started, more ridiculous than any of those | vourites should be dismissed from court, which had gone before, the plan of which and when this was refused, she went away was, that the chevalier was to obtain the herself, and took shelter in a convent. Her assistance of the emperor of Austria, with husband immediately published a memorial which he was to take possession of Hanover; against her, in which he accused her of and it was calculated that king George's obstinacy and disobedience, defended and love for his hereditary dominions was so justified his favourites, and excused his congreat, that he would willingly relinquish duct in taking away her son by the plea the crown of England to get them back! that he was master of his own family and Amid wild projects like these, the more children. His wife not only replied to this sensible adherents of the pretender be- defence, in a printed letter which was very came so disgusted with his heartlessness severe on the earl and countess of Inverness, and incapacity, that they began to desert or, as she called them, Mr. and Mrs. Hay, his cause. Among the first to set the ex- but, as they were protestants, she complained ample of defection were lord Panmure and to the pope, who espoused her cause. the young duke of Hamilton; and, after the chevalier only expressed his indignation Lockhart, there were very few in Scotland at the pope's interference, and declared who continued to feel any zeal in his cause. loudly that no one had a right to judge of his conduct but himself.

But

The scandal occasioned by these family quarrels was very injurious to James's cause in Scotland, which was not improved by a dispute that arose soon afterwards among the episcopalian clergy, arising out of a division of opinion with regard to the elec tion of bishops. One party, which leaned most towards the church of Rome, and seems to have answered nearly to our modern Puseyites, asserted that the election of bishops belonged to the presbyters, with the consent of the people, and that the king ought to have no control over it; while the other party held that the nomination of the bishops belonged solely to the king. The two parties came at length to an open collision, on the occasion of choosing a successor to Fullarton, bishop of Edinburgh, in 1726. The king had nominated to the see a minister named Gillane, but another minister, of less respectable character, named Miller, had put himself forward as a candidate. The presbyters of the episcopalian party in Edinburgh, who appear to have been rather lax in their morals, and are said to have feared that Gillane would be a strict disciplinarian, were mostly in favour of his rival, and a remonstrance against him, signed by about twenty of them, was prepared for presentation to the college, though for various reasons it was not presented. So great, however, was the outcry against the king's nomination, that the consecration of Gillane did not then take place.

The scandal of his household and court, which was now made public, did much towards estranging the pretender's friends. Mar, who, after the last rebellion, had held the office of secretary of state to the "king," as the jacobites termed the pretender, had been supplanted in favour and office by his brother-in-law, colonel Hay, a man of little principle or talent, but who had gained an influence over the weak mind of the pretender through his wife, a beautiful intriguing woman. Hay had been raised by the pretender to the peerage, and he and his wife enjoyed at the exile's court the title of earl and countess of Inverness. In the summer of 1718, the pretender had married the princess Clementine, grand-daughter of the celebrated John Sobieski, king of Poland, who bore to him, at Rome in 1720, a son named Charles Edward, who inherited his father's pretensions to the English crown. Clementine was naturally jealous of the intimacy between her husband and the countess of Inverness, and her indignation was excessive when she found herself treated with contempt and insult by the favourites. She therefore allied herself closely with the earl of Mar and his party at court, where she remained until the young prince Charles Edward, who had been entrusted to the care of Mrs. Sheldon under her own eye, had reached his fifth year. He was then, by his father's orders, taken from the care of Mrs. Sheldon, and given in charge to lady Inverness's brother, James Murray, whom the pretender had Soon after this, Lockhart, who had been created earl of Dunbar, with strict orders much annoyed at the division among the that he was never to be allowed to visit his episcopalians, and warmly advocated the mother alone. Clementine remonstrated pretender's right to nominate Gillane, was indiguantly, and demanded that the fa-obliged to leave Scotland. Lockhart took

CHAPTER VI.

STATE OF SCOTLAND IN THE EARLIER PART OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE II.; THE PORTEOUS RIOT.

pected that we ever can have so favourable a one for acting by ourselves, and that we run the risk of allowing the general affairs of Europe to take such a turn as will probably incline most of the chief powers of Europe to be less favourable to us than they are at present, so that whatever is not absolutely desperate ought certainly to be undertaken, and the sooner the better. I desire, therefore, that you may seriously think on this matter, and let me have your opinion as soon as possible, and if my going into England be not advisable, whether my going to the highlands of Scotland might not be found proper."

France and Spain are not yet come, but, when they do, it is to be expected that they will not be more favourable, so that for the present no foreign assistance can be expected; but with all that, the present conjuncture appears so favourable in all its circumstances, that had I only consulted my own inclination, I should certainly, out of hand, have crossed the seas and seen, at any rate, what I could do for my own and my subjects' delivery; but as on this occasion I act for them as well as myself, and cannot hope, without their concurrence, to succeed in what I may undertake in our mutual behalf, I find myself under the necessity of making no further steps without The pretender had sent this letter by a their advice. It is true the disadvantages I confidential messenger, Allan Cameron, lie under are great and many; I have but a whom he had entrusted with his views and small stock of money, scarce sufficient to reasons, and who was to confer with Locktransport what few arms I have, and what hart on the subject. Lockhart seems to officers I may get to follow me on this have suspected at first that this was a occasion. I am sensible that it is next to plan of Inverness's to betray his master impossible that a concert should be estab-into the hands of his enemies, and he lished among my friends at home, such as would be sufficient for arising in arms in my favour before my arrival, and, by what is said before, the little hopes of foreign assistance will be sufficiently seen; but with all this, many arguments may be brought to authorise our undertaking, which at first sight might appear rash. Our country is now, whatever the outward appearance may be, in great confusion and disorder; the people have had time to feel the weight of a foreign yoke, and are nowise favourably inclined towards the present elector of Hanover. That concert, vigour, and unanimity, which does not precede my crossing the seas, may attend and follow such an event; and if the chief great powers in Europe are not all my declared friends, there is not one that is my enemy, and that has not a particular interest to wish me on the throne; and were I in person in Britain, at the head of even a small number of my own subjects, it might naturally alter very much the present system of some or other of them during the time of the congress; but should it once meet, and affairs be adjusted there on the foundation of the quadruple alliance, foreign affairs will take quite another face, and in all probability would long remain so, whilst the present elector of Hanover and his son might have time to ingratiate themselves with the English nation. So that, all put together, it must be concluded, that if the present conjuncture be slipped, it cannot be ex

was not much encouraged by the infor
mation that the favourite, although not
actually with the pretender, was near enough
to be his private adviser. Lockhart knew
that Cameron was well acquainted with the
highlands, and he asked him whether he
really believed that the highlanders would
rise generally at that moment, or if it were
possible for them to rise without arms or
ammunition. Cameron replied, that "he
could not say they all would rise, but cer-
tainly some would; and as for arms, ammu-
nition, and money, they might be sent after
his majesty, who, he did not doubt, might
be able to make a stand for some months at
least." Lockhart again asked Cameron,
how he, who knew the state of the high-
lands, could advise "the king" to enter
upon such a mad enterprise, the only result
of which would be the utter ruin of his
friends. "The king might indeed expect
that some would venture all in any under-
taking when his majesty was personally
present; but as matters stood, these would
not be numerous, and a majority would
consist of a parcel of idle fellows who might
be induced by the hopes of plunder to re-
pair to his banner, but in time of need
would leave him to the mercy of the gov-
ernment forces, which would be poured into
the highlands to ravage the country and
exterminate the inhabitants.
A pretext
only was wanted, which an ineffectual
rising would give, and they who advised it
either did not know the true state of the

"" ex

king's affairs, or betrayed him, being weary and I wish you would learn from him who of his service, or in correspondence with his were his informers, and the way it is preenemies." Cameron made no reply to these tended the English government get my remarks, but said merely, "that the king cyphers, and what particular ones they prewas of another mind, and keen to be at it, tend to have." Lockhart naturally declined and wished to know if he would accompany to give this information, and he wrote him;" and Lockhart finally dismissed the rather coolly, expressing himself messenger, with a letter to the pretender, in tremely glad to learn that his majesty had which he strongly urged upon him the mad- such good reason for not believing that he ness of such an attempt as that he pro- was betrayed;" though he himself felt conposed. This, perhaps, might have had little fident of the truth of his information. effect, but the pretender's courage seems by Lockhart's jacobite zeal had indeed now this time to have cooled, and he soon after-subsided in a very sensible degree, and, wards proceeded to Avignon, where he disgusted with the conduct of the pretender ordered his wife to join him. She had, and his court, he determined to take advanhowever, now received information which tage of the efforts of some of his friends at led her to suspect the reception she would home to make his peace with the governreceive, and to decide on remaining where ment of king George. He therefore closed she was. Her husband published a new his correspondence with the exiled prince declaration of her conduct, to which she in a letter in which he expressed very plainly gave an apparently very sufficient reply; his opinion of his conduct, and to which no but all the efforts of Lockhart and other answer appears to have been returned. His friends of the pretender to effect a domestic application to the English government was reconciliation, were in vain. successful, through the intermediation of the duke of Argyle, the earl of Islay, and Duncan Forbes, and, having obtained, in 1728, permission to return to Scotland in safety, he retired entirely from public life. He penned at that period the following character of the old pretender, which is the best justification of his retirement:-"The king (i.e., the pretender) I am afraid daily loses ground: he began the world with the general esteem of mankind; every person, friend and foe, allowed (believed) him to be a wise, sober, just, good-natured prince, of great knowledge and application in business; and such as knew him, both foreigners and subjects, concurred in portending the happiness of the people over whom he should rule, and this character he maintained whilst the duke of Mar was at the head of his affairs after his return from Scotland. 'Tis true he was thought to put too much trust and show too much favour towards his grace, so as all matters were directed solely by him, whereby the duke of Ormond and several other persons of quality though themselves slighted and retired from the court; yet still affairs were managed with a good decorum and dexterity, and several well-laid projects carried on, and prudent negotiations set on foot, and people excused the king's having a bias towards a person that had made so great an effort for him, and who was certainly a very able minister, though not free from that ambition which overrules the minds of most statesmen, by

Nor was Lockhart more successful in his attempt to open the pretender's mind on the treachery of his worthless favourites, which, indeed, seemed only to increase his confidence in them. Having received distinct information on the subject from England, Lockhart wrote to the prince, "I received lately information from a particular friend, that he was assured that the ministry of London were masters of copies of most if not all the cyphers by which you, and such as are employed under you, correspond with your friends in Britain or elsewhere, and that by one of these they uncyphered the letters lately seized in Scotland;" and he hinted pretty distinctly at the source from which the cyphers had been obtained. James, however, was still deaf to everything disadvantageous to his favourites, and, in allusion to this information, he told Lockhart in a letter in reply, "I own to you it did not give me much uneasiness, for I was very sure of my secrets while Inverness served me, and I hope I am not less so now. The English government of late has been very solicitous to make people believe that my secrets are betrayed, since they are sensible that such a persuasion must create great diffidence towards me, and by consequence much distress my affairs, and therefore it must always be of use to me to remove such jealousies." He further expressed his wish "to know who was the person that gave you these informations,