoid an open breach with Mar, it is difficult to say how long matters might have remained in this awkward state, had not the attention of the Scottish Jacobites been drawn to Mar’s pension by the report of the parliamentary committee concerning the conspiracy; and the representations of the Bishop of Rochester respecting Mar’s conduct, shortly after his arrival in France, brought matters to a crisis. In the letter last referred to, James thus intimates to Mr. Lockhart the final dismissal of Mar. “I have been always unwilling to mention Mar, but I find myself indispensably engaged at present to let my Scots friends know that I have withdrawn my confidence entirely from him, as I shall be obliged to do from all who may be any ways influenced by him. This conduct is founded on the strongest and most urgent necessity in which my regard to my faithful subjects and servants have the greatest share. What is here said of Mar is not with a view of its being made public, there being no occasion for that, since, many years ago, he put himself under such engagements that he could not serve me in a public manner, neither has he been publicly employ’d by me.”

The charges made by Atterbury against Mar were, 1mo, That about the time he, the bishop, was sent prisoner to the Tower, Mar had written him a letter which was the cause of his banishment. 2do, That he had betrayed the secrets of the Chevalier de St. George to the British government, and had entered into a correspondence with them. 3tio, That he had advised the Chevalier to resign his right to the crown for a pension; and lastly, that without consulting James, he drew up and presented a memorial to the Duke of Orleans, containing a plan, which, under the pretence of restoring him, would, if acted upon, have rendered his restoration for ever impracticable.

To understand the nature of the last charge against Mar, that he laid the scheme before the Regent of France with a design to ruin James, Mar refers to the plan itself for his justification. The expulsion of the Stuarts from the British throne had been always looked upon by the French court as an event which, by dividing the nation into rival factions, would enable France to humble and weaken an ancient and formidable rival. To encourage the Jacobites and Tories in their opposition to the new dynasty, and to embroil the nation in a civil war, the French ministry repeatedly promised to aid them in any attempts they might make to overturn the government; but true to the line of policy they had laid down for themselves, of allowing the opposing parties in the state to weaken each other’s strength in their contest for ascendency, they sided with the weaker party only to prolong the struggle, in the hope that, by thus keeping alive the spirit of discontent, France might be enabled to extend her power, and carry into effect her designs of conquest.

To remove the objections which such a policy opposed to the restoration of James, Mar proposed that, upon such event taking place, Scotland and Ireland should be restored to their ancient state of independence, and protected in their trade, and thereby enabled, as they would be inclined, to support “the king in such a manner as he’d be under no necessity of entering into measures contrary to his inclinations to gratify the caprices, and allay the factions of his English subjects.”[773] He also proposed that a certain number of French forces should remain in Britain after James was restored, till he had modelled and established the government on this footing, and that 5,000 Scots and as many Irish troops should be lent to the French king, to be kept by him in pay for a certain number of years. Mar was fully aware that such a scheme would be highly unpopular in England, on which account he says, that although he had long ago formed it, he took no steps therein during the life of Cardinal Dubois, whom he knew to be particularly attached to the existing government of Britain; but that obstacle being removed, he laid it before the regent of France, who, he says, he had reason to believe, received it with approbation, as he sealed it up, and addressed it to the Duke of Bourbon, and recommended it to his care. To excuse himself for laying the scheme before the Duke of Orleans without the Chevalier’s knowledge, he states that he did so to prevent James, in case of the scheme being discovered, being blamed by those who, for particular reasons, would be displeased at it; but that immediately after the delivery he acquainted James thereof, and sent him a copy of it, and at the same time represented to him the absolute necessity of keeping it secret. Notwithstanding this injunction, Colonel Hay sent a copy of it to the Bishop of Rochester, and Mar attributes the bad feeling which Atterbury afterwards displayed towards him, to the proposal he made for restoring Scotland to her independence.

The memorial was presented by Mar to the Duke of Orleans in September, 1723; but so little secrecy was observed, that, in the month of January following, a statement appeared in the public newspapers, that a certain peer, then in Paris, had laid a plan before the regent for restoring the exiled family. Though the British government must have been aware, or at all events must have suspected, after such a notification, that Mar was the author of the scheme, his pension was still continued, and they even favoured him still more by allowing the family estate, which was exposed to sale, to fall again into the hands of the family on favourable terms.

On reviewing the whole circumstances of Mar’s conduct, evolved by Atterbury’s charges, it must be admitted that his justification is far from being complete. From the position in which he placed himself as a debtor of Stair, and a pensioner of the British government, he could no longer be trusted with safety by his Jacobite colleagues, and as he had come under an obligation, as a condition of his pension, not to act in behalf of the Stuarts, he was bound in honour to have abstained from all farther interference in their affairs; but for reasons only known to himself, he continued to act as if no alteration of his relations with the exiled family had taken place since he was first intrusted by them. Selfish in his disposition, and regardless whether the Chevalier de St. George, or the Elector of Hanover wore the crown, provided his ambition was gratified, it is probable, that, without harbouring any intention to betray, he wished to preserve an appearance of promoting the interests of the Stuarts, in order that the compact which he had entered into with the British government, might, in the event of a restoration of that family, form no bar to his advancement under a new order of things; but whatever were his views or motives, his design, if he entertained any such as has been supposed, was frustrated by his disgrace in 1725.

The breach with Mar was looked upon by some of the Jacobites as a rash act on the part of the Chevalier, and they considered that he had been sacrificed to gratify Colonel Hay, between whom and Mar an irreconcilable difference had for some time existed. This opinion had a pernicious influence upon the councils of the Chevalier, and to the rupture with Mar may be attributed the denouement of an unhappy difference between James and his consort, which, for a time, fixed the attention of all the European courts.

In the year 1720 the Chevalier de St. George had espoused the Princess Clementina, granddaughter of John Sobieski, king of Poland, who had born him two sons, viz. Charles Edward, celebrated for his exploits in 1745, and Henry Benedict, afterwards known as Cardinal York.[774] Prince Charles was placed under the tuition of one Mrs. Sheldon, who, it is said, obtained a complete ascendency over the Princess Clementina. As alleged by the partisans of Colonel Hay, she was entirely devoted to Mar, and served him as a spy in the family. To counteract the rising influence of Hay, she is represented to have incited the princess against him to such a degree, as to render the whole household a scene of constant disturbance. But whatever may have been the conduct of Mrs. Sheldon, there is good reason for believing that the cause of irritation proceeded entirely from the behaviour of Hay and his lady, who appear not to have treated the princess with the respect due to her rank, and who, from the sway they appear to have had over the mind of her husband, indulged in liberties which did not become them.

To relieve herself from the indignities which she alleged she suffered, the princess resolved to retire into a convent, of which resolution the Chevalier first received notice from a confidante of the princess, who also informed him that nothing but the dismissal of Colonel Hay from his service would induce her to alter her resolution. The princess afterwards personally notified her determination to her husband, who remonstrated with her upon the impropriety of a step which would prejudice them in the eyes of their friends, and make their enemies triumph; but she remained inflexible.

Finding the Chevalier fully determined to retain Colonel Hay in his service, the princess made preparations for carrying her resolution into effect; and, accordingly, on the morning of Thursday, the 15th of November, 1725, under the pretence of taking an airing in her carriage, she drove off to the convent of St. Cecilia, at Rome, into which she retired, without taking any notice of a long letter, by way of remonstrance, which her husband had written her on the 11th.[775]

The Chevalier was anxious that his friends should form a favourable opinion of the course he had adopted in resisting the demand of his wife; and, accordingly, on the morning after her departure, he assembled all his household, and explained to them fully the different steps he had taken to prevent the extraordinary proceeding of the princess. He also entered into a justification of his own conduct, and concluded by assuring them that it should be his principal care to educate his two sons in such a manner as might contribute one day to the happiness of the people he expected to govern. With the same view, he immediately despatched copies of the memoir, and of the two letters he had written to the princess, to Mr. Lockhart, to be shown to his friends in Scotland; but as the memoir and letters had been made public, copies of them were publicly hawked through the streets of London and Edinburgh, with a scurrilous introduction, several weeks before Mr. Lockhart received his communication. This was done apparently with the approbation of the government, as the magistrates of Edinburgh compelled the porters of the city to cry the papers through the streets.[776] At first, the Jacobites imagined that these documents were forgeries got up by the government, to make the Jacobite cause contemptible in the eyes of the people; but they were soon undeceived, and great was their consternation when they found that the papers in question were genuine.

The court of Rome seemed to approve of the Chevalier’s conduct in refusing to remove Hay; but when it was understood that the removal of Murray, the young princes’ governor, was considered by their mother even of more importance than the dismissal of Hay, the pope sent a message to James, intimating that if Murray were removed and Mrs. Sheldon restored to favour, a reconciliation might be effected with the princess,--that, however, he would not insist on Mrs. Sheldon being taken back, but that he could not approve of nor consent to Murray being about the prince. The Chevalier did not relish such interference, and returned for answer, that he had no occasion for the pope’s advice, and that he did not consider his consent necessary in an affair which related to the private concerns of his family. As James was the pensioner of his holiness, the answer may be considered rather uncourteous, but the Chevalier looked upon such meddling as an insult which his dignity could not brook. The pope, however, renewed his application to bring about a reconciliation, and with such earnestness, that James became so uneasy as to express a wish to retire from his dominions.[777] By the efforts, however, it is believed, of the princess’s friends, aided by the repeated remonstrances of a respectable portion of the Jacobites, the Chevalier at length reluctantly dismissed Hay from his service. According to Mr. Lockhart, Hay and his wife had obtained such a complete ascendency over the Chevalier, that they had the direction of all matters, whether public or domestic, and taking advantage of the confidence which he reposed in them, they instilled into his mind unfavourable impressions of his best friends. By insinuating that the princess, and every person that did not truckle to them, were factious, and that their complaints against the colonel and his lady proceeded from a feeling of disrespect to himself, his temper became by degrees soured towards his wife. To escape from the insolence of these favourites, the princess, as has been seen, embraced, for a time, a conventual life; and while some of the Chevalier’s adherents, who had lost their estates in his service, left his court in disgust, others were ordered away. It was currently reported at the time that Mrs. Hay was the king’s mistress, and that jealousy on the part of the Princess Clementina was the cause of the rupture; the princess herself in her letters distinctly speaks of Mrs. Hay as “the king’s mistress,” although persons who had ample opportunities of observation could observe no impropriety. The pertinacity with which James clung to his unworthy favourites tended greatly to injure his affairs.[778]

The death of George I., which took place on Sunday, the 11th June, 1727, while on his journey to Hanover, raised anew the hopes of the Chevalier. He was at Bologna when this intelligence reached him, and so anxious was he to be nearer England to watch the progress of events, and to be ready to avail himself of the services of his friends in Britain to effect his restoration, that he left Bologna privately for Lorraine, the day after the news was brought him, although the princess, who had just left the convent, by the advice of her friends, was at the time on her way from Rome to Bologna to join him. The journey of the princess being publicly known, the Chevalier availed himself of the circumstance to conceal his real design, by giving out that he had left Bologna to meet her. On arriving at Nancy, the Chevalier despatched couriers to Vienna, Madrid, and Paris, announcing the object of his journey, and at the same time sent a messenger with a letter to Mr. Lockhart, who, in consequence of a warrant being issued by the British government for his apprehension, had a few months before taken refuge on the continent, and was then residing at Liege. Although he expected no assistance from any foreign power, still, he says, “the present conjuncture appears so favourable in all its circumstances that had I only consulted my own inclinations, I should certainly out of hand have crossed the seas, and seen at any rate what I could do for my own and my subjects’ delivery; but as on this occasion I act for them as well as myself, and cannot hope without their concurrence to succeed in what I may undertake in our mutual behalf, I find myself under the necessity of making no further steps without their advice.

“’Tis true the disadvantages I lie under are great and many; I have but a small stock of money, scarce sufficient to transport what few arms I have and what officers I may get to follow me on this occasion. I’m sensible that it is next to impossible that a concert should be established amongst my friends at home, such as would be sufficient for a rising in arms in my favour before my arrival, and by what is said before, the little hopes of foreign assistance will be sufficiently seen; but with all this, many arguments may be brought to authorise an undertaking which at first sight might appear rash.... All put together it must be concluded that if the present conjuncture is slip’d, it cannot be expected that we ever can have so favorable a one for acting by ourselves, and that we run the risk of allowing the general affairs of Europe to be less favorable to us than they are at present; so that whatever is not absolutely desperate ought certainly to be undertaken, and the sooner the better.

“I desire therefore you may think seriously on this matter, and let me have your opinion as soon as possible, and if my going into England be not adviseable, whether my going to the Highlands of Scotland might not be found proper.” To this letter is appended the following postscript in James’s own handwriting. “The contents of this will show you the confidence I have in you, and I expect you will let me know by the bearer, (Allan Cameron,) your advice and opinion, particularly on this important occasion.”[779]

From Cameron Mr. Lockhart was surprised to learn that the Chevalier, notwithstanding his certainty that he could look for no foreign aid, and that his friends, both in Scotland and England, had made no preparations to receive him, was not only inclined, but seemed even resolved, to repair to the Highlands of Scotland, and there raise the standard of insurrection, and that Colonel Hay, whom he had so lately discarded, was one of his counsellors on the occasion. As Cameron, who had visited the Highlands some time before, and was well aware of the almost insuperable difficulties which opposed themselves to the contemplated step, seemed to approve of the Chevalier’s design, Mr. Lockhart expressed his wonder that one who knew the state of the Highlands so well, and the determination generally of the Highlanders not to take the field again till they saw England actually engaged, could advise his master to risk his person, and expose the country and his friends to certain destruction. He observed, that there were indeed some persons who would venture their all in any attempt headed by the Chevalier in person, but as matters then stood, the number of such persons would be few, and that the great majority of those that might be expected to join him would consist of idle persons, actuated solely by the hopes of plunder, who would abandon him eventually to the mercy of the government troops that would be poured into the Highlands, and that, under the pretence of punishing the few who had taken up arms, they would ravage the country and cut off the inhabitants, for doing which the government only wanted such a handle.

In accordance with these sentiments, Mr. Lockhart represented in his answer to the Chevalier’s letter, that the design he contemplated was one of the greatest importance, and though it was very proper for him to put himself in a condition to avail himself of any favourable circumstances that might occur, yet that appearances did not warrant such expectations,--that the people of England seemed to have forgot all the grievances under which they had laboured during the late reign, in hope of a better order of things, and that until they found themselves disappointed, he could expect nothing from them,--that with regard to such of the people of Scotland as were favourably disposed, they could not possibly do any thing without being previously provided with many material things they stood in need of, and that before these could be supplied, many difficulties had to be surmounted and much time would be lost, during which preparations would be made on all hands to crush them,--that although it would be of advantage to strike a blow before the government had time to strengthen itself at home and abroad, yet the attempt was not advisable without necessary precautions and provisions to insure its success, as without these such an attempt would be desperate, and might ruin the cause for ever,--that no man living would be happier than he (Mr. Lockhart) to see the dawning of a fair day, but when every point of the compass was black and cloudy, he could not but dread very bad weather, and such as could give no encouragement to a traveller to proceed on his voyage, and might prove the utter ruin of himself and attendants.[780] This judicious advice was not thrown away upon the Chevalier, who at once laid aside his design of going to Scotland, and retired to Avignon, where he proposed to reside under the protection of the pope; but his stay at Avignon was short, being obliged to leave that place in consequence, it is believed, of the representations of the French government to the court of Rome. He returned to Italy.

FOOTNOTES:

[745] Annals of the 2d year of George I., p. 248.

[746] State Trials, vol. xv.

[747] “It is painful to see on the lists, the many Highland names followed with the word ‘labourer,’ indicating that they belonged to the humblest class. Too implicit obedience had been the weakness, instead of rebellion being the crime, of these men; and in many instances they had been forced into the service for which they were punished, as absolutely as the French conscript or the British pressed seaman.”--Burton’s Scotland (1689-1747), vol. ii. p. 211.

[748] Mem. de Berwick, tome ii.

[749] Mr. Stanhope to Mr. Doddington, March 13th, 1716.

[750] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 7.

[751] Lockhart, vol. ii. p. 19.

[752] See for the information in these paragraphs the appendices to Jamieson’s edition of Burt’s Letters.

[753] Burt’s Letters, vol. ii. pp. 277, 278.

[754] Lovat himself commanded one of these companies, and appears to have felt pretty sore at the loss of it.

[755] Burt’s Letters, vol. ii. pp. 273, 274.

[756] Idem, pp. 278, 279.

[757] “The companies were six in number: three distinguished by the name of large companies, consisted of 100 men each; and three smaller companies, of 70 men each. The former were commanded by captains, and the latter by captain-lieutenants, each commanding officer being, as the name implies, independent of the others. To each company, great and small, was attached the same number of subalterns, viz. two lieutenants and one ensign.”

[758] Burt’s Letters, vol. ii. pp. 303-314.

[759] Scotland (1689-1747), vol. ii. p. 247.

[760] Among Wade’s correspondents were Robert Stewart of Appin, Alexander Macdonald of Glencoe, Grant, Laird of Glenmorison, the Laird of Mackinnon, Robert Campbell, alias Macgregor (the notorious Rob Roy), Lord Ogilvy. “No doubt,” writes Lockhart to the Pretender, “the government will be at pains to magnify and spread abroad their success in disarming the Highlanders, but depend on’t, it’s all a jest; for few or no swords or pistols are or will be surrendered, and only such of their fire-arms as are of no value.”--Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 195.

[761] Letter xxvi., p. 191, vol. ii.

[762] Letter xvi.

[763] Burton (1689-1747), vol. ii. p. 256.

[764] Letters, vol. ii. p. 220.

[765] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 29.

[766] Robert Walpole to his brother Horace, May 1722. Coxe.

[767] Abstract of a letter from one of the Highland chiefs at Paris to Mr. John Macleod, advocate, dated the end of June, 1725. Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 192-3.

[768] Dated 23d June, 1725. Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 169.

[769] Letter from Mr. Lockhart to the Chevalier, 25th July, 1725. Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 186.

[770] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 218.

[771] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 177-206.

[772] Letter to Mr. Lockhart, 31st August, 1724. Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 131.

[773] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 183.

[774] The Prince was born on 31st December 1720,--the Cardinal on 6th March, 1725.

[775] This letter, and a previous one, dated 9th November, are published among the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 246.

[776] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 242-261, 360.

[777] Letters from the Chevalier to Mr. Lockhart, 3d Dec. 1725, and 19th Jan. 1726, vol. ii. pp. 253-256.

[778] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 339.

[779] Idem, p. 356.

[780] Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 360.

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