Blackness, were conveyed to Carlisle, to be tried by a commission of oyer and terminer, appointed to sit there in November, 1716. Thirty-four prisoners were set at liberty, without being brought to trial; and one of these, John Paton of Grandham, is said to have delivered a speech, in which he said, "he had oftentimes heard of, but now felt, to his utmost joy and gratitude, the king's great generosity; and that eye had not seen, por ear heard, the like before; but that he

and others were living witnesses thereof, which he said for himself, and he thought all the rest would assent to it, wishing his majesty and royal issue long life, and that he might ever be the darling of his people." Thirty-two of the prisoners being brought on their trial, pleaded guilty, and twenty-four of them received sentence of death, but no day was appointed for their execution. The rest were never sentenced, and all were finally set at liberty by a bill of indemnity.

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE SUPPRESSION OF THE REBELLION IN 1715 TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE L

THE alarm and excitement of the rebellion | ungrateful return, for we find them in the were succeeded by a calm, and for a time following year under the displeasure of the the domestic history of Scotland is hardly king, who deprived them both of their anything more than that of its church, offices. That of commander-in-chief in which had reaped considerable advantage Scotland was given to general Carpenter; from the imprudent disloyalty of its episco- while the earl of Islay's office of justicepalian opponents. As its fortunes rose, general was conferred on the duke of Monhowever, the Scottish church began to be trose. This proceeding gave new hopes to. torn by its internal divisions, and much of the jacobites, who were for the while able the time of the general assembly which only to intrigue abroad, but who imagined met in 1716 was taken up with discussions that Argyle and his brother might now be on doctrines of which the orthodox disap- brought over to their party. A quarrel beproved. The principal object of the dis- tween the British monarch, and Charles approbation of the assembly on this occasion XII. of Sweden offered them the opporwas a Mr. Simpson, professor of divinity in tunity of a new intrigue, and that king the college at Glasgow, who was accused made secret preparations for assembling a not only of Arminianism, but of jesuitism large force at Gottenburg, which was to be. and socinianism. His case was left unde- landed in Scotland for the purpose of raisçided at the end of the session, and was ing the pretender to the throne of Great renewed in the general assembly of 1717. Britain. The indiscreet conduct of the. After much disputation and struggling be- pretender soon revealed the secret, and tween the two parties in the kirk, the rigid king George (who was at this time in Calvinists and those who were more indul- Hanover) hastened back to England, and gent to Arminianism, Simpson escaped with caused the Swedish resident in London, a slight reproof, and a prohibition from count Gyllenburgh, to be placed under publishing in future certain "hypotheses" arrest, and his papers seized. A protest which were not orthodox. At the same was entered against this breach of the usual time the presbytery of Auchterarder was rebuked because, in their zeal for Calvinism, they had deprived of a license to preach a Mr. Craig, because he would not subscribe to a proposition which was at least very equivocally worded.

The services of the duke of Argyle and his brother the earl of Islay in repressing the rebellion, seem to have met with an

law of nations by the other foreign ministers in London; yet this did not hinder the estates of Holland from following the example of the English court, and baron Gortz, the Swedish minister there, was also arrested. The papers of the two min isters, which were laid before parliament and printed, revealed the whole of the plot for raising a new rebellion in Scotland. The

king of Sweden now proceeded openly in his design, in which he was joined by Peter the Great of Russia and by the king of Spain, under the influence of cardinal Alberoni, who both declared their intention to support the cause of the pretender. Against this confederacy, king George entered into a treaty with France and Holland, which was followed by a declaration of war.

union; and, as the great mass of the landholders engaged in the late rebellion were in embarrassed circumstances, few of the estates, if sold, would have paid their debts. The consequence was the complete or partial ruin of many who had hitherto been steady in their loyalty, some of whom were thus driven to join the enemies of the government, and eventually to run into desperate courses. The danger of this measure was earnestly pointed out to sir Robert Walpole by Duncan Forbes.

This plot received very little assistance in Scotland, where the jacobites were depressed and crippled by the consequences of their ate insurrection, while their chiefs were in The czar of Russia appears to have taken prison, many of them under sentence of no very active steps to assist the pretender, death. More than one attempt by the earl and before the end of the year 1718, the of Mar to obtain a contribution from them death of Charles XII. relieved the English for the objects of the Swedish design failed, government from all further fears on the yet the English government gave new cause side of Sweden. But Alberoni, who had of discontent by the method in which they embraced the cause of the pretender with disposed of the forfeited estates. Much of great zeal, pursued his intrigues and rethe lands of the attainted rebels was in the solved to be the instrument of restoring the hands of creditors, by the old process of the dynasty of the Stuarts, and with it the law of Scotland, which provided that no Roman catholic religion, to Britain. With conviction or attainder should exclude the this object, at the close of the year 1718, right of any creditor remaining peaceable he invited the duke of Ormond to Spain, from his just debts, if the latter were con- for the purpose of concerting a plan of tracted before the commission of the crimes. invasion. Soon afterwards the pretender As might be expected, many such claims himself was brought from Italy to Rosas, in were collusive, and were set up by friends Catalonia, from whence he was conducted or relations of the condemned; but the under an escort of guards to Madrid, where judges of the court of session, who felt he arrived on the 26th of March, and he compassion for the sufferers, approved them was there lodged in one of the royal palaces, all, and factors were appointed to receive and acknowledged and treated by the whole the rents of the most considerable of those court as king of Great Britain. The squadestates which they sequestered for that pur- ron, which had been fitted out for the pose. The court had appointed commis- invasion of the British dominions, under sioners for managing the forfeited estates, the conduct of the duke of Ormond, was who had summoned these factors to pay the waiting at Cadiz for orders to sail, and it proceeds of the estates into the exchequer; put to sea immediately after the arrival of but the factors refused obedience, alleging the pretender at the Spanish court, but a the authority of the court of session, and violent storm which it encountered off Cape the court, when petitioned by the commis- Finisterre, and which lasted two days, sioners to withdraw the sequestration, also dispersed it, and caused so much damage, refused, pleading the law of Scotland. The that it was obliged to return to Spain. barons of the exchequer, likewise, declined Thus the design of the expedition itself was interposing. As the only means of escaping defeated. Two frigates alone made their from this difficulty, a bill was brought into way to Scotland, and reached Kintail in the parliament which met in the November Ross-shire on the 16th of April, where the of 1717, which provided that all the for-earls of Marischal and Seaforth, and the feited estates should be vested in trustees, who were to sell them for the use of the public, to determine the claims of the lawful creditors, and to pursue measures for bringing more effectually into the exchequer the rents and profits of the estates to be so sold. This bill was obstinately resisted by some of the Scottish members, who urged that it was a direct infraction of the act of

marquis of Tullibardine, who were on board these ships, landed with three hundred and seven Spaniards and arms for two thousand men. The Spanish officer, disappointed at the small number of partisans who appeared to join them, was only induced to land by the urgent entreaties of the Scottish nobles. They first took possession of Donan castle, where they left a garrison of fifty men, and

the rest, having been joined by a small body right to such hereditary seats in parliament, of highlanders, marched to the pass of subject to the qualifications requisite by the Glenshiel, where they determined to wait laws now in being; that none of the refor the result of the exertions of their maining sixteen so to be declared by the friends to raise the highlands. But the king or his heirs, should become sitting news of the arrival of the Spaniards soon peers of the parliament of Great Britain, spread abroad, and general Wightman, who till after the termination of the parliament was stationed at Inverness, was dispatched then existing, except such as were of the with a detachment of troops in pursuit of number of the sixteen peers then sitting in them. But as no communication had been parliament on the part of Scotland and made to the Scots before the expedition their heirs; that if any of the twenty-five started, they were entirely unprepared for a peers so to be declared by the king, and rising, while, as the jacobites in Scotland their heirs, should fail, some one or other of had resolved not to declare themselves until the peers of Scotland should be appointed they were assured that Ormond had landed by the king, his heirs and successors, to with the whole force placed under his com- succeed any peer so failing, and that every mand, they were not likely to be drawn out peer so appointed should be one of the peers by such a trifling demonstration as this. on the part of the peerage of Scotland in Accordingly, the invaders remained without the parliament of Great Britain, and so receiving any material accession to their toties quoties as often as any such failure forces, until general Wightman approached, shall happen; that the hereditary right of when the highlanders withdrew to Strachall, sitting in parliament, which should accrue to which was a more favourable position for the twenty-five peers of Scotland to be resisting Wightman, as they were secure declared by the king, should be so limited from the attack of cavalry. They held this as not to descend to females. This proposition about three hours against the posal met with violent opposition in the king's troops, and only abandoned it upon commons, and public opinion appeared to the approach of the artillery, when they be so decidedly against it, that it was withdispersed among the mountains, keeping drawn after a second reading in the house up for some time a running-fight with their of lords. In the next session, however, it pursuers. The king's troops had in this was brought forward again, and was carried engagement twenty-one killed, and upwards through the house of lords by a large maof a hundred and twenty wounded. The jority, but it was thrown out by the comloss of the highlanders was never known, mons. but they carried off the earl of Seaforth and the marquis of Tullibardine among their wounded. The Spaniards had taken no part in the engagement, but remained at Glenshiel, where next day they surrendered at discretion.

In the parliament, which was sitting at the time of this weak attempt at invasion, a bill was brought in for placing certain restrictions on the royal prerogative with regard to the creation of peers of Great Britain, and for changing the system of the Scottish representation in the upper house. The proposals with regard to Scotland were, that instead of the sixteen elective peers to sit in the house of lords on the part of Scotland, twenty-five peers, to be elected by the king, should have hereditary seats in parliament, and be the peers on the part of the peerage of Scotland; that such twentyfive peers should be declared by his majesty before the next session of parliament; that nine of the said twenty-five should be appointed by his majesty to have immediate

In the midst of the political calm which now seemed to reign throughout Scotland, Lockhart of Carnwath, the stanch advocate of the exiled dynasty, hit upon a plan for giving that organisation to his party the want of which had often been the cause of disaster. He proposed to do this by the formation of a secret committee in Edinburgh, by which all his plans in Scotland were to be directed, and he was to give them full powers to overlook and direct his affairs in Scotland as they should judge from circumstances might be most beneficial to his cause. The plan was approved by the titular bishop of Edinburgh, who was considered as the head of the Scottish episcopalian party, and was communicated to the pretender; but James, with characteristic folly and in his jealousy of a prerogative of which he was not in possession, agreed to the committee, but refused to delegate to them the powers they required. James named on this committee, under the title of trustees, with the bishop and Lockhart, the earls of

shown to them for their services, and alarmed at the danger to which they were exposed by the indiscretions of the pretender's favourites, began to look out for opportunities of deserting his service and making their peace with the government of king George.

Eglinton and Wigton, the lord Balmerino, gusted with the ingratitude which had been Paterson of Preston-hall, captain Straiton, Henry Maule, lord Dun, Fotheringham of Powrie, and the laird of Glengarry. Meanwhile the bishop of Edinburgh died, and the college of bishops proceeded to supply the see, the holder of which was now considered by the nonconforming episcopalians For two or three years after these events, as their primate. Their choice fell upon a the history of Scotland presents no feature man named Fullarton, who appeared to have of interest. For a part of this time the been a zealous jacobite, for he was at once mind of the public throughout the whole approved, and added to the list of trustees, island was chiefly occupied with the exby the pretender; who, however, returned a citement of the South Sea scheme. The letter which implied a rebuke of the Scot- kirk was employed in a religious dispute of tish bishops for having dared to proceed to some violence, which divided the presbythe election of a bishop without waiting for terians into two parties. This dispute arose his orders. He said that, with regard to chiefly out of the publication of a new edifuture promotions, he should consider it tion of a book, entitled The Marrow of equally for his service and the good of their Modern Divinity, written at Oxford by an church, if, notwithstanding the distance English scholar, Edward Fisher, and first between them, they proposed to him before published in the year 1646. This book proceeding to consecrate them, such persons had been much praised by some of the as they might think worthy to be raised to most eminent of the Westminster divines, the dignity of bishops, promising to pay and a copy now falling into the hands of every attention to their wishes. This was some of the ministers of what was called followed not long after by a mandate from the evangelical party of the Scottish church, himself, without having had any communi- it was reprinted, with a recommendatory cation with the college of bishops, ordering preface by Mr. James Hogg, minister of them to receive as a bishop by his nomina- Carnock. The book had no sooner aption, a Mr. Freebairn, a man who, according peared in its new shape, than it was atto the opinion expressed by them, was not "adorned with those qualifications of learning, good sense, and the like, so necessary in one of that station; besides, he was in no reputation either among clergy or laity." The college objected to James's nominee, and a dispute arose which helped to sow division among the party. James seems, indeed, to have possessed especial talent for dividing his friends, and he constantly took into his favour men without worth or capacity, and threw aside those who had risked and lost everything in their devotion for him. About the time of this, dispute concerning the bishops, the earl of Mar, Seaforth, and the other chiefs of the rebellion who had escaped, were treated with more than neglect at the pretender's court, while Mr. Murray, whose chief recommendation was his servility, was taken into the exroyal favour. Under his influence, the little discretion which had ever been found in the pretender's household was thrown aside, and even the jacobite committee in Edinburgh, which was to have been kept a profound secret, was blazoned abroad. Under these circumstances, the principal of the jacobite leaders abroad and at home, dis

tacked violently by Haddow, principal of the new college at St. Andrews, who was looked upon as a leader of the other party in the kirk, and who stigmatised Fisher's doctrines as Antinomian. The discussion which followed caused the question to be brought under the notice of the general assembly in 1719, when a committee was appointed to examine the book. This they did in a very partial manner, and stringing together a number of disjointed passages, they gave a report so unfavourable to it, that, in May, 1720, the general assembly made an act prohibiting all ministers from recommending the book in any way, or saying anything in favour of it. The ministers of the evangelical party were extremely dissatisfied at this act, one consequence of which, however, was, that the, book in question was much more extensively read than before. A certain number of ministers joined in a representation to the general assembly of 1721, stating their objections to the act of the assembly of the previous year, and praying for its repeal. This assembly was dissolved abruptly, in consequence of the illness of the earl of Rothes, the king's commissioner, and the

matter was left in the hands of the ordinary would free him from the crime and the commission of the assembly, who held seve- reproach of tyranny," and he represented ral conferences with the representers, as "the delight of a calm undisturbed reign those who signed the representation were over a willing people, contrasted with a termed Neither party, however, was wil-restless possession in a strange land, where ling to yield, and these conferences ended in authority forcing the inclination of the folks, the commissioners giving four questions to could only be supported by blood and viothe representers, to which they required full lence, eternally subject to fears and alarms." and explicit answers. These were given; but The house of lords passed a strong vote the answers were never properly read to against this declaration, and it was ordered the assembly, which, in the following year, to be burnt by the common hangman. So issued another act, confirming and explain- great was the real, or pretended, apprehening the former one, and caused the repre- sion of the court, that a camp was estabsenters to be admonished and rebuked by lished in Hyde-park, and other rather the moderator. The representers presented ostentatious preparations for defence were a protest, which was not allowed to be read. made. Among the persons arrested were They had already printed their answers to three noblemen, the duke of Norfolk, the the queries of the commissioners, which lord North and Grey, and the lord Orrery; were circulated and read with great eager- and Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, was ness. They presented a complete justification, tried and eventually condemned to perand have been praised by subsequent divines petual imprisonment, which he exchanged for their soundness of theological doctrine. for exile. These proceedings were accompanied with some rather oppressive measures against the Roman catholics. A bill was brought in and passed for raising a hundred thousand pounds upon their estates, for defraying the extraordinary expenses caused by the precautions against the ja cobite plot; and another, obliging all persons, being papists, in Scotland, and all persons in Great Britain who did not take the oaths appointed for the security of the existing government, to register their names and real estates. This measure acted as s further check upon any activity of the ja cobite party in Scotland.

The election of a new parliament in 1722, was the first occasion on which the jacobites showed any revival of activity, and it was very ineffective. The whig party everywhere carried the day, and in almost every instance the elections passed over with quietness. Hitherto, even the zeal and ability of Lockhart of Carnwath, the only leader of the jacobites at home who did not despair, had not been successful in bringing about any new combination of intrigues, and the recent changes in the political relations of the continental states, had deprived the pretender of all hopes of active support from any of them. Nevertheless, the pretender's petty court was busy originating new intrigues, and another plot was set a-going, in which two or three English noblemen were implicated. When the new parliament met in October, the king laid a statement of this plot before them, accompanied with papers, &c., relating to it. The most remarkable of these papers was a declaration of the pretender, as James III., king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and addressed "to all his loving subjects of the three nations, and to all foreign princes and states," and its avowed object was to effect a lasting peace in Europe. The pretender's very singular proposal was, that king George should resign to him the possession of the throne of Great Britain, in consideration of which he stipulated to secure to him his hereditary dominions in Germany, suggesting "that in Hanover his incontestible right to the crown

The period of tranquillity which followed offered an opportunity for various attempts to improve the agriculture of Scotland, which had been in a very low state, caused in a great measure by the impediments thrown in the way of improvement by the old feudal tenures. In the year 1723, a society for the improvement of agriculture was formed at Edinburgh, which included the names of most of the leading men of the country. It held its first meeting on the 23rd of July, at Grey's house, Hope-park, and exhibited an abundance of zeal in promoting the object for which it was founded, but the difficulties it had to contend with were not easily overcome. Moreover, in the south, circumstances had caused a revolution in the system of farming, which was producing considerable distress. The high price which Scottish beeves fetched in the English market, rendered them far more profitable than the ordinary cultivation of the land