General History of the Highlands
1716 - 1737

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 Camwath, 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; hut 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.

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, ho observed, that "it was the best thing a man in his condition could have done."

On the morning of the 24th of February the Earl of Derwentwater and Viscount Kenmure were beheaded on Tower-bill. 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. Merizies 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.

["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.]

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 Drinnmond, 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 Cholmondery 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 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 Naime, 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 Rob, 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.

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.

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 daring 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 boils 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. 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 Ormoid’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 Wiglitman 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.

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 1724, 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. "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."

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."

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 Breadalbin 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."

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 wins, 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."

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 cornmanding his majesty’s forces in those parts ;"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 Killyhuirnen, 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 summonses 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, Braidalhin, 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, dirks, 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 gaily, 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 Kilyhuimen, 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 clemancy.

"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."

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’ 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."

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." 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. "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 he 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, wont by Dunkeld and Blair-Athole to Palnacardoch, 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 northwest 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. They appear to have been regarded with suspicion and dislike by all classes of the Highlanders. The chiefs, according to Burt, complained that in time of peaize 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 Prestonhall, 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."

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. 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 cautions, 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. Athough 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 went 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 mining 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 prised 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. 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 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, 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 Kicincardine 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.

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. 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, 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, lmo, 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." 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 Pubois, 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 denouncement 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. 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.

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. 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.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.

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. Athough 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."

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. 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.