V. 1715. had the three sentinels above begun to draw the CHAP. ladders, when the time for the change of guard arrived, and when the officers of the garrison were roused by the news of the express. One of the Jacobite sentinels, seeing other soldiers coming round the rampart, fired his piece, and called out below that they had ruined both themselves and him, His companions, at the same time, let go the ropes. The conspirators beneath (some of them much hurt by the fall of the ladders) immediately dispersed; and, although a party of the city guard sallied out upon them from the West Port, in hopes of making prisoners, only four of them were taken. These proved to be, Ramsay and Boswell, writers to the Signet; Leslie, late page to the Duchess of Gordon; and Captain Maclean, a veteran of the field of Killiecrankie. Thus, through the combined influence of wine and women, was this daring scheme defeated. men.* The Cabinet of St. James's meanwhile had no easy game to play. The whole force at its disposal in Great Britain was scarcely above 8000 With these it had not only to encounter secret conspiracies, undisguised rebellions, and threatened landings in many places, but also to keep the peace in several other districts, where the mob, inflamed by malicious insinuations, and zeal The army estimates for 1715 show us a total of more than 16,000 men at the expense of 556,000l.; but of these less than 9000 were at home. See the Comm. Journ. vol. xviii. p. 47. V. CHAP. ous in the cause of the Church, which they believed to be endangered, pulled down meeting houses of 1715. Dissenters, and committed other acts of riot and outrage. With such scanty numbers the Ministers had to support the throne of George and to brave the enmity of Louis- to confirm a new dynasty and overawe an ancient rival. The chief controul and direction in this arduous duty fell upon Secretary Stanhope, on account of his military character. The Duke of Marlborough was indeed far more highly qualified for that or any other service; but, as I have already mentioned, was then an object of aversion at Court, and deprived of all real and effective power.* The state of Scotland had, of course, been from the first a matter of great anxiety. So early as the 24th of July, Stanhope had obtained leave to bring in a bill "for the encouragement of loyalty in Scotlandt," by which it was hoped in some degree to bridle the disaffected clans. Yet, when at the end of August the first intelligence came that these clans were actually gathering, Stanhope and his colleagues concurred in thinking that this array was only designed as a stratagem to draw the King's forces northward, and favour the projected insurrection of Ormond in the west; and such, in fact, was the opinion held at this time by the Jaco 81. * Look back to p. 154. ; and see Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. + Comm. Journ. vol. xviii. p. 237. This act received the royal assent on the 30th of August. V. 1715. bites themselves at Bristol and other places.* The CHAP. Ministers accordingly determined to send no more troops to Scotland; on the contrary, it was to the south-western counties that they ordered the few regiments at their disposal. They directed General Whitham, the Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, to march with the handful of regular troops (about fifteen hundred) that could be mustered, and take post at Stirling, so as to maintain the passage of the Forth; but almost immediately afterwards they superseded him in behalf of the Duke of Argyle, whose personal knowledge of the country, and whose princely influence over it, could not fail to be most important in the coming struggle. Argyle might be considered an hereditary foe of the Stuarts, yet his attachment to the Whig party was very recent and doubtful, and no man had taken a more active part towards their expulsion from office than himself. On that occasion he seems to have been guided by a mean resentment against Marlborough, who thought but lightly of his character, and who goes so far as to say, in one of his private letters, "I cannot have a "worse opinion of any man than I have of the "Duke of Argyle."* By the new Tory administra"By tion, which he had contributed to raise, he was sent to succeed Stanhope in Spain - an appointment which, from the desperate state of affairs, added * Tindal's History, vol. vi. p. 421. Q V. 1715. CHAP. nothing to his laurels. His return to England was soon followed by his rupture with the Ministry; he was dismissed from his employments, and rejoined his former friends, who, though they could scarcely place any very unmixed confidence in his support, yet knew its value too well to receive it otherwise than warmly. This powerful chieftain was born in 1678,* His influence was not confined to the Highlands, nor his talents to a field of battle; he was also distinguished as a speaker in the House of Lords; and though extremely cool and collected in his conduct, his oratory was warm and impassioned. His manner was most dignified and graceful, his diction not deficient in elegance; but he greatly impaired its effect by too constantly directing it to panegyrics upon his own candour and disinterestedness- qualities of which I firmly believe that no man ever had less. The Earl of Sutherland, also, a zealous friend of the Protestant succession, was directed to embark in a King's ship, the Queenborough, and sail for It is stated in Collins's Peerage (vol. vi. p. 443.) that he was twenty-three in 1705; but here he appears to be confounded with his brother, the Earl of Isla, who afterwards succeeded him in the dukedom. + Thomson says of him, "From his rich tongue persuasion " flows," "I thought him," says Lord Chesterfield," the most "affecting, persuasive, and applauded speaker I ever heard. I was captivated, like others; but when I came home and coolly con"sidered what he had said, stripped of all those ornaments in "which he had dressed it, I often found the matter flimsy and "the arguments weak." Letter to his Son, December 5. 1749. V. his domains in the extreme north of Scotland, with CHAP. a commission to raise his vassals, as well as any other clans on which he might prevail in favour of the established Government. Other measures of great vigour and activity were taken by Stanhope and his colleagues. According to an article in the guarantee for the Protestant succession, the Dutch had bound themselves to furnish a body of 6000 men, in case of need; and to claim this contingent, Horace Walpole was now despatched to the Hague. At home, the Parliament was induced to vote most loyal addresses to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act- to grant liberal supplies to offer a reward of 100,000l. for seizing the Pretender alive or dead, — and to empower the King to seize suspected persons. All half-pay officers were recalled to active service. Twenty-one regiments (7000 men) were ordered to be raised. At Edinburgh the Government, availing themselves of the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, arrested and imprisoned in the Castle several noted Jacobites; the Earls of Hume, Wigtoun, and Kinnoul, Lord Deskford, and Messrs. Lockhart of Carnwath and Hume of Whitfield. By a clause in the new act for encouraging loyalty in Scotland, which had passed on the 30th of August, the King had also been empowered to summon any suspected persons to Edinburgh, there to give security for their good behaviour; or, in case of non-appearance, to be denounced as rebels. This provision 1715. |