country for two centuries, and were feared and hated by the great body of the people. This circumstance, much more than the vigilance of the government, rendered his attempts not only abortive for the present, but gave to all his after efforts, a character of hopeless despair.*

Such a miserable failure, where so much had been expected, threw a sad damp over the Jacobites, who, for several days, previous to the expected landing, had carried themselves with great insolency toward their opponents, and the immediate imprisonment of their principal leaders, completed their confusion. The castles of Stirling and Edinburgh, with the prisons of the latter, scarcely sufficed to contain the multitudes of those, who, from the jealousy or the policy of the government, were thus treated. The circumstance was, indeed, of singular service to the ministry, with regard to the approaching elections, as it afforded them a fair pretext for imprisoning, or threatening to imprison, all from whom they feared any thing like effectual opposition, and by this means they carried them, generally speaking, entirely to their own minds. The

* James himself, it appears, did not as yet admit any such desponding ideas, nor had he learned to distrust either his faithless allies, or the weakness of his own judgment; for he had scarcely returned to St. Germains, when he despatched Charles Farquharson, with the following instructions, to his friends in Scotland.

"James R. You are to show these instructions to such as we have ordered you, and whose names, for their security, we will not here insert.

"I. You are to assure them of the concern and trouble we are in, on their account, as well as on our own, that this last enterprise has failed, occasioned by our sickness, the mistake of the pilots, and other unforeseen accidents, which gave the enemy the opportunity of preventing our landing in the frith; while, on the other side, violent contrary winds, the dispersing of the fleet, the ignorance we were in of the coasts, and want of provisions, hindered our landing in any other place. II. You are to assure them of the concern and pain we are in for them, to know their present condition, fearing they may have been brought into trouble after this enterprise has failed. III. You are to assure them, that far from being discouraged with what has happened, we are resolved to move heaven and earth, and to leave no stone unturned, to free ourselves and them; and to that end, we propose to come ourselves into the Highlands, with money, arms, and ammunition, and to put ourselves at the head of our good subjects, if they rise in arms for us, and if not, we do exhort them to rise, with all convenient speed, upon the expectation of our

prisoners, after some time, were divided into three classes, and in separate divisions carried up to London, where they were all thrust into close confinement. The duke of Hamilton, who, upon the approach of the French fleet, had been taken into custody, at his seat in the north of England, was brought up to London at the same time, and, taking advantage of the struggle which the whigs were at that time making to obtain the direction of the government, prevailed upon them to obtain his liberation, and that of all his fellow prisoners, upon condition of their throwing all their influence into the scale of the whigs, at the approaching election of the Scotish peers. "This certainly," says one, who was himself pretty deeply implicated in the business," was one of the nicest steps the duke of Hamilton ever made, and had he not hit upon this favourable juncture, and managed it with great address, I am afraid some heads had paid for it, at least, they had undergone a long confinement; so that to his grace alone, the thanks for that deliverance were owing."*

The same author asserts, that " no doubt the government

arrival, which we intend shall be as soon as possible, after we have had an answer to this, by this our messenger, who is entirely trusted by us; and since we are so desirous of venturing of our person, we hope they will follow our example, this being a critical time which ought not to be neglected. IV. The most Christian King has likewise promised to support this undertaking with a sufficient number of troops, as soon as they can be transported with security. In the meantime we will stay in the Highlands, unless we be invited and encouraged by our friends in the Lowlands, to go to them. V. We desire they would consider this project, and, with all diligence send back this bearer, well informed of their opinion concerning it; as also, with an account of the state of the nation, of what troops are in it, of what country and how inclined, and what number of men they can bring into the field for us. VI. And in case they approve this our project, and promise to stand by us, we desire that all means may be used to get possession of the fort of Inverlochy, and that they would inform us of the fittest place in the Highlands for our landing, and send along with the bearer, two or more able pilots, who know these places, and can conduct us into them. VII. And, in case they prove instrumental to our restoration, by doing what is here proposed to them, we promise to give them particular and essential marks of our kindness, and of the sense we have of all they have done and suffered on our accounts. J. R." Stuart Papers.

* Lockhart Papers, vol. i. pp. 248, 249.

expected to have had proof enough to have brought several of them, [the leading Jacobites,] to punishment, and he blesses God, that they failed in this," apparently without much foundation. So much publicity had been given to their transactions with the French court, and with that of St. Germains, and so much zeal manifested for forwarding the interests of these courts, not to speak of the certain fact, that almost every member of the government had, either directly or indirectly, communicated with St. Germains, and so must have personally been acquainted with the greater part of its intentions -that to suppose there could have been any difficulty in finding proof to condemn almost every man among them, especially the tergiversating, irresolute duke of Hamilton, would leave a heavy stain upon the character of the then administration, as either grossly deficient in diligence, or in talents. The probability is, that they were not so bloodthirsty as this author has represented them, and that, being not altogether free themselves, they rather wished to wink at Scotish delinquency, than to punish it with severity, seeing it had been so feebly seconded, and foreseeing, as they must have done, that it could scarcely, from the circumstances of the country, be more vigorously followed out at any future period. They had probably sagacity enough to perceive, that the French court never had any serious intention, even though it had possessed the power, of placing James upon the throne of Britain. The Scotish Jacobites, blinded by ambition and pride, were such poor politicians, as to think, the king of Scotland being king of England, that Scotishmen and Scotish measures, should be predominant over both kingdoms, and this, after the experience of three reigns had demonstrated such things to be impossibilities. The French knew better, and aware, that whether a prince of Orange, an elector of Hanover, or a royal Stuart, filled the throne of Britain, the policy of his court, and the measures of his government behoved to be English, were at no great pains about the matter, further than by it to create a diversion in favour of themselves; and this, so long as they kept the Stuarts in their own hands, they supposed could be done at pleasure. On no other principle is it possible to account for their conduct on this occasion. By the extreme cau

tion they observed, however, they did not derive all the advantages they might, at the time, have reaped from the project. Bishop Burnet has very justly remarked, "If they had landed, it might have had an ill effect upon our affairs, chiefly with regard to all paper credit, and, if by this, the remittances to Piedmont, Catalonia, and Portugal, had been stopped in so critical a season, that might have had fatal consequences abroad; for, if we had been put into such a disorder at home, that foreign powers could no more reckon upon our assistance, they might have been disposed to hearken to the propositions that the king of France would probably have made to them; so that the total defeating of their design, without its having the least ill effect upon our affairs, or our losing a single man in the little engagement we had with the enemy, is always to be reckoned as one of those happy providences for which we have much to answer."*

The parliament was prorogued on the 17th of April, 1708, and shortly after dissolved. Writs were immediately issued for new elections, and a proclamation, commanding the attendance of all the peers of North Britain, at Holyroodhouse, on the 17th of June, to elect sixteen peers to represent them in the ensuing parliament. In these elections, several of the most staunch Jacobites exerted themselves to the utmost, and in some instances were successful, particularly in the county of Edinburgh, where the famous George Lockhart, of Carnwath, was elected, in opposition both to the court and the Presbyterians, and which county he continued to represent, till the death of Queen Anne. In the main, however, the tories and the squadrone,+ though they were united, did not succeed according to their expectations. Several of the tory lords, who had escaped being carried up to London, such as the earl of Aberdeen, the lords Saltoun, Balmerinoch, &c., under the influence of fear, going over to the side of the court, enabled the ministry, with a very few exceptions, to have the peers all of their own party. Among the commons too, many were

* History of his own times.

A party in Scotland, headed by the marquis of Tweeddale-they were called the Squadrone Volante, from their pretending to act by themselves, and to cast the balance of the contending parties in parliament.

glad to lie by for the time, lest prosecutions should be raised against them, for their behaviour on occasion of the late invasion, in consequence of which, the whigs were in many places, elected with very little opposition.*

The new parliament, in which, notwithstanding all the pains that had been taken to prevent it, the whig interest was still predominant, was assembled on the 16th of November, 1708, when there arose long and violent debates respecting the Scotish elections, in which several of the eldest sons of Scotish peers had been elected to serve for counties, which, as it was repugnant to the Scotish laws of representation, occasioned numerous petitions and representations. This was a privilege the Scotish peers were anxious to possess, and the ministry were perfectly willing to concede, as by managing the father, they supposed they might at the same time, manage the son, and so increase their influence in both houses of parliament at the same time. Aware of this, and greatly exasperated against them, on account of the part they had performed in the treaty of union, the Scotish commoners exerted themselves with unanimity and vigour, and by the assistance of the English tories, and some old acts of the Scotish parliament, confirmed the incapacity of the oldest sons of peers, in consequence of which, the lords Haddo, Strathnaver, and Johnston, and the master of Ross, were expelled, and writs ordered to be issued, for electing others in their room.+ Petitions were also pre

* Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 294.

"The Scots commons, to make good the incapacity of the peers' eldest sons, did prove by acts of parliament, that none of the three estates could incroach, or be incorporated with one another; and for proving, that the eldest sons of peers were reckoned a part of the same estate with the peers themselves, produced an Act of Parliament, regulating the apparell of the several estates and ranks of persons in Scotland, in which the peers and their eldest sons are expressly declared to be one and the same state. Lastly, they produced two extracts from the records of the Scots Parliament, by one of which it appeared, that the lord Livingston, chosen and returned for the town of Lithgow, was, on a petition against him, declared incapable to be elected; and by another, that a wryt for electing a new member was issued, in the room of Mr. M'Kenzie, whose father, since his being elected to serve for some of the northern countys, had been created Lord Viscount of Tarbet." Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 299.