ers also, when they were appointed, whether for the excise, the customs, or even for managing the equivalent, were not at all such as a prudent respect for the prejudices of the people would have selected. Instead of being men eminent for political wisdom, good manners, and moral dignity, who might have conciliated the refractory, soothed the wayward, and awed into submission the petulant and the presumptive part of the community, they appear to have consisted of the refuse of both countries,* Scotishmen who, by obsequious servility and interested fawning, had rendered themselves odious to all classes of their countrymen, with Englishmen, who, no longer able to subsist at home, were willing to undertake a pilgrimage to this land of barbarity and barrenness, as the last resource of sordid souls, to prolong, at whatever expense, the last dregs of an existence already swallowed up in misery. From such characters, placed in circumstances of peculiar difficulty, filling manner following, viz. that before the Union of the said kingdoms, the sun. of three hundred, ninety-eight thousand and eighty-five pounds, ten shillings, be granted to her Majesty, by the Parliament of England, for the uses after mentioned, being the Equivalent to be answered to Scotland, for such parts of the customs and excises, upon all exciseable liquors with which that king. dom is to be charged upon the Union, as will be applicable to the payment of the said debts of England, according to the proportions which the present customs of Scotland, being thirty thousand per annum, do bear to the customs in England, computed at one million, three hundred forty-one thousand, five hundred and fifty-nine pounds per annum." "A set of commissioners was appointed, one for managing the customs, the other the excise of Scotland, consisting partly of English and partly of Scotsmen, though these latter had no pretensions to entitle them to that name, save their being born in that country; they and all that were employed afterwards as commissioners for managing the equivalent, or advanced to any of the new posts, being downright renegadoes, and rewarded on no other account, than the assistance they gave in selling their country. At the same time, vast numbers of surveyors, collectors, waiters, and in short, all or most of the officers of the customs and excise, were sent down from England, and these, generally speaking, the very scum and canalia of that country, which remembers me of a very good story. "Some time thereafter a Scots merchant travelling in England, and showing some apprehensions of being robbed, his landlady told him he was in no hazard, for all the highwaymen were gone; and upon his inquiring how that came about, Why truly," replied she, they are all gone to your country to get places.'' Lockhart Papers, vol. i. pp. 223, 224. offices which the virtues and the talents of archangels could with difficulty have rendered respectable, what was to be expected? What but that which really followed, increased disgust and disaffection. So far, indeed, were the English from manifesting any friendly feelings, that they carried all their home measures toward Scotland, with extreme rigour, seizing, "with a peculiar affection of roughness, wines and other commodities," that had been imported, on the faith of the union, otherwise perhaps, than strict prudence would have dictated, but in a way which, it had been confidently anticipated, by a liberal and friendly policy would be overlooked. The consequence of all this was, on the part of the Scotish people, hatred to England, and increased interest in the exiled family, which they displayed by celebrating, in Edinburgh and various other places of the kingdom, the birth-day of the pretender, in the most open and avowed manner. In the meantime, the court of France, reduced, by the vigour of the English administration, and the military talents of the duke of Marlborough, to a state of despondency bordering on despair, despatched, at the request of the court of St. Germains, colonel Hooke, an Englishman who had gone over with James VII. and had obtained preferment in the French service, on a special mission to Scotland, furnished with letters from the chevalier de St. George, to prepare his adherents for a general rising in his favours. For this rising, the means were to be furnished partly by the French, though they were in no condition to spare either men or money, and by means of it, they hoped to be able, if not to overthrow, at least so to embarrass, the government of England, as to obtain a peace, such as they themselves should dictate, in the course of the winter.* Through unforeseen circumstances, however, the winter elapsed before any thing could be undertaken. Having made all necessary preparations for his journey, Hooke left Paris in the month of January, 1707, taking his route direct for Scotland, hoping, no doubt, to profit by the tumultuary spirit that, in consequence of the treaty of union, then in the course of being concluded, was raging in that un Secret History of Col. Hooke's Negotiations in Scotland, &c. p. 10. happy country. Meeting, however, with contrary winds, it was the month of March before he arrived at the castle of Slaines, an old fortress in the shire of Aberdeen. Here he found the countess of Errol, the earl's mother, in waiting for him, with letters from her son, of the most friendly and flattering import, testifying the greatest impatience to be introduced to him, and assuring him, "that all the well affected would exert themselves to the utmost on this occasion, as their last resource, being persuaded, that at the worst they would obtain better conditions sword in hand, than those of the union." From the countess he also learned, further, "that Mr. Hall, a priest, and the confident of the duke of Hamilton, had been with her, waiting for his [Mr. Hooke's] arrival for some considerable time," and she put into his hands a letter, in which, for his employer, the duke of Hamilton, he entreated Mr. Hooke to come to Edinburgh, where, he informed him, the duke, who, with all his friends, was ready to risk every thing for the chevalier de St. George, would take care to have every thing ready for his accommodation, and begging for his grace, immediately, what letters he might have been intrusted with for him. The countess, at the same time, like a prudent and wise politician, wishing to secure, for herself and family, the ear and the services of Mr. Hooke, advised him not to be in haste, "as the duke of Hamilton's affairs were greatly altered within a few months past, all the world having abandoned him, and all the well affected come to an open rupture with him;" and though lord Kilsyth, the great marshal, and even her son the high constable, still kept some little correspondence with him, it was not at all upon political accounts, but merely for the sake of ancient intimacy; and as he had been suspected of corresponding with the court of London, she cautioned Hooke to be particularly careful how he trusted him. But for more minute information she referred him to her son.* In order to avail himself of this advice, Hooke, who seems to have been very well qualified for the business in which he was employed, ordered M. de Ligondes, who had brought him over from Dunkirk, to proceed with his vessel to Norway, and * Hooke's Secret Negotiations, p. 17. to return to the coast in the course of three weeks, and the same day despatched a messenger to the high constable and to Mr. Hall. From the former he requested advice. The latter he informed of his intention to wait upon the duke of Hamilton, as soon as he had recovered the fatigues of his journey; and, in return, demanded to know what measures had been taken for admitting him into the presence of the duke, and for rendering his visit to Edinburgh safe. His messenger returned in five days, with assurances that the constable would be with him in the end of the week; that the duke of Hamilton was so much indisposed, that as yet he could not see him, but would write by the constable.* Hooke in the meantime, addressed himself to lord Drummond, second son to the duke of Perth, whom he sent upon a mission among the Jacobites of the north and north-west, with a copy of his Instructions from M. de Chamillart,† and of a * Hooke's Secret Negotiations, p. 17. The following is a copy of these Instructions, from the Stuart Papers, published by Macpherson, along with his History of Great Britain. They display very particularly, the selfish views of the French court, and the total ignorance under which that court laboured with regard to the condition of Scotland. In the prosecution of these Instructions, Hooke displayed great diligence and fidelity, as a spy or emissary of France, though very little of either as an ambassador of James. "To be certain of making a diversion in Scotland, which will embarrass the English, and oblige them to bring back a considerable body of troops to England, the Scottish nobility must be in a condition to assemble 25, or 30,000 men, and to clothe, arm, equip, and maintain them, during the campaign: i. e. at least six months, to commence at the beginning of May. "The favourable dispositions of the nobility, leave no room to doubt but they will make their utmost efforts to withdraw themselves from the yoke which the English nation intends to impose upon them. Before a revolution, which should end in the restoration of the lawful sovereign, is begun, it is necessary to enter into a particular detail of the forces and means which the Scotch can employ to accomplish it, and of the succours which they may promise themselves from the protection of the King, who is no less interested in the success of this enterprise, than his Britannic Majesty. It is for these considerations, that his Majesty hath judged it proper, before he makes any positive promise to the Scots, to send over Mr. Hooke, in order to acquire, upon the spot, a perfect knowledge of the state of things, to form a well digested plan with the nobility, to reduce it to writing, and to get it signed by the principal men of the country; giving them assurances of his Majesty's sincere desire, and letter from the chevalier, directed to all his friends in general, assuring them of his resolution to come and put himself at their head. To all this was added a paper, drawn up by Hooke himself, representing the extremity to which the nation his dispositions to send them the succours which may be necessary for them; and his Majesty recommends, in a very particular manner, to Mr. Hooke, not to engage him in expenses, which those he is obliged to lay out elsewhere, will not allow him to support, nor to give them any room to hope for more than he can furnish. "The articles which are to be the principal objects of his attention, are, first, to inform himself, with certainty, of the number of troops of which the army shall be composed, and of the generals, and other officers, who are in the country, to command them; if they stand in need of some of those which are in France; of what rank, and how many; the particular places where those men, who voluntarily engage, shall assemble, and the place of general rendezvous afterwards. "To know who will clothe, arm, and equip them; if they have cloth in the country, and if they are able to pay for it: who will furnish fusees, swords, bayonets, belts, bandaliers and powder flasks, linen, stockings, shoes, hats, and other utensils, such as hatchets, pickaxes, and spades. "If they have any artillery, of what size, and what quantity. "If they have stocks and carriages for cannon. "If they have officers of artillery, cannoniers, bombadiers, and miners. "If they have mortars, bullets, bombs, grenades, and in what quantity. If they have powder and ball, whether for cannons or for muskets. "What they want of these things, and what they demand as absolutely necessary for them; acquainting them, that it is not their interest to demand too much. "It will not be sufficient to be informed, with certainty, that they are able to assemble a considerable army; it likewise is necessary to know further, the means by which the nobility intend to subsist them, while they are in the field; and by which they can form magazines, and assemble waggons, to follow the army, wherever the generals think it may be proper to order it to march. "The same inquiry must be made about the equipage for the artillery, for the use of which it will be necessary to have a certain number of horses, in proportion to the train which they think they should bring into the field. * They must not persuade themselves, that the mere goodwill of the nobility, and the blind obedience of their vassals, in doing whatever they choose, are sufficient to oblige them to remain too long from home, when they are furnished only with bread; they must have meat and spirits, or at least vegetables, with some other drink than water, the use of which is not common in that country. "It is of importance to be assured of the manner in which the grain and drink shall be furnished; of the assessment which shall be made; of the contingent which each nobleman shall contribute in grain, drink, and other provis |