battle had for Argyle all the advantages of a great victory. The insurgents returned to Perth in numbers greatly reduced by desertion. "We were not long in our old quarters," writes the Master of Sinclair, "when the bad news of our friends' misfortune at Preston was brought us." Mar felt that the time was come when he might through a friend, ask if Argyle was empowered to grant terms. Argyle replied that he would apply for such powers. Mar in his Diary says that no answer was returned to Argyle's application to the government in London.

It might have been wise in the government of George I. to have made some demonstration of a conciliatory policy. But the fear of a successful insurrection in England was overpassed. The affair of Preston had destroyed all the hopes of the northern Jacobites. Six thousand Dutch troops had landed, and were on their march to Scotland. Other reinforcements for Argyle's army were constantly arriving at Stirling. In this condition of strength no overtures towards oblivion were likely to be favourably regarded. An event now occurred which, if it had been well timed, might have rendered the struggle between the House of Brunswick and the House of Stuart more equal. James Edward had sailed from Dunkirk in a small armed vessel and had landed at Peterhead. He had only six followers, and proceeding through Aberdeen he reached the camp at Perth on the 16th of January, 1716. The advent of the prince was not so propitious to his cause as his adherents might have expected. The Highlanders gazed on a man of somewhat feeble frame and of listless action. In an account of the "Proceedings at Perth" it is said, "We saw nothing in him that looked like spirit. Our men began to despise him. Some asked if he could speak. His countenance locked extremely heavy. He cared not to come abroad among us soldiers, or to see us handle our arms or do our exercise." The prince whose appearance was thus so disappointing, took up his residence at Scone, and surrounded himself with all the etiquette of royalty. He issued proclamations, one of which commanded all able-bodied male persons to repair to his standard; another fixed the day of his coronation for the 23rd of January. Alarm seems to have been felt at the Court in London. Lord Townshend, who may be considered prime minister, was apprehensive that the Chevalier would receive assistance from France. On the 26th of January Townshend wrote thus to Horace Walpole, the English minister at the Hague: "The Pretender is now at Perth, and to be crowned king of Scotland. This step his friends here would not have suffered him to take in the present situation of affairs, unless the

THE PRETENDER IN SCOTLAND.

379

regent [of France] had given strong assurances of assistance. They send over in single ships, arms and ammunition, and officers; and those who are in the secret of their affairs seem confident, they shall be farther and more openly assisted as soon as the season will permit. For my part I cannot think anything can divert the regent from taking vigorously part with the Pretender, but a strict union amongst our old friends and allies, by which he will see, that he cannot meddle with our affairs here without involving France in a new war with all Europe; and by the best intelligence we have, the passion of the French is so strong in favour of the Pretender, that nothing but the fear of a new and general war can prevent their assisting our rebels here.”*

To have relied upon that union of strength with merciful conciliation which the ministers of George had in their own power without regard to continental alliances, might have been the best course for defeating the hopes of the Pretender. The regent of France was not disposed to give the aid to the Pretender which Townshend dreaded. The open assistance did not arrive. Argyle, with his reinforced army, was moving northward. Between him and Perth were villages in which shelter and provision might be obtained; and a decree went forth from the royal palace of Scone, by which the military commanders of Mar's forces were ordered to burn and destroy each village,-houses, cows, and forage. Six happy abodes of a peaceful population were thus devastated; and the inhabitants were turned out in the snow to perish. Mar, in a private letter, wrote, "We shall be forced to burn and destroy a good deal of the country to prevent the enemy marching, which goes very much against the king's mind, as it does mine and more of us; but there's an absolute necessity for it." The prince himself wrote to Argyle respecting this act, “It was indeed forced on me by the violence with which my rebellious subjects acted against me, and what they as the authors of it must be answerable for— not I." Mar's belief was that Argyle's troops could not march when there was no cover left; for "how they can endure the cold for one night in the fields I cannot conceive; and then the roads are so that but one can go abreast." But Argyle did march, although, it is alleged, with some reluctance. On the 21st of January, a party of dragoons went forth to report how far it was practicable to advance through a country buried in snow. On the 29th the main body moved, the peasantry having been pressed to clear the roads. On the 30th Argyle was at Auchterarder, one of the desolated villages. Terror began now to prevail amongst the cour

• Cone-"Walpole," vol. i. p. 50.

tiers in Perth. James Edward attended a council of war, and manifested extreme reluctance to compromise his personal safety. The Highlanders desired to place the king in the midst of them, and fight to the death-a desire by no means agreeable to an unenterprising man who now saw before him little else than a prospect of more signal misfortune than had yet awaited him. On the 30th of January, a day of evil omen, the army was informed that it was determined to retreat from Perth. They crossed the Tay upon the ice; and passing through Dundee reached Montrose on the 4th of February. Many of the Highlanders had previously dispersed, and had sought the shelter of their valleys. In the offing were several French vessels. Murmurs went through the camp that they were about to be deserted by the prince who had come to lead them to victory. Appearances were kept up by a guard of honour patrolling round the royal quarters. But the plan of escape had been effectuaily arranged. James Edward and the Earl of Mar passed at night by a lane to the harbour; got into a boat which was in waiting; were soon on board a French ship; and were safely landed near Gravelines. General Gordon, who was left chief in command, went on to Aberdeen with an army reduced to a thousand men. When Argyle entered Aberdeen on the 8th of February the whole insurgent army had melted away. The unhappy prince, whose attempt to regain the throne of his ancestors had thus so signally failed, wished to do a slight act of justice to the poor people who had been ruined by what he deemed a military necessity amongst rebellious subjects. With the letter to Argyle, which we have mentioned, he sent a sum of money, desiring it to be given as a relief to those whose homes he had commanded to be destroyed.

The Parliament met on the 9th of January, 1716. The Rebellion was necessarily the most prominent subject of the king's speech. The past successes were matter of congratulation; but the danger was not yet overpast. "Our enemies," said the king, animated by some secret hopes of assistance, are still endeavouring to support this desperate undertaking; and the Pretender, as I have reason to believe, is landed in Scotland." Amongst the ill consequences of this rebellion was the extraordinary burden which it must create. "I take," added his majesty, "this first opportunity of declaring, that I will freely give up all the estates that shall become forfeited to the crown by this rebellion, to be applied towards defraying the extraordinary expense incurred on this occasion." This incentive to a sweeping measure of attainder was scarcely necessary to stimulate the zeal of the majority in the Commons.

IMPEACHMENTS OF THE REBEL LORDS.

381

Not an hour was lost in the proceedings which were expected to consign many victims to the executioner. Before the House adjourned, Mr. Lechmere, in a speech which is reported at length, impeached James, earl of Derwentwater of high treason. This speech of the Whig member is remarkable for its emphatic assertion that the punishment of the leaders of the rebellion was a national question, involving the great principle of the Act of Settlement as opposed to the bare claim of hereditary right. In justice to the king, as well as the people, they ought to take this prosecution into their own hands. The power of impeachment, Mr. Lechmere said, was the most valuable and useful privilege that belonged to the body of the Commons; and he maintained that no pardon under the Great Seal could discharge a judgment obtained under such an impeachment. Six other members severally impeached William Lord Widdrington, William earl of Nithisdale, George earl of Winton, Robert earl of Carnwath, William viscount Kenmure, and William lord Nairn. The Commons agreed to the impeachments without any opposition; and on the same day the seven members carried their impeachments to the bar of the House of Lords. In a few days the articles against the seven noblemen were presented to the Peers; and on the 19th of January, they knelt at the bar, and each delivered his answer to the charges. The answers of all, with the exception of that of lord Winton, amounted to a plea of Guilty. When lord Derwentwater was asked by the Chancellor if he meant by his answer to plead guilty, the reply was, "He does; and submits to the king's mercy, and humbly desires their lordship's intercession to his majesty." The same supplication for mercy, founded upon extenuating circumstances set forth in their answers, was urged by the five Scottish noblemen whose pleas of guilty were recorded. On the 9th of February, Lord Derwentwater and his companions in misfortune were again brought to the bar of the House of Lords, and the ancient sentence in cases of high treason was pronounced by Lord Chancellor Cowper, who had been appointed by the king to act as Lord High Steward.

That unavoidable struggle between the advocates of an exemplary punishment for the highest legal offence, and the advocates for mercy towards mistaken but conscientious political offenders, now went on under circumstances of intense interest. The ordinary feelings of compassion, and the national dislike of bloodshedding, were more than commonly excited when it was known that the young countess of Derwentwater, surrounded by the highest ladies of the court, had obtained an audience of the king,

and implored pardon for her lord. It was known too that the wives of the lords Nithisdale and Nairn, had suddenly appeared in an antechamber through which king George passed, and throwing themselves at his feet, had disturbed the phlegmatic monarch by attempts to present their petitions. Lady Nithisdale has described this scene:" I caught hold of the skirt of his coat, that he might stop and hear me. He endeavoured to escape out of my hands; but I kept such strong hold, that he dragged me upon my knees from the middle of the room to the very door of the drawing-room. At last one of the blue ribbands who attended his Majesty took me round the waist, whilst another wrested the coat out of my hands. The petition, which I had endeavoured to thrust into his pocket, fell down in the scuffle, and I almost fainted away through grief and disappointment." Walpole, whose nature was wholly opposed to severity, took the statesman's view that condign punishment in the cases of these lords was essential to the public security. The lobbies of Parliament on the 21st of February were filled with high-born ladies who came in a body to petition the Lords and Commons. Many even of the Whig members of the Lower House, amongst whom was the kind-hearted Richard Steele,were advocates for mercy. Walpole, to prevent these appeals, moved the adjournment of the House to the 1st of March, during which interval the executions were to take place. Walpole only carried his motion by a majority of seven. In the House of Peers, upon a debate whether the king could pardon those condemned under impeachment, Nottingham, a member of the cabinet, opposed the opinion of his colleagues. The power of the king to pardon was affirmed; and an address to his majesty, to reprieve such of the condemned lords as should deserve his mercy, was voted by a small majority. The ministers could not wholly resist such manifestations. They met in council; resolved to reprieve the lords Nairn, Carnwath, and Widdrington; but issued an order for the execution of the lords Derwentwater, Kenmure, and Nithisdale on the following morning. On the 24th of February Derwentwater and Kenmure suffered death on a scaffold erected on Tower Hill. They each professed their remorse for having pleaded Guilty; and avowed their conviction that James III. was their rightful sovereign. The chamber in the Tower in which lord Nithisdale was confined was found vacant. His escape had been effected by the courageous agency of his devoted wife. The relation of this heroic adventure is contained in a letter from lady Nithisdale to her sister, after she had resided many years happily with her husband in France.*

• Published in "Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland,” vol. i. The chief passages are extracted in Lord Mahon's History, vol. ii. Appendix.