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was reduced; touching upon the interests of its principal families; proposing some expedients for reconciling them, and laying open the dangers to which they exposed themselves, and the utter impossibility of their being delivered while these

ions; of the number of men they will give, and if they shall be clothed, armed and equipped. In short, to enter into such an exact detail, that nothing will remain to be done, but to take a final resolution concerning the project which Mr. Hooke shall form, in order to secure its success.

"It is supposed it may be demanded further, that the person who shall command the army, should explain himself, as to the use he intends to make of it. There will be several other things to be added, which the experience and good sense of Mr. Hooke will suggest to him."

From the same work, we extract, The Declaration of War, and the Particular Instructions which Hooke carried along with him from the Chevalier de St. George. They were as follows.

"James the VIII. by the grace of God, King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith: to all our loving subjects of our ancient Kingdom of Scotland, greeting.

"Whereas, we are firmly resolved to repair to our said Kingdom, and there to assert and vindicate our undoubted right; and to deliver all our good subjects from the oppression and tyranny they groan under, for above these eighteen years past, and to protect and maintain them in their independency, and all their just privileges, which they so happily enjoyed under our royal ancestors, as soon as they have declared for us. We do, therefore, hereby impower, authorize, and require, all our loving subjects to declare for us, and to assemble together in arms, and to join the person whom we have appointed to be captain-general of our forces, when required by him, and to obey him and all others under his command, in every thing relating to our service; to seize the government, and all forts and castles, and to use all acts of hostility against those who shall traitorously presume to oppose our authority, and to lay hold, and make use of what is necessary for the arming, mounting, and subsisting our forces, and obstructing the designs of our enemies; for all which, you are hereby fully warranted and indemnified."

Instructions for Colonel Hooke.

"I. You are forthwith to repair to Scotland, and to endeavour to meet with as many of our friends as you can, to deliver to them our letters respectively, by which they are to give credit to what you propose to them in our

name.

"II. You are to expose to them the necessity of laying hold of this opportunity of vindicating our right, and their privileges and independency, which, if neglected, may never be retrieved.

"III. That as soon as they appear in arms, and have declared for us, we design to come in person to their assistance, with the succours promised us

jealousies subsisted. A message of the same import was sent to the dukes of Athole and Gordon, to Ogilvie of Boyn, and to Innes of Coxtoun, that they might have all things in readiness for entering upon business so soon as Hooke found it convenient to see them.*

While these preparations were going forward, lord Saltoun, a chief of one of the branches of the house of Frazer, coming on a visit to the countess of Errol, gave to Hooke a still more unfavourable character of his grace the duke of Hamilton, than even that by the countess herself, stating, that his grace had most certainly corresponded with Queensberry and Stair, though he had done all he could to conceal it; that he had, not only while the union was in progress, broken all the measures of the well affected who opposed it, but, after its ratification, exerted himself to the utmost to obtain a seat in the British parliament, as one of the sixteen Scotish peers, in which attempt, "though he had condescended to the greatest meannesses," he had utterly failed, not having been allowed so much as to stand a candidate. All this, and more to the

by the most Christian King, which cannot be obtained, till they have given that evidence of their dispositions.

"IV. You are to explain to them, that the declaration of war you carry with you, is only a summons to rise in arms, reserving to bring along with us an ample declaration, for pacifying the minds of our people, and the false and malicious suggestions of our enemies, of which we desire they would send us a draught; in the meantime, you may assure them of our unalterable resolution of securing to them their religion, laws, liberties, and independency.

V. If you find that a party is disposed to rise in arms, on what pretence whatsoever, without directly owning our authority, you are to acquaint our friends, that we allow, and approve of their joining with, and assisting them against our common enemy.

"VI. Our commission of general is designed for the Earl of Arran, but in case he declines it, our friends are to name another, whose name is to be inserted. But neither this commission, nor that for levying of war, either in Scotland or Ireland, to be published, except you find them immediately disposed to take the field; though our letter to him in Ireland may be sent, when it can be safely conveyed.

"VII. You are to assure each of our friends in particular, of the true sense we have of his loyalty, and sufferings on that account, which we think ourselves bound in honour and interest, to reward to the utmost of our power."

* Hooke's Secret Negotiations, p. 18.

same purpose, was repeated by the earl of Errol on his arrival, who was supported in the most material of his charges by the earl of Strathmore, lord Stormont, Fotheringhame of Powrie, the laird of Finglass, and the notorious Ker of Kersland, who affirmed, that he had himself carried a message to the duke, from the Presbyterians of the west, offering to disperse the parliament, but that the duke "had put a stop to the rising, saying, It was not yet time."*

The earl of Errol was not quite so communicative, with regard to the aberrations of the duke of Hamilton, as his mother; but he advised Hooke to make the best use of the information he had received, and by no means to neglect the duke, for, though he had lost that credit which, by means of his mother, the dutchess dowager, he had acquired among the Presbyterians, his influence was still so great at the court of St. Germains, that several orders had come from it to the friends of the chevalier, or the king, as he styled him, here, to do nothing without him. These orders had even been repeated on the present occasion. In proof of this, he showed a letter from Mr. Innes, almoner to the queen, through whom, James, for the most part, communicated his orders to the Scots, dated Jan. 17th, this year, in which, after stating that colonel Hooke was immediately to go over to Scotland, he adds, “the king desires that his friends would follow the directions of the duke of Hamilton, and not declare themselves till the duke has declared himself, when they may, without danger, follow his example." The earl added, that he had seen a letter from Mr. Stairs, secretary to the earl of Middleton, to a person in Edinburgh, in which he informed that person of Hooke's voyage, which he stated to be only a feint, and declared, that the king of France would do nothing for the Scots. The high constable showed another letter from the same court, of a still later date, March 1st, which stated positively, that the friends of James "have nothing to hope for; that they are greatly pitied, and ought to think of their own security."+

Over information so important, conspirators of a less sanguine character would certainly have paused, and an emis

* Hooke's Secret Negotiations, p. 21. + Ibid. pp. 22, 23.

sary possessed of less confidence, would have been considerably nonplussed. Sober reflection, however, was never either the act, or the attribute of a Scotish Jacobite, and Hooke had drunk deeper into the spirit and manners of that country which had adopted him, than to be put out by the appearance of any inconsistency in the conduct of his employers, or the discovery of a little presumption in his own pretensions. Instead of being warned by these monitory intimations, and standing aloof from a negotiator who was only able to draw them into danger, having evidently no power to benefit either them, or the person whom they pretended to honour as their king, the party among whom he had fallen, clung to him the closer, and seemed only anxious that he should not come into contact with the duke of Hamilton, or any of his particular friends. Accordingly, we find, that when, by the advice of the duke her husband, Hooke wrote to the dutchess of Gordon, who was supposed, since the defection of the duke of Hamilton, to be in the confidence of the Presbyterians, she wrote him in return, a very flattering letter, boasting of her intimacy with them, of their friendly dispositions, and the reasonableness of their demands, inviting him also to come and be introduced to their leading men, but requiring a positive promise, that he would not trust the duke of Hamilton, she having in her hand certain proofs, that that duke had been the cause of all the misfortunes in Scotland. She took care, however, at the same time, to recommend the duke's agent, Mr. Hall, as an honest man-he was a papist, and a priest-only advising her friend Hooke to be upon his guard with him, as he "saw only with the duke of Hamilton's eyes."* Hooke in return, begged the dutchess to "keep the Presbyterians in their present good disposition," promising "to keep their secret, not only from the duke of Hamilton, whom they particularly distrusted, but from all others." At the same time, he sent her a justification of that celebrated person, written by the queen at St. Germains, who ascribed the misfortunes of Scotland, not to any individual, but generally to "the want of succours."

Satisfied in his own mind, from what he had heard from so

* Hooke's Secret Negotiations, p. 31.

many quarters, that the duke of Hamilton was out of credit with the friends of James, Hooke professes he would have given him up, but that "he believed he had still interest to intrigue with the Presbyterians, respecting his own elevation to the throne, which," says he, " in my first journey,* I understood he had very much at heart." Mr. Hall, of course, was admitted to an audience in behalf of the duke his master; but, after much shuffling, if we may credit Hooke, on the part of Mr. Hall for the duke, and still more of impertinent vanity, and frothy insolence on the part of Hooke for the king of France, nothing was concluded between them. The duke of Hamilton had always supposed the aid of 10,000 auxiliaries necessary for establishing James upon the throne of his fathers, and without this aid, refused to take any active part in attempting it. At the mention of this, Hooke pretended to be highly offended, wondered how he could be so unreasonable! and told Mr. Hall, that it was in vain to talk more about it, till he was more fully instructed. Mr. Hall was dismissed with a few fine words, evidently intended to operate upon the duke's self love, and an assurance, that, out of respect for his grace, Hooke would wait yet four days, before he entered into any negotiation with the other lords, and, in the meantime, would expect his answer at the marquis of Drummond's.

While he was in waiting for the duke of Hamilton's answer to his message, and the queries that accompanied it, Hooke was gratified by the entire devotion of the Drummonds and their friends, who seem to have regarded him as the very breath of their nostrils, as also by the arrival of one of his associates, who had been sent by the way of Holland. Mr. Hall's answer for the duke of Hamilton, gave a most melancholy account of the state of his grace's health, and repaid Mr. Hooke's obliging compliments in the kindest manner; but he begged to be excused for not answering immediately, the letters from the king of France, and James, for whose restoration he would concur in all reasonable measures, though it was still his opinion, that that prince ought not to risk himself without a con

* Hooke had been in Scotland, upon a message of the same kind, the preceding year.

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