YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HISTORY OF ENGLAND PROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT TO THE PEACE OF VERSAILLES. 1713—1783. BY LORD MAHON. IN SEVEN VOLUMES. —VOL. III. 1740—1748. THIRD EDITION, REVISED. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1853. CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME. CHAPTER XXI. a.b. Page 1740. Probability of a war with France - - 1 And growing discontents at home - 2 Return of the Seceders to Parliament 3 Pulteney's explanation ib. Walpole's reply - - 4 Diminished strength of the Minister - 5 Opposition of the Duke of Argyle - 6 Dismissed from all his employments - 7 Death of Sir William Wyndham - 8 His character - - 9 Death of Lord Marchmont - ib. William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham 10 His early life - - - 1 1 He enters Parliament - ib. His career and character - - - 14 Supporters of Walpole - - 20 Sir WiUiasa Yonge and Mr.Winnington - - ib. Divisions in the Cabinet - - 21 Efforts of Walpole to preserve his power - - 22 His plan to separate England from Hanover - ib. His overtures to the Pretender - 23 State of the exiled family at Rome - - - 25 The two young Princes ... 26 The Duke of Ormond and Earl Marischal at Madrid - 27 Association in Scotland - - ib. Signed by seven principal persons ib. Contrast between Lovat and Loehiel - - - 28 A 2 JT CONTENTS. Page 1740. Lord Sempill and Drummond of Bohaldie in France ^ 29 - 31 - ib. Mr. Shippen Secret mission of the Marquis de Clermont Promises of Cardinal Fleury CHAPTER XXII. 33 343536 Expeditions against Spanish America Anson sails from Spithead Tempests off Cape Horn Hia squadron scattered He anchors at Juan Fernandez * °' Sufferings of his crew d° Shipwreck of the Wager - ?8 Byron's Narrative ™- The Jesuits of Castro ™ Prizes taken by Anson *i He attacks Paita ™ Plunder and conflagration of that town 4b Generous treatment of the prisoners *' Anson's cruise for the Manilla galleon - 48 His disappointments - ' ' tn He proceeds to the harbour of Chequetan - 50 Voyage across the Pacific - - 51 The Island of Tinian - - «'¦ The ship driven out to sea by a storm - 52 Distress of the crew on shore '*• The ship returns - 53 They sail to Macao - - - «»• Cruise off the Philippine Islands - - 55 Capture of the Manilla galleon - - - - 56 Return to Europe - - it. Second squadron, under Vernon - - 57 Sent to the West Indies - - - ib. Taking of Porto Bello - - 58 Extravagant rejoicings in England - 59 Vernon receives reinforcements - 60 Attack of Carthagena - •- 61 Preparations of the Spaniards for defence - ib. The English repulsed with loss - - 63 They return to Jamaica - - - - 64 Fruitless expedition against Santiago de Cuba - - ib. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. A. d. Page 1740. Last Session of this Parliament - 66 -Debates on the Address - - 67 1741. Motion for the removal of Sir Robert Walpole - 69 Mr. Samuel Sandys ... #,. Mr. Wortley Montagu .... 71 Secession of Edward Harley - - - 72 And of Shippen - - . . . ib. Walpole's reply - - - 73 His triumphant majority - - 75 Similar motion in the House of Lords - - ib. Subsidy to the Court of Vienna - - - 76 State of affairs on the Emperor's death - ib. Accession of Maria Theresa - ib. Her difficulties - - - - ib. Frederick the Second of Prussia - - - 77 He invades Silesia - 78 Battle of Molwitz - - - - - 80 New enemies against the Austrian monarchy - - ib. Fruitless negotiations - - - 81 Two French armies enter Germany - 82 Forced neutrality of Hanover - - 83 The Bavarian troops approach Vienna - ib. Maria Theresa seeks refuge in Hungary - ib. Her interview with the Diet at Presburg - 85 Hungarian enthusiasm and exertions - - 86 Prague reduced by the French and Bavarians - 87 The Elector of Bavaria crowned Emperor - 88 Dissolution of Parliament in England - - ib. The Westminster Election - - 89 Success of the Opposition leaders in various places ib. Their schemes and suggestions - 90 Indifference of Pulteney - ib. Advice of Chesterfield - - 91 Alleged secret mission to the South of France - 92 Events in the Mediterranean - - 93 Growing unpopularity of the administration - 94 CHAPTER XXIV. The new Parliament meets - - 95 Party struggles - - ib. Election Petitions - - - - 97 1742. Fruitless negotiation with the Prince of Wales - - 99 A 3 VI CONTENTS. A. D. Page 1742. Walpole betrayed by his colleagues - - - 99 His energy in debate ¦ 10u Defeated upon the Chippenham Election Petition 102 He resigns - - - 103 And is created Earl of Orford ... ib. Review of his administration 104 Popular outcry against him - - - 106 Patent of rank to his daughter - - ti. The King's message to Pulteney - - 107 Pulteney's answer - - 108 Second message - - - - 109 Pulteney refuses to take any office - - ib. But names the new administration - - 110 Dissatisfaction of the Tories - - - ib. Meeting at the Fountain Tavern - - 111 Speech of Pulteney - - - 112 And of Sandys - - ib. Ministerial arrangements completed - 113 Chesterfield and Pitt excluded - - - 1 1 5 Pulteney's conduct reviewed - - 116 His creation as Earl of Bath ¦ .- - 117 Representations from the principal Counties and Towns - 118 Cry for the blood of Walpole - 1 19 Secret Committee of Inquiry - - 121 Their Proceedings - - - - 122 Proposed Bill to indemnify Evidence - ib. Rejected by the House of Lords - ib. Courage of Scrope, Secretary of the Treasury - - 123 Report from the Secret Committee - ib. Popular ridicule upon them ... 124 Subsidy to Queen Maria Theresa - 125 Success of her arms in Germany - 126 Her conquest of Bavaria - ib. Invasion of her dominions by the King of Prussia 127 Peace concluded between them - - 128 Retreat of the French from Prague - 129 Affairs in the Mediterranean - - - 130 Forced Neutrality of Naples - - 131 CHAPTER XXV. State of public feeling in England - - - 132 Divisions in the new Cabinet - 133 Lord Hardwicke ... jj_ Lord Carteret ... 134 Views of the King - 135 CONTENTS. Vil A. D. Page 1742. Hanoverian troops taken into British pay - - 137 Violent clamours - - - - - ib. Speeches of Pitt and Sir John St. Aubyn - 138 1743. Motion of Earl Stanhope - - - -139 Pamphlet by Chesterfield and Waller - - - 140 Repeal of the Gin Act - - 141 The King proceeds to the Continent - - - 143 The British troops march from Flanders - 144 And encamp near Frankfort .... ;£, Advance of Marshal Noailles and the French army 145 Movements on both sides - - - - ib. Battle of Dettingen - - • - - 147 The French are defeated - - - - 1 49 And compelled to retire from Germany - - 1 5 1 The Rhine passed by the Allies - - - 152 Close of the campaign - - - - - ib. Affairs of Italy - - - - - - 153 Treaty signed at Worms - - - 1 54 Death of Lord Wilmington - - - - 155 Struggle in the Cabinet for his succession - ib. Henry Pelham appointed Prime Minister - - 156 His character - ... 157 Deaths of Lord Hervey and the Duke of Argyle - 158 Meeting of Parliament - - - 1 59 1744. Unpopularity of the Hanover Troops - - - ii Preparations against an expected French invasion - 1 60 The Habeas Corpus Act suspended - - - 161 Troops assembled near London - - - - 162 CHAPTER XXVI. Project of invasion from France - - - 1 63 Prince Charles Stuart - - - - - 164 His character - - - - - -165 He sets out from Rome - - - - 173 His adventurous journey - - - ib. His arrival at Gravelines in disguise - - - 1 74 The French squadron sails from Brest - ib. Encountered by the British off Dungeness - 175 Dreadful storm, and wreck of the French transports - ib. The invasion relinquished - - - - 176 Prince Charles at Paris - - - - 177 Naval battle off Toulon - - - -178 Campaign in Flanders - - - - -179 Alsace invaded by the Austrians - - - 180 Illness at Metz of Louis the Fifteenth - - - ib. Vlll CONTENTS. A. r. Page 1744. Frederick of Prussia again engages in the war 181 Campaign in Italy - - - - 182 Captivity of Marshal de Belleisle and his brother - ti. Deaths of Countess Granville, and the Duchess of Marl borough - 183 Cabals in the British Cabinet - - 184 Earl Granville (Lord Carteret) dismissed - 186 Chesterfield appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland 187 Pitt reconciled to the Government - - 188 1745. His declaration in the House of Commons - 189 The German subsidies continued - - 190 The Hanover troops still paid by England 191 Embassy of Chesterfield to the Hague - ib. Death of Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford 192 And of the Emperor ... ib. A nother campaign in Flanders - 193 The Duke of Cumberland commands the British - ib. Battle of Fontenoy - - 194 Energy of Marshal de Saxe - - - 196 Tournay taken by the French - 198 The Duke of Lorraine is elected Emperor - - 199 Peace of Dresden between Austria and Prussia - ib. The British reduce Cape Breton ... 200 CHAPTER XXVII. Prince Charles Stuart, at Paris ... 201 His projects and preparations - 202 Letters to his Father - 203 Rendezvous at Nantes - - - 205 Embarkation at the mouth of the Loire ib. Charles arrives among the Scottish Isles 206 And approaches the main land -- - 207 Interview with Clanranald and his kinsmen - ib. Charles's landing - . 208 He is joined by Lochiel - 1 209 And by other Chiefs - - 210 Skirmish at Spean Bridge - - 212 Raising of the Standard - . - 213 Charles marches onwards - - 214 Proceedings of the established Government - -215 General Sir John Cope - - - 2 1 6 March of Cope into the mountains - - n,. His retreat from before Corry Arrack - - 217 Charles descends into the Lowlands - 218 And enters Perth - - 220 CONTENTS. IX A. r>. Page 1745. Accession of the Duke of Perth - -221 And of Lord George Murray - ib. Further advance of Charles 224 He approaches Edinburgh - 225 State of feeling in that capital - ib. Preparations for defence - 226 The " Canter of Colt-brigg " - 229 Deputation sent to Charles - 230 The Netherbow Port surprised by his troops 231 The Highlanders occupy the city - ib. Public entry of Charles - - 232 His festival at Holyrood House 233 His march to the eastward 234 Landing of Cope at Dunbar - 235 Progress of the English General - 216 The two armies come in sight of each other 237 Their relative positions and manoeuvres - 238 Battle of Preston 239 Charles's moderation in victory - - 241 Flight of Cope to Berwick 242 CHAPTER XXVIII. Return of the King to England - - 243 Factions at Court - ib. Jacobite negotiations at Paris - - - 244 Projects of Charles - - 245 His triumphal return to Edinburgh - 246 Siege of the Castle begun - - 247 But relinquished - - 248 Clemency shown to the English prisoners - - 249 Charles's Proclamations - - - 250 New accessions to his force" - - 253 Camp formed at Duddingstone - - 254 Strictness of discipline - - ib. Supplies of money - - 255 Charles names a Council - 256 His mode of life at Holyrood House - - 257 His design of an expedition into England - - 258 Opposed by the Scottish officers ... n,. But insisted upon, and carried by Charles - - ib. Preparations of the British Government - 259 State of public feeling - - - - 260 The insurgent army begins its march - 261 Charles crosses the Border .... fa Siege, and reduction of Carlisle - - - 262 VOL. III. a CONTKHTS. A. D. Page 263264 1745. Feuds among the insurgent Chiefs They determine to push forward Inactivity of Marshal Wade 265 Charles enters Manchester 266 And Macclesfield 269 Mrs. Skyring ,6' The insurgents at Derby in; The Chiefs urge a retreat 272 Vehemently opposed by Charles 273 But in vain • - **¦ Public consternation in London ^{5 Probable result bad they advanced ^b. Their retreat to Scotland - - 277 Pursued by the Duke of Cumberland 279 Skirmish at Clifton - - 280 The Duke of Cumberland reduces Carlisle - 281 Prince Charles at Glasgow - 282 CHAPTER XXIX. 1746. Siege of Stirling Castle - - -284 General Henry Hawley - 285 His march against Prince Charles ib. Battle of Falkirk - 287 Hawley's retreat to Edinburgh 289 Burning of Linlithgow Palace 290 Siege of Stirling resumed by Charles 291 Arrival of the Duke of Cumberland - 292 Advance of his army - 293 Siege of Stirling raised • 294 The insurgents march to the northward 295 New Ministry formed at St. James's ib. But dissolved within two days 296 The war languishes in Scotland 297 The " rout of Moy " - ib. The Duke of Cumberland at Aberdeen 299 He pursues the insurgents - 300 Prince Charles at Culloden House ib. His night-march to Nairn 301 Failure of that attempt 302 Proposal of Lord George Murray 303 Battle of Culloden - - ib. Charles's conduct in the action 304 Dispersion of the Highland army 306 Cruel treatment of the prisoners and wounded 309 And of women and children 31 1 CONTENTS. xi A.D. page 1 746. Death of President Forbes 312 And of the Duke of Perth - ib. Charles's wanderings - 313 Flora Macdonald 314 Charles disguised in woman's clothes - -315 Concealed in a robber's cave - 316 His escape to France - 317 Trials and executions - 318 Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino - 319 Lord Lovat .... 320 Legislative measures - 32 1 CHAPTER XXX. Campaign in Flanders - - - 322 And in Italy - - ib. Earl of Chesterfield, Secretary of State - - 323 1747. His character - - - - 324 His Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland - - 327 Dissolution of Parliament and General Election - 330 Revolution at Genoa - 331 And in Holland ib. Battle of Lauffeld - - 333 The French reduce Berg-op-Zoom - 334 Despondency of the British Government ib. Negotiations for peace - - .335 Divisions amongst the Allies - 336 And amongst the Ministers in England - - 337 Dissatisfaction of Chesterfield - ib. 1748. He resigns the Seals - - 339 His pursuits in private life 341 Letters to his Son 343 Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle 344 Investment of Maestricht by the French ib. Negotiations of Lord Sandwich, at Aix - 345 Preliminaries of Peace ib. Resentment at Vienna and Turin 347 Definitive treaty signed - - ib. Hostages for the restitution of Cape Breton - ib. Prince Charles at Madrid ¦ - 348 He returns to Paris - - 349 His arrest and expulsion from France 350 Subsequent wanderings - ib. Miss Walkmshaw - 351 Portrait of Charles in his later years - 352 His death - - - 354 Conclusion - - 355 Appendix - - i — lxxix THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT. CHAPTER XXI. The year 1740 opened under no favourable auspices for Walpole, whether as regarding the peace of Europe or the stability of his administration in England. Abroad, the war with Spain, however unwillingly begun, must now be vigorously urged ; and there was this further evil attending it, that' a rupture with France would almost inevitably follow. This was a consequence that Sir Robert had always foreseen and feared ; it had been one of his main motives for peace, although of too delicate a nature for him to allege in debate. The monarchs of Spain and of France, bound together by close ties of kindred, always thought themselves natural allies, and the " Family Compact " existed in their minds long before it was concluded as a treaty or called by that name. Under the Regency of Orleans, indeed, different maxims prevailed, the Regent having good reason to consider the King of Spain not as a kinsman but as a rival. But under Fleury the old system returned in full force : he had used every endeavour to avert a war between tho Courts of London and Madrid ; when, however, that war actually ensued, he became more and more estranged vol. in. B 2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. from Ms English allies. The despatches of that period display the growing coldness, and point to the probable result. In the event, as I shall hereafter show, the war between England and Spain became grafted into that which arose throughout Europe on the death of the Em peror Charles the Sixth ; but had even that event not occurred, there seems every 'reason to believe that France would ere long have sided with Spain. This was the very evil which had been apprehended from the enthrone ment of the House of Bourbon in Spain : such was the very system against which Somers had negotiated and Marlborough fought ; and it is remarkable, that the same events should fully justify at once both the warlike coun sels of Godolphin and the pacific policy of Walpole. At home the unpopularity of the Minister was gather ing in the distance like a dark cloud on the horizon, ere long to burst in thunder on his head. He soon found that he had not bettered his condition by yielding to the foolish cry for war. Unjust clamours are not to be silenced by weak or wicked compliance ; instead of ap peasing their violence it only alters their direction. All the alleged misdeeds of Walpole — the Gin Act — the Play House Bill — the Excise Scheme — the corruption of Parliament, — the " unparalleled ruin " of the country, (for present distress is always called " unparalleled ") were now urged against him in combined array. He was held forth as the sole cause of national grievances, or rather as the greatest grievance in himself. Nay, more, it is certain that had Sir Robert even declared war against all Europe at this time, he could not have freed himself from the disgraceful imputation of being a friend of peace ; it would still have been thought that he was forced forward against his will, and that he would seize the first opportunity of indulging his base love of public quiet and prosperity. Such was the injustice of the moment ; and there had been for some time petty riots and risings, none of importance in itself, but in their aggregate denoting and augmenting the ferment of the people. * * See for example Boyer's Polit. State, vol. Ivi. p. 506. Lady Mary Wortley observes, " Our mobs grow very horrible : here are a vast " number of legs and arms that only want a head to make a very "formidable body." (Letters, vol. ii. p. 212. ed. 1837.) 1740. RETURN OF THE SECEDERS. 3 This ferment of the people gave of course strength and spirit to the Opposition in Parliament. The Seceders having felt the error of their course, eagerly seized the declaration of war as a pretext to change it. On the meeting of Parliament in November 1739, no sooner had the Address been moved and seconded, than Pulteney rose, in the name of the rest, to explain their altered views. He began by defending them for their Secession. " This step," he said, "however it has hitherto been cen- " sured, will, I hope, for the future be treated in a dif- " ferent manner, for it is fully justified by the declaration " of war, so universally approved, that any further vindi- " cation will be superfluous. There is not an assertion " maintained in it, that was not almost in the same words " insisted upon by those who opposed the Convention. " Since that time there has not one event happened that " was not then foreseen and foretold. But give me leave " to say, Sir, that though the treatment which we have " since received from the Court of Spain may have swelled " the account, yet it has furnished us with no new reasons " for declaring war ; the same provocations have only " been repeated, and nothing but longer patience has " added to the justice of our cause. The same violation " of treaties, the same instances of injustice and barbarity, " the same disregard to the Law of Nations, which are " laid down in this declaration, were then too flagrant to " be denied and too contemptuous to be borne It " is therefore evident that if the war be necessary now, " it was necessary before the Convention. Of this neces- " sity, the gentlemen known, however improperly, by the " name of Seceders, were then fully convinced. They " saw instead of that ardour of resentment and zeal for " the honour of Britain, which such indignities ought to " have produced, nothing but meanness, tameness, and " submission, .... to such conduct they could give no " sanction ; they saw that all opposition was ineffectual, " and that their presence was only made use of, that what " was already determined might be ratified by the ap- " pearance of a fair debate. They therefore seceded. . . . " The state of affairs is now changed ; the measures of " the Ministry are altered ; and the St. me regard for the " honour and welfare of their countrj that determined b 2 4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. « these gentlemen to withdraw, has now brought them « hither once more, to give their advice and assistance in « those measures which they then pointed out as the only " means of asserting and retrieving them. _ Sir Robert Walpole replied with great spirit After « what passed last Session, and after the repeated declara- " tions of the honourable gentleman who spoke last, and " his friends, I little expected that this Session we should « have been again favoured with their company. I am « always pleased, Sir, when I see gentlemen in the way « of their duty, and glad that these gentlemen have re- " turned to theirs ; though, to say the truth, I was in no " great concern, lest the service, either of His Majesty or « the nation, should suffer by their absence. I believe " the nation is generally sensible that the many useful " and popular Acts which passed towards the end of last " Session, were greatly forwarded and favoured by the " secession of these gentlemen ; and if they are returned " only to oppose and perplex, I shall not at all be sorry " if they secede again."* The debate on the King's Speech was not confined to this remarkable incident ; a warning it contained against "heats and animosities," being construed by the Oppo sition as an insult to themselves, was warmly resented. In the Commons, however, the Address passed unani mously ; but the Lords, stirred by eloquent speeches from Chesterfield and Carteret, divided, 68 for, and 41 against, the motion. During the whole of this Session it is easy to observe the Minister's diminished strength. His supplies indeed passed without difficulty ; the Land Tax was raised again to four shillings in the pound ; and four millions were granted for the war.f But on most other questions, * Pari. Hist. vol. ii. p. 89. Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 626. Bolingbroke is remarkably cautious in forbearing to give any opinion as to the policy of the Seceders returning, but seems against it. To Sir William Wyndham, Nov. 1. and Nov. 18. 1739. j " Four millions of money have been raised on the people this " year, yet in all probability nothing will be done Our situa- " tion is very extraordinary. Sir Robert will have an army, will not have a war, and cannot have a peace ! " Pulteney to Swift, June 3. 1740. (Swift's Works, vol. xix. p. 323.) .1740. DIMINISHED STRENGTH OF WALPOLE. 5 finding that he could not stand his ground, he prudently preferred concession to defeat. When Wyndham moved a violent Address to the Crown that no peace with Spain might be admitted unless the Right of Search were re nounced, the Opposition expected a great triumph, but were disappointed by Walpole declaring that he was the first to agree to the motion. When Pulteney brought in a Bill " for the encouragement of seamen," by which the public would be deprived of all share in prize-money, Walpole opposed it only in its first stage, but then sullenly and silently acquiesced. He agreed to an Address " that " a sufficient number of ships may be appointed to cruize " in proper stations for the effectual protection of trade ;" though the motion implied that the number of cruizers had hitherto been insufficient, and that the Ministers therefore had been neglectful of their duty. Still more evident was his sense of weakness when a Bill was intro duced by himself for registering all seamen capable of service, and rendering them liable to summons on emer gencies — a measure which he thought absolutely needful for the speedy equipment of the fleet. According to official returns, only 21,000 seamen could be mustered in the Royal Navy during the year 1739 *; while impressment from merchant shipping was an uncertain and invidious resource. Under these circumstances the Minister con sulted Sir Charles Wager and Sir John Norris, the heads of the Admiralty, who declared that they could devise no other remedy but a general registry of seamen, according to the system which prevailed in France. But when the measure thus framed was laid before the House it was received with general disapprobation, and even horror, as an introduction of French measures and French des potism ; it was certainly open to very grave objections, and after a faint defence was speedily dropped by the Minister. A general embargo upon shipping, to which he had recourse, was encountered with scarcely less clamour by the merchants ; they called it an intolerable oppression * See the Accounts presented to the House of Commons (Journals, January 28. 1740). This calculation of 21,516 is the average of the months, the number being less in the first months, but more in the later. B 3 6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. upon commerce, and petitioned the House of Commons to be heard by counsel against it. Their request was sup ported by the Opposition, but withstood by the Govern ment, and rejected by a large majority ; however, the latter soon afterwards yielded to a compromise, by which the merchants agreed to carry one third of their crew of landsmen, and to furnish one man in four to the King's ships ; while on the other hand, about the 14th of April, the embargo was removed. * — Who in this cautious and conceding Session could recognise the imperious and all- powerful Prime Minister ? The Opposition which at this time had gathered against Walpole might well indeed dismay him, supported as it was by so much popular favour, and comprising as it did almost every statesman of lofty talents or brilliant repu tation. In each House he saw arrayed" before him the accumulated resentments of twenty years. In the Lords, Chesterfield had become the most graceful and admired debater of the day.. With more depth of knowledge and more force of application, Carteret was equally powerful as a speaker : he was marked out by the public voice for office, and, like Galba, would ever have been deemed most worthy of power unless he had attained it. J The lively sallies of Bathurst, and the solemn invectives of Gower, continued to support the same cause ; and within the last year it gained a most important accession in the Duke of Argyle. He had very many times before turned round from one party to the other, and each of his former changes may be clearly traced to some personal and selfish motive. For this last change, however, no adequate cause is assigned. His enemies whispered that Argyle could always foresee and forsake the losing side $ ; yet in so long a life it is not impossible that for once he might deviate into disinterestedness. Thus much only we know, that after being a zealous supporter of Walpole's adminis- * Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 457. f Major private visus dum privatus fuit, et omnium consensu capax Imperii, nisi imperasset. (Tacit. Hist. lib. i. c. 49.) | " It is said that the Duke of Argyle is extremely angry. " It is " a common saying that when a house is to fall the rats go away." 1738. (Opinions of the Duchess of Marlborough, p. 7.) U1U. DISMISSAL OF ARGYLE. 7 tration during many years, he, in the Session of 1739, stood forth as one of its most bitter, most frequent, and most formidable assailants in debate. Yet Sir Robert, still wishing to keep measures with a man of such princely possessions, shining talents, and eminent services, left him in possession of every place, pension, office, or emolu ment, that had been lavishly heaped upon him as the price of his support. This forbearance was ere long taunted as timidity. Once in 1739, the Duke being pre sent under the gallery of the House of Commons to hear the debate, Pulteney turned his speech to some officers who had voted against the Convention, and had in conse quence been arbitrarily dismissed. " They who had the " courage," cried Pulteney, " to follow the dictates of their " own breasts were disabled from farther serving their " country in a military capacity. One exception, Sir, I " know there is, and I need not tell gentlemen that I have " in my eye one military person, great in his character, " great in his capacity, great in the important offices he " has discharged, who wants nothing to make him still " greater but to be stripped of all the posts, of all the " places he now enjoys. — But that, Sir, they dare not "do."* Want of daring, however, was seldom the fault of Wal pole where his own colleagues were concerned. Next year, finding that his moderation had but emboldened in stead of conciliating his enemy, he prevailed upon the King, by one order, to dismiss the Duke from all his em ployments. The news roused the Highland blood of Argyle. General Keith, brother to Earl Marischal, and a zealous Jacobite, was with his Grace when he received his dismission. " Mr. Keith," exclaimed the Duke, " fall " flat, fall edge, we must get rid of these people ! " — " which," says Keith, " might imply both man and master, " or only the man ! " | In the Lower House, at nearly the same moment, Sir * Tindal's Hist, vol viii. p. 404. f Letter of the Earl Marischal, June 15. 1740. Stuart Papers. I owe this extract to the kindness of the Right Hon. C. W. Wynn, who copied it at Carlton House. The original seems to have fallen from its right order, and I could not find it among the Stuart Papers of that year at Cumberland Lodge. B 4 8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. Robert Walpole was freed from one of his most powerful antagonists, Sir William Wyndham, who died at Wells after a few days' illness. His frame had always been deli cate* and he was only fifty-three years old ; for nearly half that period had he been a leading member of the House of Commons. " In my opinion," says Speaker Onslow, " Sir William Wyndham was the most made for a great " man of any one that I have known in this age. Every " thing about him seemed great. There was no incon- " sistency in his composition ; all the parts of his charac- " ter suited and helped one another. " f The same au thority, however, admits him to have been haughty and arrogant in temper, and without any acquirements of learning, f Pope extols him as " the master of our pas- " sions and his own ; " yet the latter praise, at all events, does not apply to his private life, since it appears that, though twice married §, he resembled his friends Boling broke and Bathurst as a man of pleasure. || As a states man, he wanted only a better cause, a longer life, and the lustre of official station (one more year would have brought it) for perfect fame. Born of an ancient lineage and in heriting a large estate, he dignified both his family and his fortune. The allurements which beguiled his lighter hours may have sometimes relaxed his public applica tion ; but the dangers which crossed his career and tried his firmness, left him unshaken and unchanged. His eloquence, more solemn and stately than Pulteney's, and perhaps less ready, was not less effective ; and I cannot praise it more highly than by saying that he deserved to be the rival of Walpole and the friend of St. John. * " When I was last among you, Sir William Wyndham was in a "bad state of health: I always loved him, and rejoice to hear from " you the figure he makes." Swift to Erasmus Lewis, July 23. 1 737. f Speaker Onslow's Remarks (Coxe's Walpole, vol. ii. p. 562 ) J This is confirmed by the Rev. Dr. King: "He was not eminent "in any branch of literature." (Anecdotes, p. 179.) § The first wife of Sir William was daughter of the Duke of Somerset, surnamed the Proud ; and the influence of that family in 1749 obtained for Sir Charles Wyndham, son and hen- of Sir William the title of Earl of Egremont. ' || See for example the Duke of Wharton's letter of February 3 1725. Appendix, vol ii. " 1740. SIR WILLIAM WYNDHAM. 9 In early life Wyndham was guilty of a failing which reason and reflection afterwards corrected : he thought and spoke with levity on sacred subjects. One instance of the kind, I am inclined' to mention, on account of the admirable answer which he received from Bishop Atter- bury ; an answer not easily to be matched, as a most ready and forcible, yet mild and polished reproof. In 1715 they were dining with a party at the Duke of Ormond's, at Richmond. The conversation turning on prayers, Wyndham said, that the shortest prayer he had ever heard of was the prayer of a common soldier just before the battle of Blenheim. " Oh God, if there be a God, save " my soul, if I have a soul ! " This story was followed by a general laugh. But the Bishop of Rochester, then first joining in the conversation, and addressing himself to Wyndham, said with his usual grace and gentleness of manner, " Your prayer, Sir William, is indeed very " short ; but I remember another as short, but a much " better, offered up likewise by a poor soldier in the " same circumstances : ' Oh God, if in the day of battle I "'forget thee, do thou not forget me!'" — The whole company sat silent and abashed.* To Bolingbroke, the loss of Wyndham was, both on public and private grounds, a deep and grievous blow. He deplores it in his letters, conjointly with another loss the Opposition had just sustained through the decease of the Earl of Marchmont, whose son and successor, Lord Polwarth, of course lost his seat in the House of Com mons, and yet (for it was a Scottish title) gained none in the House of Lords. Polwarth was a young man of dis tinguished abilities, of rising influence in the Commons, of great — perhaps too great party warmth.f " What a * Dr. King's Anecdotes, p. 7. Dr. King, then a very young man, was himself one of the party. f " I have heard some say that Lord Polwarth and his brother are " too warm ; but I own I love those that are so, and never saw much " good in those that are not." (Opinions of the Duchess of Marl borough, p. 72.) According to Horace Walpole, Sir Robert used to say to his sons, " when I have answered Sir John Barnard and Lord " Polwarth, I think I have concluded the debate." But we may dis trust the truth of this story, which seems intended as a side blow against Pitt and Pulteney. 10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. " star has our Minister!" writes Bolingbroke, "Wyndham " dead, Marchmont disabled ! The loss of Marchmont " and Wyndham to our country ! I can con- " tribute nothing, my dear Marchmont — thus I used to " speak to Wyndham, thus let me speak to you — I can " contribute nothing to alleviate your grief unless mingling " my tears with yours can contribute to it. I feel the " whole weight of it ; I am pleased to feel it ; I should " despise myself if I felt it less How impertinent " is it to combat grief with syllogism ! . . . . We lament " our own loss, but we lament that of our country too ! " * But whatever void the death of Wyndham may have left in the ranks of Opposition, there had — even before that shining orb was quenched — arisen in more happy augury, a still brighter star over the political horizon. What British heart does not thrill at the title of Chat ham, or — loftier still — the name of William Pitt? William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, was born in November 1708, of an old gentleman's family, first raised to wealth and eminence by his grandfather Thomas, Governor of Madras. It was he who brought over from India the celebrated diamond which still bears his name, and which weighing 127 carats, was the largest yet dis covered. He had given 20,000Z. for it on the spot, and afterwards sold it to the Regent Orleans for 125,000Z. During the interval, we are told that he used upon his journeys to conceal it in the cavity of one of the high- heeled shoes, which he wore according to the fashion of that day. Governor Pitt acquired political importance by purchasing the burgage tenures of Old Sarum, and political connection by the marriage of his daughter with General Stanhope in 1713. His grandson, William, was a younger brother, and intended for the army, but received his education at Eton, and Trinity College, Oxford. Scarce any thing is recorded of his life at either, except that even at school he was already attacked by the great bane and curse of his future life — an hereditary gout. * To Lord Marchmont, August 8. 1740, and an extract from a letter to Pope, of the same or nearly the same date. Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 224. et seq. Bolingbroke adds, " Multis fortunse vulneribus percussus huic uni me imparem sensi." 1740. WILLIAM PITT (LORD CHATHAM). 11 He was much noticed as a boy by his uncle Earl Stan hope, who discerned his rising talents, and according to a family tradition used to call him " the young Marshal." His complaint increasing at Oxford, he was compelled to leave the University without taking a degree, and to go abroad for his health. His tour was extended through both France and Italy, and it was his visit to Lyons that afforded the material (what does not afford it to genius ?) for one of his most splendid and celebrated bursts of oratory. When in 1755 Pitt thundered against the un worthy coalition of Fox and Newcastle, he compared it to the junction of the Rhone and Saone. " At Lyons," said he, " I remember I was taken to see the place where the " two rivers meet ; the one a gentle, feeble, languid stream, " and though languid, of no depth ; the other a boisterous " and impetuous torrent ; but different as they are they " meet at last." * On Pitt's return to England he obtained a Cornetcy in the Blues, and in 1735 entered Parliament as Member for Old Sarum. But his hopes of promotion in the former could never sway his conduct in the latter ; so far from it, that he immediately plunged into strong opposition against the all-powerful Minister. For such opposition had the Duke of Bolton and Lord Cobham been tyrannically de prived of their commissions, and the Cornet soon snared the fate of the Colonels. After one or two able and ardent speeches he was dismissed the service, at a time when, as Lord Chesterfield assures us, his patrimony was only 1001. a year.f His talents, however, had already attracted general notice : he was ere long appointed Groom of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, and continued to in veigh against the Minister with unabated energy and with expanding powers. At this period the Opposition had been reinforced by so many able men, who gradually fell off from Walpole, and gathered against him nearly all the talent of the country, that there seemed no longer any opening left for a youth of promise. But Pitt speedily showed, that even in the thickest crowd there is room enough for him who * Thackeray's Life, vol. i. p. 229. f Character by Lord Chesterfield. Works, vol. iv. ad fin. 12 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHA1". Ail. can reach it — over and upon their heads! He towered high above all his contemporaries, and if he still yielded to Pulteney or to Wyndham, it was to their weight and experience, and not to superior talent. His friend Lyttle- ton had, at first, been esteemed his equal, but the difference was soon displayed between a lofty genius, and merely a cultivated mind, — between the rising oak of the forests, and the graceful and pleasing but propped and feeble creeping plant. Let us now endeavour closely to view and calmly to judge that extraordinary man, who at his outset was pitied for losing a Cornetcy of Horse, and who within twenty years had made himself the first man in England, and England the first country in the world. He had re ceived from nature a tall and striking figure, aquiline and noble features, and a glance of fire. Lord Waldegrave, after eulogising the clearness of his style, observes that his eye was as significant as his words.* In debates, his single look could sometimes disconcert an orator opposed to him. His voice most happily combined sweetness and strength. It had all that silvery clearness, which at the present day delights us in Sir William Follett's, and even when it sank to a whisper it was distinctly heard ; while its higher tones, like the swell of some majestic organ, could peal and thrill above every other earthly sound. Such were his outward endowments ; in these, as in mind, how far superior to Lyttleton, who is described to us as having " the figure of a spectre and the gesticulations of " a puppet !"f Even the gout, that hereditary foe, which so grievously marred and depressed the energies of Chat ham in his later life, may probably have quickened them in his earlier. In fact, it will be found that illness, with all its pains and privations, has both enjoyments and ad vantages unknown to stronger health. Who that has for weeks together been bound to the narrow and stifling con finement of a sick-room, can forget the rapture with which he first again stepped forth to inhale the balmy breath of summer, and behold the whole expanse of an azure sky ? Thus also the distemper of Chatham, while it shut out * Memoirs, p. 15. t Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 175. 1740. william pitt (lord Chatham). 13 the usual dissipations of youth, either allowed or enforced the leisure for patient study, and might induce him to exclaim : Such are the compensations afforded in the all- wise scheme of Providence ! Of this leisure for study Lord Chatham had availed himself with assiduous and incessant care. Again and again had he read over the classics ; not as pedants use, but in the spirit of a poet and philosopher ; not nibbling at their accents and metres, but partaking in their glorious aspirations ; warmed by the flame, not raking in the cinders. As to style, Demosthenes was his favourite study amongst the ancients ; amongst the English Boling broke and Barrow.* But perhaps our best clue to Lord Chatham's own mental tasks, more especially in the field of oratory, is afforded by those which he afterwards so successfully enjoined to his favourite son. It may be stated on the authority of the present Lord Stanhope, that Mr. Pitt being asked to what he principally ascribed the two qualities for which his eloquence was most con spicuous — namely, the lucid order of his reasonings, and the ready choice of his words — answered that he believed he owed the former to an early study of the Aristotelian logic, and the latter to his father's practice in making him every day after reading over to himself some passage in the classics, translate it aloud and continuously into Eng lish prose. Nor was Lord Chatham less solicitous as to his own action and manner, which, according to Horace Walpole, was as studied and as successful as Garrick's ] : but his care of it extended not only to speeches, but even in society. It is observed by himself, in one of his letters, that " behaviour, though an external thing, which seems " rather to belong to the body than to the mind, is cer- " tainly founded in considerable virtues ; " J and he evi dently thought very highly of the effect of both dress and * His admiration of Bolingbroke's style in his political works I have already had occasion to mention (vol. i. p. 27.). We are told that he had read some of Barrow's Sermons so often as to know them by he&rt. (Thackeray's Life, vol. ii. p. 399.) f Memoirs, vol. i. p. 479. &c. j To Thomas Pitt, afterwards Lord Camclford, January 24. 1754. Letters published by Lord Grenville. 14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. address upon mankind. He was never seen on business without a full dress coat, and a tie wig, nor ever per mitted his Under Secretaries of State to be seated in his presence.* His very infirmities were managed to the best advantage ; and it has been said of him that in his hands even his crutch could become a weapon of oratory. TMs striving for effect had, however, in some respects, an unfavourable influence upon Ms talents, and, as it appears to me, greatly injured all Ms written composi tions. His private letters bear in general a forced and unnatural appearance ; the style of homely texture, but here and there pieced with pompous epithets and swelling phrases. Thus also in his oratory Ms most elaborate speeches were Ms worst ; and that speech wMch he de livered on the death of Wolfe, and probably intended as a masterpiece, was universally lamented as a failure. But when without forethought, or any other prepara tion than those talents which nature had supplied and education cultivated, Chatham rose — stirred to anger by some sudden subterfuge of corruption or device of tyranny — then was heard an eloquence never surpassed either in ancient or in modern times. It was the Mghest power of expression ministering to the highest power of thought. Dr. Franklin declares that in the course of his life he had seen sometimes eloquence without wisdom, and often wisdom without eloquence ; in Lord Chatham only had he seen both united.f Yet so vivid and impetuous were his bursts of oratory, that they seemed even beyond Ms own control ; instead of Ms ruling them, they often ruled him, and flashed forth unbidden, and smiting all before them. As in the oracles of old, it appeared not he that spake, but the spirit of the Deity within. In one debate, after he had just been apprised of an important secret of state, " I must not speak to-night," he whispered to Lord Shelburne, " for when once I am up, everytMng that is " in my mind comes out." No man could grapple more powerfully with an argument : but he wisely remembered that a taunt is in general of far higher popular effect, nor * Seward's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 362. fDr. Franklin to Earl Stanhope, Jan. 23. 1775 Chatham's Papers, vol. iv p. 385. 1740. WILLIAM PITT (LORD CHATHAM.) 15 did he therefore disdain (and in these he stood unrivalled) the keenest personal invectives. His ablest adversaries shrunk before him crouching and silenced. Neither the skilful and polished Murray, nor the bold and reckless Fox, durst encounter the thunderbolts which he knew how to launch against them ; and if these failed who else could hope to succeed ? But that wMch gave the brightest lustre, not only to the eloquence of Chatham, but to Ms character, was his loftiness and nobleness of soul. If ever there has lived a man in modern times to whom the praise of a Roman spirit might be truly applied, that man beyond all doubt was WilHam Pitt. He loved power — but only as a patriot should — because he knew and felt Ms own ener gies, and felt also that Ms country needed them — be cause he saw the public spirit languishing, and the national glory declined — because his whole heart was burning to revive the one, and to wreathe fresh laurels round the other. He loved fame — but it was the fame that follows, not the fame that is run after — not the fame that is gained by elbowing and thrusting, and all the little arts that bring forward little men — but the fame that a Minister at length will and must wring from the very people whose prejudices he despises, and whose passions he controls. The ends to which he employed both Ms power and Ms fame will best show his object in obtaining them. Bred amidst too frequent examples of corruption ; entering public life at a low tone of public morals ; standing between the mock-Patriots and the sneerers at patriotism — between Bolingbroke and Wal pole — he manifested the most scrupulous disinterested ness, and the most lofty and generous purposes : he shunned the taint Mmself, and in time removed it from Ms country. He taught British statesmen to look again for their support to their own force of character, instead of Court cabals or Parliamentary corruption. He told his fellow-citizens, not as agitators tell them, that they were wretched and oppressed, but that they were the first nation in the world — and under Ms guidance they beeame so ! And moreover (I quote the words of Co lonel Barr6, in the House of Commons), " he was pos- " sessed of the happy talent of transfusing Ms own zeal 16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. " into the souls of all those who were to have a share in " carrying Ms projects into execution ; and it is a matter " well known to many officers now in the House, that no " man ever entered the Earl's closet who did not feel " himself, if possible, braver at his return than when he " went in." * Thus he stamped his own greatness on every mind that came in contact with it, and always successfully appealed to the Mgher and better parts of human nature. And though Ms influence was not ex empt from the usual gusts and veerings of popularity — though for some short periods he was misrepresented, and at others forgotten — though Wilkes might conclude a libel against him with the words, " He is said to be " still living at Hayes in Kent ; " yet during the greater part of his career, the nation looked up to its " Great " Commoner," (for so they termed him,) as to their best and truest friend, and when he was promoted to an Earldom they still felt that his elevation over them was hke that of Rochester Castle over Ms own shores of Chatham — raised above them only for their own protec tion and defence ! Such was the great genius, that in office smote at once both branches of the House of Bourbon, and armed Ms countrymen to conquest in every clime ; while at home (a still harder task ! ) he dissolved the old enmities of party prejudice, quenched the last lingering sparks of Jacobitism, and united Whigs and Tories in an emulous support of Ms administration. The two parties thus in termingled and assuaged at the death of George the Second, ere long burst forth again, but soon with a" coun ter-change of names, so that the Whigs now stand on the old footing of the Tories, and the Tories on that of the Whigs. Were any further proof required of a fact which I have elsewhere fully, and, I believe, clearly unfolded, I could find it in the instance of Lord Chatham and of Mr. Pitt. It has never been pretended that the son entered public life with a different party, or on other principles than Ms father. Yet Lord Chatham was called a WM"-, and Mr. Pitt a Tory. I am far, however, from maintaining that Chatham's * Speech of Colonel Barre, May 13, 1778. Pari. Hist. vol. xix. 1740- WILLIAM PITT (LORD CHATHAM) 17 views were always wise, or his actions always praise worthy. In several transactions of his life, I look in vain for a steady and consistent compass of his course, and the horizon is too often clouded over with party spirit or personal resentments. But his principal defect, as I conceive, was a certain impracticability and way wardness of temper, that on some occasions overmastered* his judgment and hurried him along. To give one in stance of it ; when, not in the hey-day of youth, not in the exasperations of office — but so late as 1772, and in the midst of his honoured retirement, he was replying to the speech of a Prelate, and to the opinion of a College of Divinity, he could so far fall in with the worst rants of the Dissenters, as to' exclaim that " there is another " College of much greater antiquity as well as veracity, " which I am surprised I have never heard so much as " mentioned by any of his Lordship's fraternity, and that " is the College of the poor, humble, despised fishermen " who pressed hard upon no man's conscience, yet sup- " ported, the doctrines of Christianity both by their lives " and conversations But, my Lords, I may pro- " bably affront your rank and learning by applying to " such simple antiquated authorities, for I must confess " that there is a wide difference between the Bishops of " those and the present times ! " * Yet who was the Prelate against whom these sneers were aimed ? Was it any Bishop of narrow views, of sordid and of selfish mind ? No, it was the irreproachable, the mild, the good, the warm-hearted and the open-handed Bishop Barrington ! Yet, as I think, these frailties of temper should in justice be mainly ascribed to his broken health, and to the consequence of broken health — his secluded habits. When in society, Lord Chesterfield assures us, that he was " a most agreeable and lively companion, and had " such a versatility of wit, that he could adapt it to all " sorts of conversations." But to such exertion his health and spirits were seldom equal, and he, therefore, usually confined himself to the intercourse of his family, by whom he was most tenderly beloved, and of a few obse- * Thackeray's Life, vol. ii. p. 247 vol. m. c 18 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. -X-&.J. quious friends, who put him under no constraint, who assented to every word he spoke, and never presumed to have an opinion of their own. Such seclusion is the worst of any in its effects upon the temper ; but seclu sion of all kinds is probably far less favourable to virtue than it is commonly beheved. When WMtefield ques tioned Conrade Mathew, who had been a hermit for forty years amidst the forests of America, as to his in ward trials and temptations, the old man quaintly but impressively replied : " Be assured, that a single tree " which stands alone is more exposed to storms than one " that grows among the rest ! " * I have lingered too long, perhaps, on the character of Chatham ; yet, what part of an historian's duty is more advantageous to Ms readers, or more delightful to him self, than to portray the departed great — to hold forth their eminent quahties to imitation, yet not shrink from declaring their defects ? And in spite of such defects, I must maintain that there are some incidents in Chat ham's life, not to be surpassed in either ancient or mo dern story. Was it not he who devised that lofty and generous scheme for removing the disaffection of the Highlanders, by enlisting them in regiments for the ser vice of the Crown ? Those minds which Culloden could not subdue, at once yielded to Ms confidence : by trust ing, he reclaimed them ; by putting arms into their hands, he converted mutinous subjects into loyal soldiers ! Let Rome or Sparta, if they can, boast a nobler thought ! But the most splendid passage in Lord Chatham's public life was certainly the closing one : when on the 7th of April 1778, wasted by Ms dire disease, but im pelled by an overruling sense of duty, he repaired for the last time to the House of Lords, tottering from weak ness, and supported on one side by his son-in-law Lord Mahon, on the other by his second son William, ere long to become hke himself the saviour of his country. Of such a scene even the slightest details have interest, and happily they are recorded in the words of an eye-witness. Lord Chatham, we are told, was dressed in black velvet, but swathed up to the knees in flannel. From within * See Whitefield's Journal, Nov. 27. 1739. 1740. WILLIAM PITT (LORD CHATHAM). 19 his large wig Httle more was to be seen than his aquiline nose and his penetrating eye. He looked, as lie was, a dying man ; " yet never," adds the narrator, " was seen " a figure of more dignity ; he appeared like a being of a " superior species." He rose from his seat with slowness and difficulty, leaning on his crutches and supported by his two relations. He took his hand from his crutch and raised it, lifting his eyes towards Heaven and said, " I " thank God that I have been enabled to come here this " day — to perform my duty and to speak on a subject '' which has so deeply impressed my mind. I am old " and infirm — have one foot, more than one foot in the " grave — I am risen from my bed to stand up in the " cause of my country — perhaps never again to speak " in this House." The reverence, the attention, the still ness of the House were here most affecting ; had any one dropped a handkerchief the noise would have been heard. At first he spoke in the low and feeble tone of sickness, but as he grew warm, his voice rose in peals as high and harmonious as ever. He gave the whole history of the American war, detailing the measures to which he had objected, and the evil consequences which he had fore told, adding at the close of each period, " and so it " proved." He then expressed his indignation at the idea, which he heard had gone forth, of yielding up the sovereignty of America : he called for vigorous and prompt exertion ; he rejoiced that he was stiU alive to lift up Ms voice against the first dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy. After him the Duke of Richmond attempted to show the. impossibility of still maintaining the dependence of the colonies. Lord Chat ham heard him with attention, and when His Grace had concluded, eagerly rose to reply ; but this last exertion overcame him, and after repeated attempts to stand firm, he suddenly pressed Ms hand to his heart and fell back in convulsions. The Duke of Cumberland, Lord Temple, and other Peers caught him in their arms, and bore Mm to a neighbouring apartment, while the Lords, left in the House, immediately adjourned in the utmost con fusion and concern. He was removed to Hayes, and Hngered tiU the 11th of May, when the mighty spirit c 2 20 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. was finally released from its shattered frame*, — Who that reads of this soul-stirring scene — who that has seen it portrayed by that painter, whose son has since raised himself by his genius to be a principal light and orna ment of the same assembly — who does not feel, that were the choice before him, he would rather live that one triumphant hour of pain and suffering than through the longest career of thriving and successful selfishness ? My theme has borne me onwards, far beyond the period I had chosen, or the length I had designed ; but let me now return to 1740. — Against the rising talents of Pitt, against the practised skill of the other Opposition chiefs, especially Pulteney, Barnard, and Polwarth, what had Walpole to oppose ? — himself alone. His extreme jea lousy of power had driven from his counsels any other member of the House of Commons, who could, even in the remotest degree, enter into competition with him. His colleagues and supporters were, therefore, only of two classes ; in the first place, men of respectable cha racter and plodding industry, but no aspiring abilities, such as Henry Pelham ; secondly, men of superior talents, but for some cause or other, not clear in reputation, and looked upon as political adventurers. Of this class was Sir William Yonge, a man whose fluency and readiness of speech amounted to a fault, and were often urged as a reproach, and of whom Sir Robert himself always said, that nothing but Yonge's character could keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts support Ms character. f Of this class also were Mr. Winnington, and in the other House, Lord Hervey. Amongst the Peers, it is true that the Duke of New castle was ready, and. Lord Hardwicke most able in de bate ; but these, as I have already shown, were by no * See Seward's Anecdotes, vol. ii. (Art. Lord Chatham) and Thackeray's Life, vol. ii. p. 376-381. t Horace Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 20. The old Duchess of Marlborough observes, with her usual coarse shrewdness, " If it were " possible to have all done that I wish, nobody should go unrewarded " that deserves . . But Sir Robert seems quite of another opinion, and " never likes any but fools, and such as have lost all credit." To the Earl of Marchmont, August 29. 1740. Marchmont Papers, voL ii. p. 233. 1740. IUV1SIOXS IN THE CABINET. 21 means cordially joined with Walpole upon the Spanish question. Indeed, in precise proportion as the Minister's unpopularity increased. Newcastle grew less and less friendly in his sentiments, or submissive in Lis tone. Numerous bickerings and altercations now arose between them. Lord Godolphin having announced his intention to resign the Privy Seal, it was the intention of Walpole to appoint Lord Hervey in Ms place : this, however, was warmly resisted by Newcastle, who declares in one of his letters : " Sir Robert Walpole and Pulteney are not " more opposite in the House of Commons, than Lord •• Hervey and I are with regard to our mutual inelina- " tins to each other in our House."* Notwithstanding his murmurs, and even a threat of resignation (wMch Walpole well knew that Newcastle, under any circum stances, could never ind it in his heart to fulfil,) Sir Robert persevered, and the appointment of Lord Hervey took place in April 1740. Another time, in conversation, the Dc;ke wishing to reflect upon Walpole as sole Minister. mattered that. - n ot to have the liberty of giving one's ~ opinion before measures are agreed upon, is very wrong." "What co vou mean? " Walpole angrily replied, "The " war is yours — you have had the conduct of it — I wish " yon joy of it 1 ~ j On another occasion again, the expedi tions to America being discussed in Council, and it being proposed by Newcastle to send another ship of 60 guns (the Salisbnrv\ the Prime Minister objected, and cried with mneh asperity. ~ What, may not one poor sMp be ~ ktt at home ? Must every a-scident be risked for the " West Indies, and no consideration paid to this country? " Newcastle recapitulated his reasons, but Walpole replied with still more heat, "I oppose nothing -. I give into every - thing : am said to do every thing : am to answer for a every thing, and yet. God knows. I dare not do what *• I trii-'V right. I am of opinion for having more ships " oi tie squadron left behind; but I dare not. I will not " make aar alteration. Ijet them go ! Le: them go I " i * Tc L:x3 Hsri— Icia. October li 1 73?. E^-awieie FjpErs. and Cciie's Ccpies. t Dote of X ewessde to lard Hardwire. Oercbur 23. 1 74a J Bad. October 1. 1740. c S 22 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. These petty altercations, each carefully detailed by New castle to his " dearest friend" Lord Hardwicke, strongly manifest the declining ascendency of Walpole, and prove that his Cabinet was threatened with internal dissolu tion, not less than by outward pressure. The health and high spirits of Walpole began to fail before this array of difficulties. His son Horace writes to a friend in 1741, " He who always was asleep as soon " as his head touched the pillow, now never dozes above " an hour without waking ; and he, who at dinner always " forgot he was Minister, and was more gay and thought- " less than all his company, now sits without speaking, " and with his eyes fixed for an hour together. Judge if " this is the Sir Eobert you knew !"* Yet in public Hfe his energy and courage were wholly unabated, and he thought only of schemes to recover his lost ground. The expeditions to America, if crowned with success might, he hoped, go far to retrieve his popularity. Another scheme more extraordinary, and at the moment un suspected, was to prevail upon the King to consent to a Bill, that at his death the Electorate of Hanover might be dissevered from the Crown of England. This project is recorded by the unimpeachable authority of Speaker Onslow. " A little before Sir Eobert Walpole's fall, and " as a popular act to save himself, he took me one day " aside and said, ' What will you say, Speaker, if this " ' hand of mine shall bring a Message from the King to " ' the House of Commons, declaring his consent to having " ' any of his family, after his own death, made by Act of " ' Parliament incapable of inheriting and enjoying the " ' Crown and the Electoral dominions at the same time? ' " My answer was, ' Sir, it will be as a Message from " ' Heaven.' He replied, " ' It will be done.' " f By this project Walpole undoubtedly expected to gratify, not only the people's distaste to Hanover, but also the King's aversion to the Prince of Wales. Yet, whether the diffi culties at Court proved greater than he had foreseen, or whether he was diverted by other and more pressing * To Sir Horace Mann, October 19. 1741. t Speaker Onslow's Remarks, Coxe's Walpole, vol. ii. p. 571. 1740. OVEETCKES TO JAMES. 23 affairs, it does not appear that any further progress was made in the design. But the most surprising measure to which Walpole was driven by his difficulties, was an application to the Pre tender at Bome, with the view of obtaining the support of the Jacobites in England. It appears that in the summer of 1 739. Thomas Carte the historian, being then about to undertake a journey to Bome, was entrusted with a message from Walpole to the Pretender, declaring his secret attachment, and promising his zealous services, but desiring to have some assurances of James's intentions as to the Church of England, and as to the Princes of the House of Hanover. In reply James wrote and put into the hands of Carte a very judicious letter, in which he expresses great doubts as to the sincerity of Walpole's good wishes, but promises that if they shall be real and effective they shall be duly rewarded at his restoration. " I have no difficulty,*' he adds, " in putting it in your " power to satisfy him authentically on the two articles " about which he is solicitous, since, independent of his " desires. I am fully resolved to protect and secure the - Church of England, according to my reiterated pro- u mises. As for the Princes of the House of Han- " over, I thank God I have no resentment against them. '• nor against any one living. I shall never repine at a their living happily in their own country after I am K in possession of my kingdoms ; and should they fall into K my power, upon any attempt for my restoration, I shall K certainly not touch a hair of their heads.'' * This letter was delivered to Walpole by Carte on his return, and it is still to be found amongst Sir Bobert's papers, endorsed with his own hand. Xo one, I presume, will here do Wal pole the injustice to suspect him of sincerity. His zeal for the House of Hanover had been proved by most emi nent services : and there seems httle doubt that his object was only, as Sunderland's had been eighteen years before, to catch the votes of the Jacobites at the next elections. * James to Mr. T. Cane, July 10. 1739. See Appendix. 3Jx. Cose had a copy of this lener. and c: the endorsement, amongst his H5$_ and ought not, I think, to have suppressed all mention of it in his Life of Walpole. c 4 24 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. Nay more, it is not improbable that like Sunderland he may have communicated the correspondence to the King. I am only astonished how this wily statesman could ex pect that, after his past career, the Pretender would be satisfied with words, or fail to insist upon deeds. We find, also, that Walpole in like manner tried his skill with Colonel Cecil, who, since the death of Lord Orrery, in August 1737, had become one of the principal Jacobite agents ; and that, by professing his devotion to the same principles, he often drew from Cecil several im portant secrets.* Even in the beginning of 1741, we may observe Carte, in a letter to the Pretender, still expressing some hope of Sir Eobert's good intentions, j Of all the reasons to be alleged in justification of Sir Eobert Walpole's pacific policy, there is none perhaps of greater weight than the new life and spirit which the Pretender and his party derived from the war. For several years had they been dwindling into insignificance ; their hopes and projects, though sufficiently numerous, never followed by results nor claiming the notice of his tory. But as soon as foreign states became hostile to England, and had therefore an interest in overthrowing the government, or at least disturbing the tranquillity, of England, from that very moment the Jacobite conspiracy assumed a more regular and settled form, and presented a lowering and formidable aspect. I must now, then, again advert to the machinations of the exiled Prince, his adherents and allies ; and trace the progress of that smouldering flame which ere long burst forth in another civil war. James was still residing at Eome. In 1735 his consort, the titular Queen Clementina, had died of asthma f, and this event, though they had lived far from happily to gether, seems to have greatly increased his usual dejection both of mind and manner. An interesting account of his * Dr. King's Anecdotes, p. 37. t Letter from Mr. Carte to James (received April 17. 1741). See Appendix. { Boyer's Polit. State, vol. xlix. p. 258. A splendid monument was raised to her memory by Pope Benedict XIV., and a medal struck on the occasion. See Stuart Medals, No. 55., in Sir Henry Ellis's Catalogue. 1740. THE STUARTS AT BOME. 25 appearance and habits in 1740, may be drawn from the lively letters of President des Brosses ; letters which formerly appeared in a mutilated shape, but of late have been published correctly: — " The King of England is " treated here with as much respect as though he were a " real reigning Sovereign. He lives in the Piazza di " Sant' Apostoli, in a large palace not remarkable for " beauty.* The Pope's soldiers mount guard there as '¦' at Monte Cavallo, and accompany him whenever he " goes out, which does not happen often. It is easy to " know him for a Stuart ; he has quite the air of that " family ; tall and thin, and in his face very like the por- " traits we have in France of his father James the Second. " He is also very like Marshal Berwick, his illegitimate " brother, except that the Marshal's countenance was sad " and severe, while that of the Pretender is" sad and silly. " His dignity of manners is remarkable. I never saw " any Prince hold a great assembly so gracefully and so " nobly. Yet, his life, in general, is very retired, and he " only comes for an hour to take part in the festivals " which he gives from time to time, through his sons, to " the ladies of Eome. His devotion is excessive ; he " passes his whole morning in prayers at the Church of " the Holy Apostles, near the tomb of his wife. Of his " talents I cannot venture to speak positively, for want of " sufficient information ; they seem but moderate, yet all " his conduct is reasonable and befitting his condition. " Although I have often the honour of seeing him, he " appears but for a moment on returning from church ; " he then goes into his closet and remains there till dinner. " He speaks little at table, but with much courtesy and " good nature, and withdraws soon after the meal is con- " eluded. He never sups at night. His table for dinner " is always equally laid with eleven covers for the ten " persons of his family, who in general dine with him ; " but whenever any foreign or Eoman gentlemen wait " upon him in the morning, he most commonly asks them " to stay dinner, and in that case a corresponding number " of his attendants go and dine at another table, so that * This was the Palazzo Muti. James died there in 1766. See Melchiorri, Guida di Eoma, part ii. p. 566. 26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAF. iii. " at his own the number is always the same. When he " sits down to dinner, his two sons, before they take their " places, go to kneel before him and ask his blessing. To " them he usually speaks in English, to others in Italian " or in French. " Of these two sons, the elder is called the Prince of " Wales, the younger the Duke of York. Both have a " family look ; but the face of the latter is still that of a " handsome child. They are amiable and graceful in " their manners ; both showing but a moderate under- " standing, and less cultivated than Princes should have " at their age. They are both passionately fond of music, " and understand it well : the eldest plays the violoncello " with much skill ; the youngest sings Italian airs in very " good taste : once a week they give an excellent concert, " which is the best music at Eome. The English, who " always swarm in this city, are most eager to have an " opportunity of seeing these Princes. The youngest, " especially, is much liked in the town, on account of his " handsome face and pretty manners. Yet I hear from " those who know them both thoroughly, that the eldest " has far higher worth, and is much more beloved by his " friends ; that he has a kind heart and a high courage ; " that he feels warmly for his family misfortunes ; and " that if some day he does not retrieve them, it will not " be for want of intrepidity. They tell me, that having " been taken, when quite a stripling, to the siege of Gaeta " by the Spaniards, one day during the voyage his hat " blew off" into the sea. The people round him wished to " recover it. ' No,' cried he, ' do not take that trouble ; " ' I will some day go the same way my hat has gone, if " ' things remain as they are.' " * The chief Minister of James, and by far the ablest man at his little Court, was James Murray, the titular Earl of Dunbar ; his unworthy brother-in-law, Lord Inverness, had died this very year at Avignon. Soon afterwards one Mr. Edgar, who is mentioned in 1728 in some letters * The title of this work is TItalie il y a Cent Ans, and the passage 1 have translated is taken from vol. ii. p. 93 — 100., ed. 1836. I have found this work, in other parts, both acute and impartial. 1740. THE JACOBITE PARTY. 27 from Italy*, having become James's private Secretary, also obtained considerable influence over him. As to hopes of foreign succour, the Duke of Ormond and the Earl Marischal had hastened to Madrid upon the rupture with England, but did not find or make any very favour able opening in that quarter. " Nothing," writes the Earl, " has been intended here against the English Govern- " ment, which they know was forced into the war, and " which they count on as ready to forward peace as soon " as they dare." f But in France, the Jacobite prospects were of brighter hue. When Cardinal Fleury perceived that France must probably follow Spain in a breach with England, he began to lend a ready ear to the malcontents and exiles, and entered into their designs, with secrecy indeed and caution, but still considerable warmth. In the first place, however, he paused to ascertain what the Jacobites could effect for themselves at home, declaring that if they would fulfil their assurances, he would be no niggard of his aid. The Jacobite party in Britain, so long as peace con tinued, was well described by Bolingbroke as " an unor- " ganized lump of inert matter, without a principle of life " or action in it ; capable of mobility, perhaps, but more " capable of divisibility, and utterly void of all power of " spontaneous motion." f But war was the Promethean spark that kindled the sluggish mass. In Scotland an association in favour of the exiled family, undertaking to risk life and fortune, whenever a body of foreign troops should land as auxiliaries, was signed in 1740 by seven principal persons, namely, the Earl of Traquair, a Eoman Catholic nobleman ; his brother Mr. John Stuart ; the titular Duke of Perth ; his uncle Lord John Drummond ; * See Atterbury's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 206. f Earl Marischal to James, June 21. 1740. Stuart Papers, Ap pendix. Among other points in this letter it is interesting to observe the Lord Marischal's love of Plutarch, which afterwards became one of the ties of his intimate friendship with Rousseau. Rousseau himself says of Plutarch, not long before his death, " Dans le petit nombre de " livres que je Us quelquefois encore, Plutarque est celui qui m'attache " et me profite le plus. Ce fut la premiere lecture de mon enfance, " ce sera la derniere de ma vicillesse." (Quatrieme Reverie, (Euvres, vol. iii. p. 272. ed. 1822.) % To Sh- William Wyndham, January 25. 1740. 28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. Sir James Campbell of Auchinbreck ; Lord Lovat ; and young Lochiel. The name of Lovat may excite some sur prise in those who remember his activity against the in surgents of 1715, but this crafty and selfish old man had been offended at some attempts of the Government to in troduce law and order in the Highlands : he thought also his former service ill rewarded, and declared that he had not received enough — a word which, with him, always meant a little more than he had ! What, then, were his feelings, when in 1736, having excited the suspicions of the Government, he was stripped of the place and pension which he already enjoyed! Incensed, but with caution mastering even his most violent resentments, he plunged, eager, yet still dissembling, into the Jacobite designs. The mind of Donald Cameron, young Lochiel, was cast in a far different mould:' full of courage, hospitality, and honour ; a true model of that chivalrous character which poets have feigned, oftener than found, in feudal chiefs. For the cause of the Stuarts had the father fought and bled, and was now living attainted and in exile ; for that cause, even when buoyed up by no visions of victory, the son was as ready to devote the last drop of his blood, the last acre of his lands. An erring principle, but surely a most noble fidelity ! His energy in war, his courtesy and charity in peace, are recorded even by his political (he could have no private) enemies. One of these, a courtly poet, unable to comprehend either how so excellent a man should be , hut out from Paradise, or how any person of Jacobite principles could possibly enter in, ingeniously solves the difficulty by presuming that Lochiel will be come " a Whig in Heaven." * Nowhere, I think, do our annals display a more striking contrast than this between Lovat and Lochiel. The one, hoary with age, and stand ing on the very brink of the grave, yet trembling with eagerness for none but worldly and evanescent objects ; willing to sacrifice honour, conscience, country, nay, even, as we shall find hereafter, his own son, victims at the shrine of his unprincipled ambition ! The other in the prime of manhood, with aims as pernicious for the public, but in him most pure and lofty : swayed not by places or * Scots' Magazine, 1748. 1740. LOTAT AND LOCHIEL. 29 pensions, by coronets and ribands, but by his own inward and impelling sense of right : faithful to James, only be cause he believed, however erroneously, that James was his rightful King — only because he felt that his duty and devotion to the King were a part of his duty and devotion to the Almighty King of Kings ! Having formed their plot, the seven leaders next de termined to impart it to their Prince, through a con fidential agent, and for this purpose they pitched upon Mac Gregor, otherwise called Drummond, of Bohaldie. He was directed, on his return from Eome, to make some stay at Paris, and was entrusted with a memorial to Car dinal Fleury, giving an account of the design, and con taining a list of the Highland Chiefs well affected to the Stuart cause, such as Sir Alexander Macdonald and Mac Leod. To Eome accordingly Bohaldie repaired, and after wards to Paris, where he was favourably received by the Cardinal, and where he urged his negotiation, conjointly with one Sempill, calling himself Lord Sempill, at this time James's principal manager at the Court of Versailles. With respect to England, Colonel Brett was, early in 1740, despatched from Paris to confer with the Jacobite leaders in that country. Amongst the foremost of these appears to have been the Duke of Beaufort ; a young man of delicate health and retired habits, who indeed survived only till the spring of 1745 — but his brother, and after wards his heir, Lord Noel Somerset, directed the powerful influence of that family in the Western counties. Sir Watkin Wynn answered for North Wales ; in London, Lord Barrymore and Colonel Cecil, at Oxford, Dr. William King, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, were stirring agents. But, perhaps, the most active of the party was Sir John Hinde Cotton, member for the county of Cambridge, a gentleman of old family and large estate : he had sat in Parliament ever since the time of Queen Anne, was not undistinguished as a speaker, and so zealous a Jacobite that he used to make an annual progress throughout England, to maintain the spirit of his friends.* On the 28th of March Lord Sempill writes, that Colonel Brett has returned from England, and reports " Shippen timid; * See Coxe's Life of Lord Walpole, p. 276. 30 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. " Sir John Hinde Cotton doubtful of others, but answers " clearly for himself; Sir Watkin Wynn hearty, and may " certainly be depended on."* In little more than two months after Colonel Brett's return, Lord Barrymore undertook a Jacobite mission from London to Paris, and was admitted, together with Lord Sempill, to an audience of Cardinal Fleury. The Minister gave them a gracious reception, listened with pleasure to their account of affairs at home, and promised to send a friend of his own to England, in order to obtain still fuller and more authentic information for his Court. -j- In a few days more we find Lord Barrymore about to return, and the Marquis de Clermont the person selected by the Cardinal for the secret English mission. It also appears that Sir John Hinde Cotton was to remain in London throughout the summer, as the channel of com munication with James's friends; and that Shippen, whom the public voice still proclaimed as the great leader of the Jacobites, was thought by them so weak as to be left out of all their consultations. J Shippen, at this time, was sixty-eight, and his energy, perhaps, much impaired. But, as it seems to me, even his earlier reputation grew much more from his courage, his incorruptibility, his good humoured frankness of purpose, than from any superior eloquence or talent. Horace Walpole, the younger, describes his speeches as spirited in sentiment, but generally uttered in a low tone of voice, with too great rapidity and with his glove held before his mouth § — certainly not the portrait of a great orator ! It is said that he had some skill in poetry, yet it does not se'em that he was known or prized by any eminent men without the House of Commons. His father was rector of Stockport, and his paternal inheritance had been small; he ac- ¦ * Letter of Lord Sempill, March 28. 1740. Stuart Papers. The Right Hon. C. W. Wynn has kindly communicated to me this, and the following extracts or summaries, which he made at Carlton House from Sempill's Letters of 1740. I could find none of these in then- place at Windsor. t Letter of Lord Sempill, June 6. 1740. Stuart Papers. t Letter of Lord Sempill, June 13. 1740. Stuart Papers. § Communicated to Archdeacon Coxe. Memoirs of Walpole. vol i. p. 672. r ' ' 1740. MR. SHIPPEN. 31 quired, however, an ample fortune by marriage. His wife was extremely penurious, and as a relation gently expressed it, "with a peculiarity in temper,"* and un willing to mix in society ; she was much noticed by Queen Caroline, but steadily declined all connection with the Court. Shippen, himself, like Pulteney, was not free from the odious taint of avarice: when not attending Parliament, he lived chiefly in a hired house on Eich- mond Hill ; and it is remarkable that neither of these distinguished politicians, though each wealthy, possessed that chief pride and delight of an English gentleman — a country seat, "f In September, this year, it appears that the Marquis de Clermont had returned from his secret mission, and that his reports were favourable to the Jacobite designs J ; and in December, after the Emperor's death had given new ground and probability of war, Cardinal Fleury was so far wrought upon as to promise positively that if Bo haldie could bring full assurances from those who ma naged the Clans, the Irish brigade in France should be forthwith transported to Scotland, with the arms and am munition required. In that case he also undertook to use endeavours with the Government of Spain to send an other body of troops from thence, with the Earl Maris- chal.§ Such a project was indeed already entertained by the Spanish, or at least apprehended by the British Court. Even from this outline it will be perceived how un wearied, how extensive, and how formidable was the * From her grand-nephew, Judge Willes. Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 673. Shippen survived her several years in full possession of her fortune. f This fact, as regards Shippen, is stated in Coxe's Walpole, ut supra. As regards Pulteney, I find it in a letter from Pope to Swift, of May 17. 1739. (Swift's Works, vol. xix. p. 291.) J Letter of Lord Sempill, Sept. 5. 1740. Stuart Papers. § Letter of Lord Sempill, December 19. 1740. Stuart Papers. || " The troops in Gallicia publicly declared they were to be em- " ployed under the Duke of Ormond, who was then in Spain, in a " descent upon England." (Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 459.) Sir John Norris was sent out with a squadron to defeat this design, and the Duke of Cumberland sailed with him as a volunteer: however, the Spaniards found ample employment for their force in South America. 32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXI. Jacobite conspiracy. Yet, at that moment, and for years before, the existence of any such conspiracy was stubbornly denied by the " Patriots," in Opposition ; they maintaining that it was a mere chimera and device of Ministers to justify military preparations, a standing army, and the final establishment of despotic power. Daniel Pulteney — a brother of William, of the same principles, and pre vented only by his early death from attaining similar political distinction — used to say that the Pretender would never subdue us, but his name would ! * These mock-patriots, so jealous, as they seemed, of British liber ties, were undoubtedly in effect — perhaps sometimes in intention — the best allies and patrons of the Jacobites. For the Jacobites themselves, their course, though far more direct and manly, was still less reasonable. Consi dering the mildness and moderation of the reigning family, we may wonder at their irreconcilable resent ment ; and our surprise will augment, if we reflect on the feeble and bigot character of the Prince whom they were so eager to enthrone. To place at the head of the Church of England one of its most bitter and unchang ing adversaries — such was the aim of men who believed or boasted themselves the best, nay, the only real, friends of that Church ! Every successive year, as it increased the difficulty of a Eevolution — as it heightened the necessity to wade at this object through torrents of blood, and that blood our fellow countrymen's — added, as I conceive, to the responsibility and moral guilt of the attempt. And while I revere and wish to do justice to the high motives of many Jacobites, I cannot but strongly condemn the false political idolatry of all. * Lord Bolingbroke to Sir William Wyndham, November 18. 1739. 1740. COMMODORE ANSON. .33 CHAPTEE XXII. As the South American Colonies had given the first im pulse to the war with Spain, so was it against them that its chief exertions were directed. Their weakness, it was thought, would afford an easy conquest, and their wealth a rich booty. Two squadrons were accordingly equipped ; the one under Commodore Anson to sail round Cape Horn and rifle the shores of Peru ; the other under Ad miral Vernon to attack Porto Bello and the Eastern coast. Each of these expeditions will demand and reward a particular detail. George Anson, commander of the first, and afterwards Lord Anson, deserves to be held forth as a model to British seamen of what may be accomplished by industry, by courage, by love of their profession. He was born of a family at that period new and obscure, nor had he the advantage of distinguished talents. After his expedition, it used to be said of him that he had been round the world but never in it : he was dull and unready on land ; slow in business, and sparing of speech. But he had un daunted bravery, steady application, and cool judgment ; he punctually followed his instructions, and zealously dis charged his duty ; and by these qualities — qualities within the attainment of all — did he rise to well-earned honours and bequeath an unsullied renown.* It is from Lord Anson's papers, but by the pen of Mr. Walter, his Chaplain, that an accurate and interesting narrative of the expedition has been transmitted to pos terity. The ships assigned for this service were the Centurion of 60 guns, and 400 men, the Gloucester and Severn, each of 50 guns and 300 men, the Pearl of 40 guns, the Wager of 28, and the Trial sloop of 8. Great * See Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 85. In Rousseau's fiction, Lord Anson expands to "un capitaine, un soldat, un pilote, un " sage, un grand homme ! " (Nouvelle Heloise, partie iv. lettre 3.) . VOL. III. D 34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXH. difficulty and delay, however, took place in the manning of this squadron, for want of the fuller powers, which Walpole had in vain solicited from the House of Com mons. Thus far, therefore, no blame can attach to the Minister ; but, on another point within his own control, he may be justly charged with want of knowledge or consideration. Instead of embarking a regiment of foot .as at first designed, it was declared that 500 out-pen sioners of Chelsea should be collected instead of it, though these men were utterly disabled by age or wounds from even a common or less laborious service. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Charles Wager, concurred in the representations made by Anson on this 'subject ; but the opinion of both was overruled, as it seems, by the Prime Minister.* But, further still, when the poor in valids came on board they were found to be only 259 instead of 500, for all those who had limbs and strength to walk out of Portsmouth had deserted ! " Indeed," says an eye-witness, " it is difficult to conceive a more moving " scene than the embarkation of these unhappy veterans. " They were themselves extremely averse to the service " they were engaged in, and fully apprised of all the " disasters they were afterwards exposed to ; the appre- " hensions of which were strongly marked by the concern " that appeared in their countenances, which was mixed " with no small degree of indignation, to be thus hurried " from their repose into a fatiguing employ, to which " neither the strength of their bodies, nor the vigour of " their minds, were anyways proportioned, and when, " without seeing the face of an enemy, or in the least " promoting the success of the enterprise they were en- " gaged in, they would, in all probability, uselessly perish " by lingering and painful diseases ; and this, too, after " they had spent the activity and strength of their youth " in their country's service." From this first deficiency, from contradictory orders, and from various other circumstances of mismanagement, above half a year had been wasted, and it was not till the 18th of September, 1740, that the squadron weighed * Walter's Narrative of Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 9. ed. 1748. 8vo. 1740. TEMPESTS OFF CAPE HORN. 35 anchor from St. Helen's. They touched at Madeira, re freshed themselves at St. Catherine's on the coast of Brazil, and in March, 1741, safely crossed the streights of Le Maire. " As these streights," observes the Chap lain, " are often considered as the boundary between the " Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, we could not help flatter- " ing ourselves that the greatest difficulties of our passage " were now at an end, and hence we indulged our imagi- " nations in those romantic schemes, which the fancied " possession of the Chilian gold and Peruvian silver " might be conceived to inspire. These joyous ideas " were heightened by the brightness and serenity of the " sky Thus we traversed these memorable " streights ignorant of the dreadful calamities that were s< then impending and just ready to break upon us ; ig- *' norant that the time drew near when the squadron " would be separated, never to unite again, and that this " day of our passage was the last cheerful day that the " greatest part of us would ever live to enjoy." * It appears that the delays in England had brought them to the most stormy and perilous season for doubling Cape Horn. On leaving Streights Le Maire they were imme diately assailed by a tremendous tempest ; the sea ran mountain high; and the oldest sailors on board were forced to confess that what they had hitherto called storms were mere gentle breezes compared to the vio lence of these winds. What added to their danger was their inequality, and the deceitful lulls they afforded,' suddenly interrupted by such quick and violent motions, that the men were in perpetual peril of being dashed to pieces against the decks or sides of the ships. Thus were several men killed and others greatly injured : one, for example, breaking his thigh, and another his collar bone twice. Moreover, these blasts generally brought with them a great quantity of snow and sleet, which cased the rigging and froze the sails, thus rendering them and the cordage apt to snap upon the slightest strain, and which also benumbed and disabled many of the people, even to the mortifying of their toes and fingers. The ships also, by labouring in these high seas, had * Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 106> 36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXn. grown loose in their upper works, so that they let in the water at every seam, and scarce any of the officers ever slept in dry beds. For many days did the squadron struggle against these dangers and hardships, in the meanwhile striking to the southward, and having then advanced, as they believed, near ten degrees to the westward of Tierra del Fuego, so as to compensate the drift of the eastern current. Thus, then, on once more steering north, they fully expected, within a few days, to enter a new scene, and experience the proverbial tranquillity of the Pacific ocean. But the case proved far otherwise. They unexpectedly discovered land, which they found to be Cape Noir, a point of Tierra del Fuego ; the surprising strength of the currents having thus borne them back to the eastward nearly seven hun dred miles more than they had reckoned. Instead, there fore, of enjoying a summer climate and more tranquil sea, their prows were again turned to the antarctic pole, again to contend with those fearful storms they had so lately encountered ; and in this second cruise they underwent a new calamity in the total separation of the squadron, which had hitherto been kept together, though with dif ficulty, by guns fired almost every half hour from the commodore's ship, the Centurion. It only remained for each vessel to shift for itself, and endeavour to reach the island of Juan Fernandez, which Anson, with prudent forethought, had previously assigned as a point of ren dezvous. The Centurion, now left alone, was beset with renewed hurricanes, especially upon the 22nd of May : " at which time," says Mr. Walter, "the fury of all the storms which ' we had hitherto encountered seemed to have combined " for our destruction." * They escaped these dangers, but had still no cause for self-congrfrtulation, for, even when the ship shot along the more quiet waves of the Pacific, it bore within it an active principle of destruction —that sea plague, the scurvy. In our days, when me dical science has done so much to tame and subdue that dreadful disease, we may feel surprise at the violence of its former fury. We read amongst its symptoms on this * Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 148. 1740. ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDEZ. 37 occasion, of putrid fevers, pleurisies, the jaundice, and extreme rheumatic pains ; a difficulty of breathing, ulcers of the worst kind, attended with rotten bones, and yield ing to no remedies ; a re-opening of the scars of old wounds ; nay, strangest of all in British sailors, " a dis- " position to be seized with dreadful terrors on the slight- " est accidents." We are told that the patients, though confined to their hammocks, sometimes continued to bear the appearance of health ; for they ate and drank heartily, were cheerful, and talked in a loud strong tone of voice ; and yet, on their being the least moved, though it was only from one part of the ship to the other, and that in their hammocks, they immediately expired ; and that others, who confided in their seeming strength, and at tempted to rise, died before they could well reach the deck. If any reader should suspect exaggeration in these details, he will find them mournfully confirmed by the list of deaths. In the first month that the disease ap peared the Centurion lost forty-three men, in the second month nearly double that number ; and before they reached the land above 200 had died, and so many were ill, that no more than six fore-mast men in a watch could be mustered capable of duty. Ere long, too, there was a deficiency of fresh water ; and the island which they sought — a small speck in a boundless sea — for some time eluded their research : once, when seen, it was mis taken for a cloud on the horizon, and passed by. At last, on the 10th of June, they approached and anchored at the much desired port, being then so feeble and exhausted that a few days longer at sea would probably have de stroyed them altogether. The island of Juan Fernandez (so called from a Spaniard who had formerly obtained a grant of it) was then uninhabited, though abounding in all the gifts of nature that could tempt the residence of man. Aromatic woods clothe its sides, crystal springs gush from its val-> leys ; it produces many kinds of excellent herbs, and the sea around it teems with the greatest variety of fish. In extent it is about five leagues long and two broad. It had once been dwelt in by Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, who had been left behind by his ship, and lived alone, until taken up by another some years afterwards, d 3 38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTL This real Crusoe had published a most curious account of his hermit's -life ; and the accuracy of his statements was verified by a little incident that afforded great plea sure — as a countryman's token in a far distant and so litary land — to the Centurion's crew. He says that, as •he often caught more goats than he wanted, he sometimes marked their ears and let them go; this being about thirty-two years before the Centurion arrived at the island. Now it so happened, that the very first goat killed by the sailors, — a patriarch of " an exceeding " majestic beard, and most venerable aspect," had hia ears slit, from whence they rightly concluded that he must have been one of the hermit's little flock. These goats were, indeed, no small resource to the hungry sea men : they also ate seal's flesh, which they did not relish at first, but afterwards calling it lamb among themselves — such is the power of names upon the multitude! — thought it very palatable.* Of still more service were the wild herbs to the sick, who were carried to land and placed under tents ; yet the healthy were so few, that though the officers worked alike with the men, it was with the utmost difficulty that this removal was effected. Above a dozen died in the boats, on being exposed to the fresh air. Now, however, the disease rapidly abated, and a few weeks sufficed to restore the survivors to their wonted strength and vigour. But where was the rest of the squadron ? A few days after the Centurion arrived the Trial sloop : it had been in like manner afflicted with the scurvy, and so severely; that at last only the Captain, the Lieutenant, and three men were able to stand by the. sails. But even these sufferings were light when compared with those of the Gloucester, which came in view shortly afterwards : they had been for some time at the small allowance of one pint of water to each man for twenty-four hours ; they had already thrown overboard two thirds of their crew ; and of those that remained alive scarce any were capable of. duty, except the officers and their servants. The poor Chelsea pensioners were of course among the earliest " Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 172. 1740. BYRON'S NARRATIVE. 39 victims : every one of them had perished. * In fact there was no longer strength sufficient to navigate the ship ; and, though some of the Centurion's men were sent out to it in boats, it was twice driven off the island by winds or currents ; and above a month elapsed before it could be brought to anchor, or the survivors be landed to re cover and refresh themselves. Some weeks later they were also joined by their victualler, the Anna Pink. Of the remaining ships the Pearl and Severn had suffered so severely in the storms, that, as afterwards appeared, they had put back to the Brazils, and took no further part in the expedition. The fate of the last ship, the Wager, was most disastrous of" all : it was wrecked on a small desert island to the south-t ward of Chiloe. The crew (140 in number) were saved from the waves, but instantly exposed to still more dire distress ; many of them perishing miserably from wantr of food. Moreover, the men conceived that by the loss. of the ship the authority of the Captain had ended : the- Captain, on his part, was of no kind or conciliatory temper ; and thus mutiny soon came in to embitter the anguish of famine. The sailors, at length seizing the long boat, steered away with the view of passing the' -streights of Magellan ; and, nearly impossible as it was deemed, yet, after a most surprising navigation, some of them, to the number of thirty, did actually reach Eio> Grande, in Brazil. But afraid of being tried for mutiny- in England, should their Captain ever be present to con front them, they had insisted on leaving him on shore when they began their voyage, and with him the Lieu tenant, the Surgeon, and the two Midshipmen. One of these last, the Honourable John Byron, has left a well- written narrative of his sufferings and adventures on this' occasion : he afterwards rose to the rank of Admiral inJ the British navy, commanded in the West Indies, and' survived till 1798, but is best known as the grandfather? of the celebrated poet.f The same frankness, the same * See Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 223. In the Centurion there had survived only four ! f Lord Byron has made great use of the real incidents of the Wager's Shipwreck for that in his Don Juan, as, indeed, is observei by himself (canto ii. stanza 187.). D 4 40 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXH. energy, the same love of enterprise and of distinction, appear both in the sire and the son ; but while the spirit of the former was restrained by the rules, and yet quickened by the impulse, of the public service, the latter was assailed by the temptations of early wealth, and the opportunities of unlimited indulgence. Thus did that great genius sink into errors and failings which his grandsire never knew ; thus his life, if more glorious, was far less long, less happy, less truly honourable. Well and wisely was it said, by a true practical philosopher, that next to religion the most important principle in life is to have a pursuit ! * Yet the contrast of the Byrons may show that a profession, where the duties are fixed and indispensable, is better still than a pursuit which may be taken up or laid aside at pleasure. The four officers of the Wager left behind (for the fifth had sunk beneath his sufferings) contrived, by the assist ance of some Indians, after surmounting many perils and enduring extraordinary hardships, to make their way to wards the Spanish settlements. The country they passed is described by Byron as most dismal : " a deep swamp, " in which the woods may be rather said to float than " grow ; so that, except a range of deformed broken " rocks which form the sea coast, the traveller cannot " find sound footing anywhere." f On reaching the island of Chiloe they surrendered themselves to the Spaniards, who treated them at first with much pomp and affecta tion of military prowess. Thus, on being carried to the town of Castro, " the boats all lay upon their oars, and " there was a great deal of ceremony used in hailing and " asking for the keys, as if it had been a regular forti- " fication. After some time we landed, but could see " neither gates nor walls, nor any thing that had the ap- " pearance of a garrison. As we walked up a steep hill " into the town, the way was lined with men, who had " broomsticks upon their shoulders instead of muskets, " and a lighted match in their hands. When we came " to the Corregidor's house, we found it full of people. " He was an old man, very tall, with a long .cloak on, a * Sir Humphry Davy's Salmonia, p. 270, f Byron's Narrative, p. 96. ed. 1832. 1740, THE JESUITS OF CASTRO. 41 " tie-wig, and a spada of immense length by his side, " and received us in great state and form." * The same evening they were transferred, in the hope, as was al leged, of their religious conversion, to the Jesuits' Col lege, where they passed eight days, with at least the benefit of regular meals after their long famine. " We " used to keep close to our cells till the bell rang for din- " ner, when we were conducted into a hall, where there was " one table for the fathers and another for us. After a " very long Latin prayer we sat down and ate what was " put before us, without a single word passing on either " side, and as soon as we had finished there was another " long prayer, which, however, did not appear so tedious " as the first, and then we retired to our cells again." These Latin prayers, and a strict search for any valuables they might have left (no doubt with the kind view to de tach their minds from worldly things), were the only steps taken towards the great object of reclaiming them from heresy. On being sent, however, to the main land of Chili, they experienced much courtesy and generosity from the Spaniards, and were allowed to reside at large upon their parole, until the conclusion of a cartel gave them liberty to return to England. The tempests which had wrecked the Wager and scat tered the other ships were, however, so far serviceable to them, that they produced still more effect upon a squadron fitted out from Spain to pursue and attack them. This squadron, commanded by Don Joseph Pizarro, and con sisting of five ships of the line with a regiment of in fantry on board, had arrived at St. Catherine's only four days after Anson had left it. Beyond Cape Horn they were, hke him, buffeted by the winds and waves : two ships perished ; and the others, though escaping ship wreck, and exempt from scurvy, suffered most grievously from famine, having, through the negligence of the pur- * Byron's Narrative, p. 154. On another occasion there was an alarm of an English landing, upon which, says Byron, "the Governor " of Chaco mounted his horse and rode backwards and forwards, say- " ing that he would give the English a warm reception, meaning, I " suppose, that he would have left them a good fire in his house ; " for I am certain he would soon have been in the woods, if he had " seen any thing like an English ship coming in." (P. 173.) 42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXII.- veyors, left Spain with very scanty supplies. Such was their distress, that rats, when they could be caught on' board, were sold for four dollars each ; and, on one oo-- casion, the death of a sailor was concealed for some days by his brother, who during that time lay in the same hammock with the corpse, only to receive the dead man's allowance of provisions.* In this miserable plight, Pi zarro, so far from pursuing his enemy, was glad to re trace his Steps and seek relief in the Eio de la Plata. At Juan Fernandez, meanwhile, Anson continued em ployed in refreshing his men and refitting his ships. Having taken out the -stores and broken up the Anna Pink, he had three vessels left, but found the survivors- amount only in all to 335 ; a number greatly insufficient for the manning the Centurion alone. Nothing daunted, however, his thoughts and those of his men turned rather to the hope of triumph than to the remembrance of dis asters. It was the beginning of September before their preparations were completed. On the 8th they espied a sail to the north-east, which they hoped might prove another of their squadron ; but finding it steer away from the island, and concluding it to be a Spaniard, they forth-. with sent all hands on board the Centurion, heaved "anchor, and gave chase. At night they lost sight of their object, nor could they discern it again the next day, so that, giving up the pursuit, they prepared to return to Juan Fernandez. Now, however, they were agreeably surprised by the appearance of a ship, different from the one they had at first perceived : upon this they immedi ately bore down ; it was overtaken without difficulty and seized without resistance ; and it proved to be the Nu estra Senora del Monte Carmelo, a merchantman, bound from Callao to Valparaiso. Her cargo was of sugar and broad cloth, but comprised several chests of wrought silver and dollars, while the news obtained from the prisoners was scarcely less acceptable. Now first were the English informed that Pizarro had been forced back into the Eio de la Plata, with the loss of < two of his largest ships ; that an embargo had been laid upon all the shipping by the Viceroy of Peru, in the month oi * Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 3L > .1740. PRIZES TAKEN BY ANSON. .43 May preceding, from an apprehension that Anson might arrive about that period ; but that on the account sent overland by Pizarro of his own distresses, part of which they knew that the English squadron must also have experienced, and on their having no news of it for eight months after it was reported to have sailed from St. Ca therine's, they were convinced that it must either have perished or put back, and, therefore, on the earnest ap plication of the merchants, the embargo had been lately taken off. With this prize, and with the prospect thus afforded of making more, did Anson steer back to Juan Fernan* dez. It is remarkable that, when the Spaniards in the Carmelo saw the Trial sloop at anchor, they expressed their astonishment that the Commodore, after all his fatigues and hardships, should have had the industry, besides refitting his other ships, to build this new one ; and it was with great difficulty they could be prevailed on to believe that it had come from England with the rest of the squadron ; they insisting that it was impos* sible such a bauble could pass round Cape Horn, while the best ships of Spain were compelled to put back. Anson now determined, from the information he had received, to separate his ships and employ them in dis tinct cruises, so as to increase the chance of captures; According to this resolution, the Trial, ere long, fell in with a Spanish merchant vessel, so large that it had often been manned and fitted out by the Viceroy of Peru as a man-of-war. The Trial, on the contrary, was so small and so low in the water, that the Spaniards were at first superstitiously alarmed at seeing nothing but a cloud of sail without any ship in pursuit of them ; how ever, they soon recovered their spirits ; for, altering their course in the night, and shutting up their windows to prevent any of their hghts from being seen, they thought themselves secure. But a small crevice in one of the shutters baffled their precaution : through this the Cap tain of the Trial perceived a light which he chased, until,' coming within gunshot, he alarmed them with a broad side and compelled them to surrender. This capture proved of great advantage to the expedition ; for, the Trial having, become dismasted and leaky, it was judged 44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXII. necessary to scuttle and sink her, transferring her crew and stores to her prize, and commissioning the latter as a new frigate in His Majesty's service. The Centurion was no less fortunate, taking two merchant ships with cargoes of considerable value. Among the prisoners made in this last capture was one John Williams, an Irish vagrant of indifferent cha racter, calling himself a pedlar, and being probably a thief: he was in rags, and had just been released from the prison of Paita. Yet this man, by a singular turn of fortune, now decided the destiny of the town which had so lately held him in its dungeons. For it was he who informed the Commodore that a Spanish vessel, having seen the Gloucester, had by this time given the alarm to the whole coast — that an express had been sent to Lima i — that the entire English squadron was supposed to be at hand — that the Eoyal Intendant at Paita, apprehend ing an attack, was busily employed in removing the King's treasure and his own to an inland town. Anson, peri ceiving from this news that no further prizes would be found at sea, and allured by the accounts which Williams also gave of the great wealth of Paita, and of its defence less condition, resolved to land his men and assail that place. He was so near it, that the execution ensued the yery night after the design. The town of Paita is built on a most barren soil, con-? sisting only of sand and slate ; the houses are but ground- floors, the walls constructed of split cane and mud, and the roofs thatched with leaves; an architecture, which, however slight, is sufficient for a climate where showers are considered a prodigy ; so that we are told some rain falling in 1728 had ruined a great number of buildings, which mouldered away, and, as it were, melted before it. The town itself was open, and had only a small fort for its defence. Such being the weakness of the place, Anson conceived that his boats would be sufficient to attack it, and accordingly he manned them with 58 picked men, and entrusted them to Lieutenant Brett. Had he appeared in sight with his ships, they might, as he apprehended, have given the inhabitants the alarm from a considerable distance, and allowed them leisure to remove their most valuable effects. Brett and his boats, on the contrary 1740. TAKING OF PAITA. 45 approaching in the night, had already entered the mouth of the bay before they were discovered; — then first they heard a cry los perros ingleses ! " the English dogs are -coming;" — then first they saw several lights hurrying to and fro in the fort, and other marks of general commotion. The Spaniards had time to load several of their cannon, and to point them towards the landing place; and the first shot passed close to one of the boats, whistling just over the heads of the crew : the English, however, only plied their oars with redoubled ardour, and had dis embarked before the second gun was fired. Having entered one of the streets which protected them from further fire, and formed themselves into a body, they rushed forward with drums beating and loud shouts to the Plaza, or principal square, of which the fort formed one side, and the Governor's house * another. On enter ing the Plaza the sailors received a volley from the mer chants, who owned the treasure then in the town, and who, with a few others, had ranged themselves in a gallery that surrounded the Governor's house ; but no sooner was their fire returned than they fled in confusion. The English then divided into two parties, the one to attack the fort, which the garrison (only one weak company) forsook at their approach without resistance ; the other to seize the Governor. This dignitary had however already fled, displaying but little of the true Spanish gallantry, in either sense of that word ; for he had sprung from bed and escaped half naked without thought or care of his wife, whom he had married but three or four days before, and whom he now left behind him. Sixty English sailors were now therefore the undis puted masters of this town. Meanwhile the Commodore, in expectation of the issue, had, after some delay, steered his ship towards the harbour, and had the joy as he ap proached to see the British colours flying from the flag- * The word House seems more appropriate in these towns than their favourite term oi Palace. At Castro Mr. Byron observes, "The " soldiers upon our journey had given us a pompous account of El " Palacio del Bey, as they styled the Governor's House, and therefore " we expected to see something very magnificent, but it was nothing " better than a huge thatched barn partitioned off into several rooms." Narrative, p. 159. 46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXQ. staff of the fort. A fresh band of British, all eager for booty, now poured on shore. Neither public nor private pro perty was spared : even the churches were rifled of their plate; and it was a strange spectacle, says an eye-wit ness, to behold the sailors decked forth in all the finery which the Spaniards had left behind them in their flight, laced and embroidered coats above their own tarred jackets, not forgetting tie or bag wigs ; nay, the latest comers, finding no other, in women's gowns and petti coats ! During this time the Spaniards were mustering their force from all parts of the country on an adjacent hill : there were amongst the rest about two hundred horse men, seemingly well armed and mounted ; nevertheless the English remained in possession of the town two whole days without molestation. The amount of public treasure which they found in wrought silver and coin was up wards of 30,000Z. ; the private plunder, though not ex actly ascertained, must also have been considerable. But the chief wealth of Paita lay in stores and merchandise, which the Commodore could neither use nor remove ; and these accordingly, before he re-embarked on the third morning, he fired, assisting the conflagration with tar- barrels and other combustibles, and reducing the whole town to a heap of ashes ; an act which, as it appears to me, can scarcely be defended in civilised war, and which, striking not so much at the Spanish Government as at unoffending and industrious individuals, has imprinted a deep blot on the glory of Lord Anson's expedition.* A redeeming feature is, however, to be found in An son's treatment of the prisoners made in his prizes at sea, and amounting altogether to nearly ninety persons. Several had been passengers in the ships ; amongst them some ladies of rank, and a son of the Vice President of the Council of Chili. All these when first taken were in the utmost alarm, having, from the former barbarity of the Buccaneers, imbibed the most terrible idea of the * The Spaniard, TJlloa, who was on this coast at the same time,- observes of the conflagration : " Personne ne pouvait se figurer qu'un "precede si barbare eut ete permis par le Commandant de l'Escadre, " et en effet on a su depuis que cette action lui avait fort deplu." (Voyage d'Amerique, vol. ii. p. 9, ed. 1762.) But this is not con firmed by Anson's own narrative. 1740. THE SPANISH PRISONER'S. 47 English, and expecting every aggravation of ill usage. It was the constant endeavour of Anson to assuage their apprehensions and deserve their gratitude ; his courtesy and indulgence were conspicuous to all. The ladies espe cially were most carefully protected from insult, allowed to retain their own apartments, and treated with the same attention and respect as before their capture. Nay more, on leaving Paita, the prisoners of both sexes were restored to freedom, being sent on shore, and stationed for present security in the two churches, which by good fortune stood at some distance from the town, and were therefore exempted from its conflagration.* Not a few of these Spaniards afterwards met in Chili the English captives of the Wager. " They all," says Mr. Byron, " spoke in the highest terms of the kind treatment they " had received, and some of them told us they were so " happy on board the Centurion, that they would not " have been sorry if the Commodore had taken them with " him to England."! When Anson set sail for Paita, he directed his little squadron to spread, in order to look out for the Gloucester. Nor was it long before that ship appeared in sight. It had meanwhile made two prizes, one of them a small vessel, the other an open barge. The people on board the last had pretended to be very poor, and to have no other loading but cotton; yet some suspicion was raised, on observing that their dinner by no means tallied with their declaration, for they were found eating pigeon pie in silver dishes ; and, on a closer search, it appeared that their jars were only covered over with cotton at top, and held beneath a considerable quantity of dollars and. dou bloons to the value of 12,000£ With this accession, the squadron continued to steer to the northward, which had * Compare in Anson's Voyage, pp. 249. 277. and 2S4. ¦f Byron's Narrative, p. 199. Captain Basil Hall informs us that " Lord Anson's proceedings are still traditionally known at Paita ; " and it is curious to observe that the kindness with which that saga- "cions officer invariably treated his Spanish prisoners, is. at the dfis- " tance of eighty years, better known and more dwelt upon by the in- " habitants of Paita than the capture and wanton destruction of the " town." (South America, voL ii. p. 101.) A strong proof of Spanish generosity. 48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXH. been its general direction ever since it left Juan Fer nandez. The design of the Commodore had been to touch near Panama, and from thence communicate across the Isthmus of Darien with Admiral Vernon, who he trusted might be already in possession of Porto Bello, and of the eastern coast. To obtain a reinforcement of men from the other side — to reduce the city of Panama itself perhaps even to maintain the Isthmus, and there intercept all the treasures of Peru, — were the visions which his hopes suggested and his valour justified. But the report of the prisoners he had taken, had already dis pelled these gorgeous dreams, by relating what had be fallen Vernon and the British armament at Carthagena ; and he therefore limited his views to an enterprise, far less indeed, yet still, as it seemed, an overmatch for his scanty numbers — to seek out and attack the great Manilla galleon. Manilla, one of the most splendid cities ever founded by Europeans out of Europe, and perhaps the richest gem in the regal diadem of Spain, standing on the farthest confines of the immense Pacific, had costly merchandize to offer in exchange for Peruvian ore. The commerce between these two colonies had been guarded by the Council of the Indies with jealous care. Its station was at first assigned to Callao, the port of Lima, but after wards, in consideration of the trade winds, transferred to Acapulco, on the coast of Mexico. This port was allowed to receive one, or, at most, two annual ships, which sailed from Manilla about July, and arrived at Acapulco in the December or January following, and after disposing of their effects, began their homeward voyage in March. These galleons (for such they were termed) were of enor mous size, as may be judged both by their crew and by their cargo : the former in the largest ship sometimes amounted to no less than twelve hundred men* ; the latter seldom fell short in value of three millions of dol lars. Of one article only — silk stockings — we are told that the number brought every year from Manilla in this ship was full fifty thousand pair'.-f One of the earliest of these annual ships had been * Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 330. -f Ibid. p. 327. 1740 THE MANILLA GALLEON. 49 captured by Sir Thomas Cavendish in 1586, an example which Anson and his men panted to follow. Being how ever only in the middle of November, they conceived that they should have sufficient time to water the squadron, of which it stood in great need, before the arrival of the galleon ; and for this purpose they steered for the is land of Quibo, a little beyond the bay of Panama. On leaving the coast of South America, they found the season greatly changed : the giant Cordilleras, which had hitherto afforded a cool and tempered clime, and whose snowy summits might often be discerned many leagues at sea apparently floating in air* — the only clouds in that azure sky — were now left behind, and no shield remained against the close and sultry heat of the tropics. Beyond Quibo also the winds proved unfavourable, and the pro gress made was so small that the month of January, 1742, had nearly elapsed before the squadron neared Acapulco. The next object being to obtain intelligence, a barge was sent out by the Commodore, and after some days, suc ceeded in seizing three negro slaves in a canoe. From these it appeared, to Anson's great disappointment, that the galleon had arrived a month before ; but his hopes revived, on hearing that it had delivered its cargo, was taking in water and provisions for its return, and was appointed to sail on the 3rd of March. During the whole of March, therefore, did Anson remain, with his squadron spread at some distance before Acapulco, so that nothing could pass through undiscovered. Yet still no galleon appeared, and it then became suspected, as was indeed the case, that the barge sent out for news * " The land, about twelve or thirteen leagues distant, made ex- " ceeding high and uneven, and appeared quite white, what we saw " being doubtless a part of the Cordilleras, which are always covered "with snow." (Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 151.) A later and abler writer says, " It was only when the ship was at a considerable dis- " tance from the shore that the higher Andes came in sight. ... It " sometimes even happened that the lower ranges appeared sunk be-, "low the horizon, when the distant ridges were still distinctly in " sight, and more magnificent than ever. . . . We made observations " on some which, though upwards of 130 miles off, were quite dis- " tinctly visible. The pleasure which this constant view of the Andes " afforded is not to be described." (Capt. Hall's South America, voL i. p. 199.)TOL. HL E 50 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXH. had been seen from snore, and that the Spaniards, taking the alarm, had laid an embargo on the galleon till next year. Thus a second time baffled of his prize, and finding himself under the necessity of quitting the station to pro cure fresh supplies of water and provision, Anson pro ceeded to the harbour of Chequetan, about thirty leagues to the north-west of Acapulco. At that place he re solved, on full deliberation, to destroy the Trial's prize, the Carmelo and the Carmen, and to reinforce the Glou cester with their crews; his whole number of men at this time not exceeding the complement of a fourth rate ship of war. The Spaniards near Chequetan did not at tempt to molest the Commodore during this or his other proceedings, nor indeed ever appeared in sight ; yet the English could discern the smoke of their fires, and thence determine that they were posted in a circular line sur rounding them at a distance. One prisoner whom the Spaniards made — the Commodore's French cook — being sent to Mexico, and from thence to Europe, but making his escape at Lisbon, was the first person that brought to England an authentic account of the proceedings of the expedition. Chequetan was Anson's last station in America. Post poning but not relinquishing his hopes of the galleon, he began his voyage across the wide Pacific — a protracted and to him disastrous navigation. The scurvy broke forth afresh, and raged with great fury amongst his crews. His ships also had become crazy and unsound ; in a vio lent tempest that ensued both of them sprung leaks, and the Gloucester lost the greater part of two masts. When the storm abated, and the two ships could again commu nicate with each other, the Captain of the Gloucester informed the Commodore that besides being dismasted,, his ship had no less than seven feet of water in the hold,. although the officers and men had been kept constantly at the pumps for the last twenty-four hours, and that this water covered their casks, so that they could come at neither fresh water nor provisions. A reinforcement of men was, therefore, indispensable; yet this the Cen turion, with a leak of its own, and so many sailors sick- of the scurvy, was wholly unable to afford. There re- 1740. ISLAND OF TINIAN. 51 mained, therefore, no other resource (nor, indeed, was there much time for deliberation) than to take on board the Gloucester's crew, and as much of its stores as could be saved, and then suffer the hull to be destroyed. To execute this resolution employed the whole of two days. Yet so enfeebled were the men, that it was with the greatest difficulty that even the Gloucester's prize-money was secured; the prize goods were entirely lost; nor could any more provision he removed than five casks of flour, three of them spoiled by the salt water. Several of the sick expired even with the slight fatigue of being gently hoisted into the Centurion. By this time the Gloucester's hold was nearly full of water ; yet, as the carpenters were of opinion that she might still swim some time if the calm should continue, and as it was pos sible that she might be drifted to an island in possession of the Spaniards, she was set on fire. During the whole night the conflagration did not cease, her guns firing suc cessively as the flames reached them, until early in the morning of the 16th of August she blew up, her fate an nounced by a large black pillar of smoke which shot high into the air. The Centurion, now the single remnant both of the squadron and the prizes, pursued her solitary voyage, the scurvy still gaining ground amongst her men, and several dying each day. It was, therefore, with inex pressible joy that the survivors at length beheld the Ladrones Islands, to which their course was tending, and singled out that of Tinian as their station for repose. Such was then their debility that they were full five hours in furling the sails ; and all the hands they could muster capable of standing at a gun, and many of these too unfit for duty, were no more than seventy-one, gathered from the united crews which, when they sailed from England, consisted all together of near a thousand men ! But Tinian with its herds of wild cattle and its deUcious fruits — above all, that rare and especial gift of Nature to these islands — the Bread Tree, ere long re stored their exhausted strength. Their rapture at this favourite spot was probably heightened by the force of contrast ; they describe it as " not resembling an unin- " habited and uncultivated place ; but much more with £ 2 52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIL, " the air of a magnificent plantation, where large lawns " and stately woods had been laid out together with great " skill, and where the whole had been so artfully com- " bined, and so judiciously adapted to the slopes of the " hills and the inequalities of the ground, as to produce " a most striking effect, and to do honour to the inven- " tion of the contriver." * One of their first objects was now to repair the ship: every seam was caulked and leaded over, and the leak stopped, not indeed effectually, but as well as the circumstances would allow. But, meanwhile, the roads in which the Centurion lay at anchor were by no means secure, and ere long exposed her to a new and unexpected peril. A violent equinoctial gale drove her far out to sea, while the greater part of the crew, and Anson himself, were on shore : there were scarcely hands sufficient to man her, the vessel was unrigged, and thus there seemed but little probability of her weathering the storm and returning to the island. What then were the prospects of the sailors on shore ? In a deserted island — six hundred leagues from their nearest port, Macao, on the coast of China; — none of them acquainted with that voyage ; — not even a compass or a quadrant left amongst them, — with but ninety charges of powder, or less than one to every firelock ; — with no means of embarkation but a small Spanish vessel of about fifteen tons, which they had seized on their first arrival, and which could not hold a fourth part of their number : — such a situation might have daunted any ardent spirit, elated by success or quelled by reverses ; it scarcely ruffled the usual composure and steadiness of Anson. By concealing from the men his own apprehen sions, he succeeded in allaying theirs. He assured them that, at the worst, the gale which had driven the Cen turion out to sea, and which still continued, would only oblige her to bear away for Macao, and that the single thing needful was to rejoin her at that port. For this purpose he proposed to haul the Spanish bark on shore, to saw it asunder, and to lengthen it twelve feet, which would enlarge it to near forty tons burthen, and enable it to carry them all to China. " Nothing is wanting to, * Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 412. 1740. ANSON AT MACAO. 53 " this plan," added Anson, " but the united resolution and " industry of all ; for my own part I will share the labour " with you, and expect no more from any man, than what " I, your Commodore, am ready to submit to." Confi dence like fear is contagious. The sailors recovering by degrees from their first despondency, heartily engaged in the project, and set themselves with cheerfulness to the different tasks allotted them. Many materials were want ing, some tools were to be made ; still,- however, the work advanced ; andone day in searching a chest belonging to the Spanish bark, they espied a small compass, which though little better than the toys usually made for children, to them appeared an invaluable treasure; and some time afterwards, by a similar piece of good fortune, they found on the sea shore a quadrant, which had been thrown over board amongst other lumber belonging to the dead. Already had they fixed a day to begin their voyage, when happily, on the 11th of October, one of the sailors being upon a hill in the middle of the island, descried the Centurion out at sea, and ran down loudly shouting " The Ship ] " the Ship ! " to his comrades at their labour. At these joyful words the Commodore flung down the axe with which he was at work — then for the first time breaking through the even and unvaried demeanour he had hitherto maintained. The others, in a kind of frenzy, tumultuously rushed to the sea shore, eager to feast their eyes with a sight so long desired and scarcely yet believed. It appeared that the Centurion, though driven a con siderable distance, and exposed to imminent perils, had yet, by good management and excessive labour, been en abled to return to her station. After her arrival, it was determined to make no longer stay in the island than was requisite to complete their stock of water. A prosperous gale soon wafted them to Macao. This was, as now, a Por tuguese settlement, and therefore a friendly port to Anson, where he might justly expect to supply his exhausted stores, and repair his leaky ship. Yet, when he waited upon the Governor to make known his wants, the other declared that he durst not furnish him with any of the -things required, unless an order were first obtained from the Viceroy of Canton; for that he himself received neither provisions for his garrison, nor other necessaries, E 3 54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXII. but through this permission, and that they were only doled out to him from day to day. A long and weari some negotiation ensued between the Commodore and the Chinese. It was not till after much solicitation and de lay on the part of this jealous people, that two Mandarins were even sent on board to examine the defects of the ship and the necessities of the crew. To them Anson pointed out that a permission to purchase, which was all he demanded, could not safely be denied him ; that they must be convinced that the Centurion alone was capable of destroying the whole navigation of the port of Canton, without running the least risk from all the force the Chinese could collect ; that his men had hitherto behaved with great moderation, but that their hunger would at last prove too strong for any restraint ; and that it could not be expected that they would long continue to starve in the midst of that plenty which their eyes daily wit nessed. Nay, he even added, that if by the delay in sup plying them with provisions they should be reduced to the necessity of turning cannibals, it was easy to foresee, that, independent of their friendship to each other, they would in point of taste prefer the plump well fed Chinese to their own emaciated shipmates ! * The Mandarins seemed struck with the force of these arguments, and immediately wrote a permit in the manner desired by the Commodore. It was the beginning of April 1743 before the Cen turion again put out to sea, new rigged, thoroughly re paired, and fit for fresh adventures. Anson had given out at Macao that he was bound to Batavia, and thence to England : nay, more, to confirm the delusion, he took on board letters for the former place ; but no sooner was he clear of the coast, than summoning all his men on deck, he informed them that his real design was to cruise for the two annual ships (of last year and this) on their way from Acapulco. The sailors received this announce ment with great joy and three hearty cheers. Although each of these annual ships was known to be much larger and better manned than the Centurion, yet no doubt seemed to exist amongst the English of mastering both ^ * Anson's Voyage, p. 480. ¦1740. THE GALLEON TAKEN. -55 together ; and they spoke of the rich spoil as if already in their grasp. Their only fear was lest they might not find the enemy; none, that they should fail to subdue him.* It was off Cape Espiritu Santo that the Commodore proceeded to cruise for the galleons ; that being the first headland of the Philippine Islands to which they always steered, and where they usually arrived in the beginning of summer. He had already been a month on that station when, at length, early on the 20th of June the sailors with straining eyes and eager hearts beheld a sail rise on the horizon, and bearing closer to it, discovered it to be one of the long expected galleons. The Spaniards showed no intention to avoid an engagement : they were prepared to expect an enemy, and had resolved to fight ; yet they had neglected clearing their ship till the last moment, when already within gunshot, being then observed to throw overboard their cattle and lumber. Anson, on the contrary, had made his dispositions with forethought and skill. Having learnt that it is common with the Spaniards to fall down upon the decks when they see a broadside preparing, and to continue in that posture till it is given, after which they rise again and maintain the battle as be fore ; he wholly disconcerted this scheme by stationing two men at each gun, and dividing the rest into gangs of ten or twelve each — the latter always to move about and fire such guns as were ready, thus keeping up a constant fire, instead of broadsides with intervals between them. Some of the best marksmen, also, he placed on the tops, from whence they made prodigious havoc, killing or wounding every officer but one that appeared on the Spanish quarter-deck, while that deck was likewise swept by the grape-shot from below. The Spaniards fought with bravery, though not with skill ; but when their * One instance of this confident spirit is given by Mr. Walter. " The Commodore having taken some Chinese sheep to sea with him " for his own provision, and one day inquiring of his butcher why " for some time past he had seen no mutton at his table, and whether "all the sheep were killed; the butcher very seriously replied, that ¦ " there were indeed two sheep left, but that if his Honour would give " him leave he proposed to keep those for the entertainment of the " General of the Galleons." (Voyage, p. 493.) E 4 56 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTI. General, who was the Hfe of the action, had been disabled by a wound, they began to fall into disorder. The other officers were then seen attempting with great intrepidity to encourage their men, and prevent their desertion from their quarters, but all their endeavours were in vain; their fire slackened, and the proud standard of Spain was struck. They had 151 either killed or wounded, the Cen turion only 19. The name of the galleon was the Nuestra Senora de Covadonga * : it was much larger than the Centurion, and had 550 men, above double the number of the English ; so that some of the prisoners, when brought on board the Centurion, and observing how slenderly she was manned, and the large proportion which the striplings bore to the rest, could not restrain their grief and indignation to be thus beaten, as they said, by a handful of boys. They informed the Commodore that the other ship, which had been detained in the port of Acapulco the preceding year, instead of returning in company with the second galleon as was expected, had sailed alone before the usual period, and was already no doubt in the port of Manilla. The value of the present prize, however, was so large as to atone for any other disappointment : it had on board, in silver coin and ingots, a million and a half of dollars — a rich and well-earned recompense for the toils of the gallant British crew. To sepure the prisoners was a task of no small risk, considering their great superiority of numbers. Anson, however, brought them safely with his prize into Canton, where he set them at liberty ; and from thence he began his homeward voyage, passing round the Cape of Good Hope. He cast anchor at Spithead in June, 1744, after an absence of three years and nine months, thus concluding an expedition in which his happy combination of skill, intrepidity, and prudence, retrieved and rose superior to every disaster ; and which, though unconnected with the general march of public affairs, is so honourable to the * Covadonga is the cave in Asturias where Pelayo sought shelter with his Goths (Mariana, Hist. Hisp. lib. 7. c. 2.); and a church has been built there by Charles the Third. (Minano, sub voce ) 1740. ADMIRAL VERXON. 57 courage, and so conducive to the. fame of England, as ever to deserve a conspicuous place in her annals. I now revert to the second squadron fitted out in 1739, against the Spanish West Indies. It was entrusted to Captain Edward Vernon, an officer, in most respects, the very opposite of Anson. As calmness and composure were the principal characteristics of the one, so were violence and passion of the other. His father, who had been Secretary of State under King William, had instilled a blind hatred of France, which the son, as a Member of Parliament, indulged by frequent salhes against the pacific policy of Walpole. So unmeasured were his invectives, that he was more than once in danger of the Tower.* He became, however, a great favourite with the multitude, who were, like himself, impatient of peace, and prone, as usual, to consider the noisiest patriot the most sincere ; and on the breaking out of war he was appointed an Ad miral and Commander of the West Indian squadron, by the very Minister whom he had assailed, from the same concession to popular clamour which had produced the war itself. He was undoubtedly a good officer, so far as courage, enterprise, and experience can constitute that character ; but he was harsh and haughty to his inferiors, untoward with his equals, mutinous and railing to all placed above bim in authority. Vernon having sailed from England in July, 1739, and being baffled in attempting to intercept the .Azogue or quicksilver ships, appeared off Porto Bello on the 20th of November with six men-of-war. The Spanish garrison was only on the peace establishment, and not even com plete at that number ; the ammunition scanty, and in part spoiled ; and many of the cannon, for want of mountings, lying useless on the ground.j On the 21st, Vernon began operations against a fort which protected the entrance, of the harbour, and which, as a bravado of its strength, bore the name of the Iron Castle. The fire of his musketry having driven the Spaniards from the lower batteries, his sailors scaled them, mounting on one another's shoulders, * Tmdal's Hist. voL viii p. 424. ¦{¦ Juan et UUoa. Voyage d'Amerique, vol. i p. 80. ed. 1752. There is also given a plan of the town and harbour.^ 58 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIL and gained the place with very slight resistance. The same evening the Admiral began to batter the Castillo de la Gloria, lying further down the bay, and defending the open town ; and he was preparing next day to renew his cannonade, when he observed the castle hang out a white standard, and a boat push towards him with a flag of truce. He readily allowed the garrison to march out with military honours, and thus obtained possession both of castle and town. His own loss in killed was only seven men.* From the several castles he took on board sixty pieces of cannon, spiking the remainder ; and employed the gunpowder he captured in springing mines and de stroying the fortifications. " It is remarkable," says a contemporary, " that they found more danger and diffi- " culty in demolishing these works than in taking them." j- This object being achieved, Vernon re-embarked his men and returned to Jamaica. The treasure seized in Porto Bello was very inconsiderable ; only 10,000 dollars. The sailors might, perhaps, complain and wonder that the Ad miral had restrained them from cutting off and bringing home the ears of the Spaniards J, yet they must have deemed it some compensation that he generously resigned to them his own share of prize money. Such was the capture of Porto Bello, which the reader will scarcely think either very glorious in achievement, or very important in results. But it had been gained by an enemy of Walpole ! — and the whole Opposition, with one voice, hastened to proclaim it an heroic exploit! More especially was it urged that Vernon had taken Porto Bello with only six ships, while in 1726 Hosier had not attacked it with twenty ; a cry utterly senseless, since it was not pretended that want of force or of courage had hindered Hosier from taking the place, but merely his in structions, that sought to avert and that did avert a war. Nay, so inconsistent is party rancour, that while Vernon * Official account, Whitehall, March 15. 1740. London GazetteB. t Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 444. j " I haye longed this four years past to cut off some of their ear's, " and was in hopes I should have sent you one for a sample now, but " our good Admiral, God bless him, was too merciful! " (Letter from ¦a sailor on board die Squadron to his wife, printed in Boyer's Political State, vol. lix. p. 195.) .1740. " hosier's ghost." 59 was extolled for doing with six ships what Hosier could not do with twenty, Hosier, in the same breath, was pitied and declared to have died of a broken heart, from the in activity which his orders prescribed. Both these senti ments may be seen — worthless themselves, but precious from the splendid verse that inshrines them — in Glover's ballad at that period, " Hosier's Ghost" — the noblest song perhaps ever called forth by any British victory except Mr. Campbell's " Battle of the Baltic." In the same spirit did the Opposition within the House of Commons insist on inserting in their Address of congratulation the ob noxious words " with six ships of war only," and this amendment they carried in a thin House, by 36 against 31. By such insinuations and devices was a general en thusiasm raised amongst the people. We are assured that no Boman Consul, after reducing a province, ever received more lavish marks of public applause than were now showered upon Vernon.* His name became proverbial for courage ; his head was a favourite sign ; his birth-day was celebrated with bonfires and rejoicings.j The Oppo-. sition which chaunted his praise in public were no less careful to keep up a private correspondence with him. They inflamed his natural vanity and arrogance, repre sented Walpole as envious of his fame, and prepared him to consider any future coadjutor as a secret enemy. On the other hand the Ministers, anxious to pursue his success, had determined to send him a large reinforcer ment both of ships and soldiers. Their armament was nearly ready, when they received intelligence that a Spanish fleet was putting out to sea ; and that a French one was about to sail from Brest, its destination believed to be the West Indies, and its design hostile. It became expedient, therefore, greatly to increase the expedition from England, so as to render it adequate to all emer gencies ; but this could not be effected without some delay. " I need not tell you," writes Sir Charles Wager * Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 456. ¦f " It is Admiral Vernon's birth-day, and the city shops are full of M favours, the streets of marrowbones and cleavers, and the night will f be full of mobbing, bonfires, and lights." Horace Walpole to Sir H. 'Mann, November 12. 1741 , 60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXH, to Admiral Vernon, " how much time it necessarily takes " up to prepare and victual so large a squadron for a " voyage to the West Indies, nor how difficult it very " often is to get them out of the Channel, when they are " ready to sail, as this year we have experienced ; and I " thought it would not be amiss for both French and " Spaniards to be a month or two in the West Indies be- " fore us, provided the treasure was not ready to embark " in that time ; that they might be half dead and half " roasted before our fleet arrived, as I doubt not but " it has happened to them ; and the Government here, " laying an embargo upon all provisions in Ireland, " where the French had 14 ships loading provisions for " the West Indies, has no doubt been a great disappoint- " ment to them." * The Opposition, however, took care to exclaim against the delay, as though proceeding from the basest motives, and expressed strong doubts whether the expedition would ever really sail.f The expedition nevertheless did begin its voyage at the end of October 1740, the troops commanded by Lord Cathcart, and the fleet by Sir Chaloner Ogle. When joined with Vernon at Jamaica, it formed by far the most powerful armament ever yet seen in those seas, amount ing to no less than 115 ships, above 30 of these of the line, with 15,000 sailors, and 12,000 land forces on board, Vernon, who meanwhile had taken and demolished the small fort of Chagre, was acknowledged as chief Admiral, while the command of the troops (Lord Cathcart dying from the effects of the climate) devolved on General Wentworth. The precise object of these formidable preparations had not been fixed and prescribed in Eng land; some had suggested the Havana, others Car- thagena, and the decision was at length referred to a Council of War, to be held in the West Indies. In this, the impetuous wishes of Vernon, ever prone to dictate rather than consult, prevailed in favour of an attack on Carthagena. Nay, so thoroughly was he bent upon this * To Admiral Vernon, February 4. 1741. + " I have not the least notion that our expedition under Lord " Cathcart is intended to be sent any where." Pulteney to Swift June 3. 1740. Swift's Works, vol. xix. p. 322, 1741. ATTACK ON CARTHAGENA. 6l enterprise, that he had already announced the intentiori in a letter to the French governor of St. Domingo * — a singular imprudence, which served to give the Spaniards timely notice, and stirred them to more active measures for defence. Carthagena, then the best fortified and strongest place in Spanish America, stands upon a sandbank nearly sur rounded by the sea or salt pools. A tongue of landj beginning at the city, and running out at some distance across a bay, incloses a harbour both spacious and secure. To this harbour there was then only one entrance, so narrow as to deserve the name of Boca Chica (Small Mouth) : a boom had been drawn across it, and it was defended by several forts and batteries.j Within the harbour, on a peninsula jutting out from the tongue of land, and thus covering the city, was built another large fort called Castillo Grande, and here the channel was almost impassable, being choked by ships sunk in order to prevent; the approach' of the British fleet. The ram parts of -Carthagena itself had been newly repaired and mounted by no less than 300 pieces of cannon ; its garrison could muster 4,000 good soldiers ; and its Vice roy, Don Sebastian de Eslava, was an officer of skill ahd spirit, whose mind, nourished with Greek and Boman story, had long panted for some opportunity to emulate their heroic deeds J, and who — if he needed any meaner motive for exertion — might reflect that the Governor of Porto Bello had been sent to Spain and brought to trial for the surrender of that place.§ Such were the preparations for defence at Carthagena when the British squadron appeared before it on the 4th of March, 1741. The first step of the officers on board * Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 466. Campo Kaso also says of the ex pedition, " de cuyo suceso estaba Inglaterra tan segura, que no se "recelo de publicarla ocho meses antes de que se executase; lo que " no dexo de contribuir en parte al malogro de ella." (Comentarios, vol. iv. p. 163.) f See a description and two plans of Carthagena in Juan and TJiloa, Voyage d'Amerique, vol. i. p. 20 — 26. ed. 1752. J Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. iii. p. 325. § Boyer's Polit. State, voL lix. p. 404. This useful compilation ends in 1740, 62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXH. was to hold a Council of War next day, in order to settle the distribution of their future booty* ; or, according to the fable, sell the skin of the living bear ! Perceiving that the high surf made it impracticable to batter Carthagena from the sea, they determined to force the entrance of the harbour, and direct their attack from thence. Accordingly, they opened their fire upon the castle of Boca Chica, landing some troops and artillery, and raising batteries against it. They were met by a resolute resistance, and did not prevail till after the loss of fifteen days and 400 men. It is also certain that the engineers were utterly unskilled, the General far from able ; and that Vernon was not wholly without reason for complaining, as he did, of "the soldiers' laziness." Having gained possession of the Boca Chica, and entered the harbour, the enemy immediately confined themselves to Carthagena, and relinquished Castillo Grande without a blow, while the Admiral, in great exultation, sent home a ship to announce his approaching victory. " The " wonderful success," says he, " of this evening and night " is so astonishing, that one cannot but cry out with the " Psalmist, ' It is the Lord's doing and seems marvellous " ' in our eyes.' God make us truly thankful for it ! " t So confident was his language, and so ready the belief it found in England, that, as is asserted, a medal was im mediately struck in London to celebrate the taking of Carthagena, bearing on one side the head of Vernon, with an inscription as "The avenger of his country." $ * Admiral Vernon to the Duke of Newcastle, April 1. 1741. His letters and despatches at this period were afterwards published by himself as a pamphlet. (London, 1744. J !To the Duke of Newcastle, April 1. 1741. Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. ch. viii. He adds, " H y a beau- coup d'examples de ces medailles prematurees qui tromperaient la posterite, si l'Histoire plus fidele et plus exacte ne prevenait pas de " telles erreurs."— Perhaps the most remarkable of all these me~dadles prematurees is that struck by Napoleon for his intended conquest of England; his head on one side, on the other Hercules struggling with a monster ; the words descente en angleterbe, and beneath fkapfe a londres, mdccctv. I am informed that the die having been broken, only two of the original medals are preserved, the one in the Eoyal Cabinet at Paris, the other purchased by an English gentleman for 501., but there is a fac simile made at Birmingham. 1741. THE ENGLISH REPULSED. 63 The event did not quite confirm these golden dreams. The English sailors, indeed, by dint of labour, cleared a way through the sunk wrecks in front of Castillo Grande, and began to bombard the city from the inner harbour, while the soldiers and artillery, being set on shore, in vested it from the land side. But at this period, an animosity that had long smouldered, between the Admiral and the General, burst forth into open flame. Vernon would bear no colleague, and Wentworth no master. The latter complained of the slowness in landing the tents, stores, and artillery of the troops, by which they were prevented from making an immediate attack, and exposed for three nights to all the inclemency of the climate. On the other hand, Vernon declared that the General had remained inactive longer than he should, and had committed an unpardonable error in not cutting off the communication between the town and the adjacent country, by which the garrison was daily supplied with provisions. Each had some reason for his imputations ; but each overlooked in the other, while he loudly pleaded for himself, the difficulties of the situation and the service. In the midst of these untoward dissensions, Wentworth, with the advice of a council of officers, attempted to storm Fort San Lazaro, which served as an outwork to the city. Twelve hundred men, headed by General Guise, cheer fully marched to the attack. There was no breach in the wall : the signal for the night attack (for such had been designed) was protracted till nearly broad day ; and the deserters who undertook to act as guides were afterwards found, either through ignorance or ill intention, to have led them to the very strongest part of the fortification. Nay, more, on reaching the works, it was discovered, that from the neglect of the officers, the scaling ladders were partly too short, and partly left behind. The Spaniards also, commanded by Eslava in person, were prepared for vigorous resistance. Yet in spite of all these shameful disadvantages, the soldiers fought with stubborn intre pidity ; whole ranks were mowed down by the enemy's cannon without dispiriting the rest ; and one party had actually attained the summit of a rampart, when their leader, Colonel Grant, received a death wound, and the -men a repulse. Still however, the survivors remained 64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXH; undaunted under the murderous fire of the fort, until half their number had fallen *, and until their officers, per ceiving valour to be useless, and success impossible, sullenly gave the signal to withdraw. The conduct of Vernon in this affair has been severely ' — perhaps too severely, judged.! Certain it is, however, that several parts of his behaviour seem not incompatible with a malicious pleasure in the defeat of any enterprise not directed by himself, and that it was not till he saw the attempt irretrievably ruined that he sent his boats, full of men, to the General's assistance. It may well be supposed that such suspicions, combined with the irrita tion of failure, still further widened the breach between the rival officers, and still more strongly displayed the evils of joint command. In many cases, as Napoleon acutely observes in his private correspondence, even a bad general is better than two good ones ! % An enemy still more dire than either discord or the Spaniards now began to assail the British ranks, a sick ness, the effect of a tropical climate on European consti tutions, and so rapid in its progress, ,that, as the General declares, he found, in less than two days, his effective force dwindle from 6600 to 3200 men. Under these combined disasters a council of officers, held on the 24th of April, decided to relinquish the enterprise and return to Jamaica, first, however, demolishing the fortifications they had taken. " I believe," writes Vernon, " even the " Spaniards will give us a certificate, that we have effec- " tually destroyed all their castles ; " and this was the only fruit of an expedition that in England had cost such lavish sums and raised such high-wrought expectations^ that had made Spain tremble for her Indies, that had drawn France in jealousy of our aggrandisement to the very brink of war.§ * In the Spanish account this loss is increased to 1500 — more than the original number of assailants ! Comentarios de Don Joseph del Campo Baso (vol. iv. p. 162.). t Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 508. % Letter to Carnot, May 12. 1796. See also the Memoires d'un Homme d'Etat, vol. iii. p. 349. § Some despatches intercepted near Carthagena prove that the Ad miral of the French souadron had orders to attack, if he was strong 1741. ATTACK ON SANTIAGO DE CDEA. 65 Still less honourable was another expedition under taken by Vernon and Wentworth in the ensuing July, partly in pursuance of orders from home, and partly in hope to retrieve their reputation. Their object was San tiago in the island of Cuba ; their military force reduced to 3000 by sickness and disheartened by failure. A thousand negroes from Jamaica were their unpromising auxiliaries. They landed without opposition in the bay of Guantanamo, to which they gave the name of Cum berland, in honour of the Boyal Duke. But this courtly compliment was their only exploit. On sending out par ties to reconnaitre Santiago, they received such accounts of the difficulties of the ground and the strength of the place, that Wentworth and his officers judged it best to re-embark; the Admiral, after some angry remonstrances, was compelled to acquiesce, and the enterprise was thus abandoned before it had encountered any, even the slightest resistance. Vernon's own statement on the subject has, at least, the merit of extraordinary frank ness : — " Though I pretend to very little experience in " military affairs by land, yet it is my belief that if the " sole command had been in me, both in the Carthagena " expedition and the Cuba one, His Majesty's forces " would have made themselves masters both of Cartha- " gena and Santiago, and with the loss of much fewer " men than have died ! "* enough. This is Vernon's account : — " One of our brave sailors, " seeing a dead Spaniard lying upon an English ensign on shore, " swore that Spanish dog should not he upon English colours, and "went ashore to remove his quarters and fetch the colours, when he " fortunately discovered wrapped up in those colours the packets of "letters from the Spanish Admiral Rodrigo de Torres, . . . and the " French Secretary of State's orders to the Marquis d'Antin' (the " French Admiral), by which your Grace will see they had both " orders jointly or separately to fall on us." To the Duke of New castle, May 30. 1741. * To the Duke of Newcastle, October 2. 1742. vol. ni. 66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXITT. CHAPTEE XXHI. When Parliament met in November 1740, the Opposi tion, mindful of the approaching elections, under the Septennial Act, strained every nerve to aggravate the difficulties and blacken the character of Walpole. No sooner had the King's Speech been read by the Lord Chancellor, than the Duke of Argyle suddenly started up, anticipating Lord Holderness, the intended mover of the. Ministerial Address, and proposed an Address of his own ; he arraigned the whole conduct of the war, and, instead of following the various topics of the Boyal Speech, suggested merely a general assurance of sup port. On the same side Lord Carteret bitterly inveighed against "a Minister who has for almost twenty years " been demonstrating to the world that he has neither " wisdom nor conduct. He may have a httle low cun- " ning, such as those have that buy cattle in Smithfield " market, or such as a French valet makes use of for ma- " naging an indulgent master, but the whole tenour of " his conduct has shown that he has no true wisdom : " this our allies know and bemoan ; this our enemies " know and rejoice in !" Still more invidiously did Ches terfield represent the Government, as " begging hard for " a, little incense, and endeavouring to have a motion re jected with which even they themselves can find no " fault, in order to make room for encomiums which "themselves have prepared!" However, the motion of Lord Holderness, being brought forward as an amend ment, was carried by 66 votes against 38 ; and in the Commons as decisive a majority declared in favour of the original Address.* In pursuance of this opening, the Opposition proceeded * Mr. Orlebar to the Rev. H. Etough, Nov. 22. 1740. Pari. Hist. vol. xi. p. 613—696. The account of the Commons' debate is ex tremely meagre, and no mention made of either Pitt or Lyttleton's speeches, except that Mr. Orlebar says they were " very warm, which " occasioned Sir Robert to-be so too." 1741. PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES. 67 night after night to heap imputations on the Minister,- and to harass him with incessant motions for the produc tion of papers and letters, such as might tend either to cri minate him if disclosed, or afford a handle for invective if refused. The Upper House especially was the chosen scene of this warfare. First came an Address for the Instructions to Vernon in taking Porto Bello, intended to show that the whole merit belonged to the Admiral, and none to the Minister. " Can we expect," cried Chester field, " that he who gave Admiral Hosier orders to per- " suade the enemy's ships to surrender, and to lie. with " his squadron till it rotted before a sea port which Mr. " Vernon has taken with a fourth part of the force, — I " say can we expect that he will give proper orders to " any Admiral ? " Next appeared a motion for the letters from and to Vernon ; after this another for the Instruc tions to Haddock, who, having been sent with a large squadron to the Mediterranean, had, it was alleged, re mained shamefully inactive. In vain did Newcastle urge that Haddock had guarded Gibraltar and Port Mahon, blockaded Cadiz, and protected the British trade ; such considerations it was answered were but mean and mer cantile. " My Lords," began Bathurst, with his usual caustic wit, " the two noble young Lords who opened this "debate" (Sandwich and Halifax) "spoke with such " dignity, such strength of argument, and such propriety " of expression, that I began to imagine myself in an old " Boman or Lacedaemonian Senate, and therefore I must " return thanks to the Noble Duke who spoke last, for he " has brought me back to a British House of Peers ! " * These motions, and another strangely inconsistent with them, against any augmentation of the army, were, in deed, rejected by the Ministerial majority, but served, as was intended, to agitate and inflame the public mind, and prepare the way for the main attack, designed in both Houses to be aimed personally and directly against the Prime Minister. The cry of " Down with Walpole ! " was almost the only one on which the Tories and Whigs * Pari. Hist. vol. xi. p. 787. Lord Sandwich afterwards filled many high offices iu the State, but was never again compared to a Boman Senator. P 2 68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIII. in Opposition could heartily join, especially since the death of Wyndham, which had greatly loosened the bonds of their alliance. All of them concurred in hatred of the Minister; but few, as to the men or the measures that should follow his dismissal. That cry was also well adapted for effect upon the people, who, it may be ob served, are far more easily excited by personal than by political questions, although they have never any interest in the first, and are often deeply concerned in the latter. On that cry, therefore, did Argyle and the other Whigs in Opposition determine to concentrate their whole strength ; but it appears that, satisfied with having found a subject well adapted for concert, they neglected to se cure that concert by previous communication with their Tory friends, and reckoned on probabilities instead of obtaining promises. Thus resolved upon, the great attack was fixed in both Houses for the same day, the 13th of February; to be brought forward in the Peers by Lord Carteret, in the Commons by Mr. Samuel Sandys. It is difficult to under stand why so important a motion should have been en trusted to a member hitherto of no great note in the ranks of Opposition *, unless either Mr. Sandys had the merit of first suggesting it, or that the principal leaders wished to reserve themselves for reply. Two days pre viously, Sandys, crossing over the floor in the House of Commons, accosted the Minister, saying that he thought himself bound in common courtesy to inform him that he intended to bring an accusation of several articles against him ; and soon afterwards, rising in his place, he gave public notice that he should on the ensuing Friday open a matter of great importance, which personally con cerned the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who he there fore hoped would be present. Walpole received the inti mation with great composure and dignity; he rose to thank his opponent for his notice ; said that he desired * The abilities of Sandys are spoken of with much contempt by his enemies. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams satirically laments that he could not speU (Sir C. H. Williams's Works, vol. L p. 151. ed. 1822); and Horace Walpole calls him, in 1755, "the outcast of a "former silly administration" (Memoirs, vol i. p. 484). He had been M.P. for Worcester ever since 1717. 1741. ME. SAMUEL SANDYS. 6& no favour, but only fair play, and would not fail to at tend the accusation as not conscious of any crime, and he concluded with an appropriate line from his favourite Horace.* On the appointed day the public expectation rose to the highest pitch ; the gallery was thronged with eager spectators ; several members had secured their seats at six in the morning, and at one time there were nearly 500 in the House. The debate began at one o'clock. The speech of Sandys, probably concerted with the prin cipal Opposition leaders, was elaborate and able. Having first lamented the dreadful calamities of the nation, and urged an inquiry into the causes of them, he declared that he should divide his accusation into three branches, — foreign negotiations, domestic government, and the conduct of the war. As to the former, he inveighed, especially, against the Treaty of Hanover, the Act of the Pardo, the acquisition of Lorraine by France, and the Spanish Convention. With respect to affairs at home, he charged Sir Bobert with fraudulent views in adjust ing the South Sea Scheme ; he computed the produce of the Sinking Fund in 1727, and asserted that the national debt was not diminished, although the Sinking Fund had, since that period, produced no less than 15,000,000/. — " all spent in Spithead expeditions and Hyde Park re views ! " He next enumerated many instances of uncon- * A remarkable incident then occurred between Walpole and Pul teney. According to the custom of that period, these leaders of ad verse parties used to sit together on the Treasury Bench as Privy Councillors. Walpole had quoted " Nil conscire sibi, nulli pallescere culpa." When he sat down Pulteney drily observed to him that it was false Latin ; Sir Robert betted him a guinea it was not ; and they agreed to refer their dispute to Mr. Nicholas Hardinge, clerk of the House, who was known as an excellent scholar. Hardinge decided for Pul teney, the right word being nulla instead of nulli. The guinea was immediately tossed to Pulteney, who caught it, and held it up to the House, exclaiming, " It is the only public money I have received for " many years, and it shall be the last ! " — This anecdote, with a few slight variations, is recorded in nearly all the histories of that time. Mr. Nicholas Hardinge was the grandfather of my gallant and dis tinguished friend Sir Henry (now Viscount Hardinge, 1852,); and the original guinea of the wager is preserved at the British Museum; a donation in 1828 from Lady Murray. p 3 70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XX111. stitutional conduct. A larger standing army than was necessary — squadrons fitted out at an enormous expense, and never employed against an enemy — all methods to secure the Constitution against corruption rejected — many penal laws passed of an arbitrary tendency — votes of credit frequent — expenses of the Civil List increased — the abolition of burthensome taxes opposed merely because their collection required a great number of place men — officers dismissed for voting against the Excise Scheme, one of the weakest yet most violent projects ever set on foot by any Minister. Entering next upon the conduct of the war, Sandys complained that no sufficient reinforcements had been sent to Vernon in the West Indies, and that Haddock in the Mediterranean had been almost equally neglected. " Things being thus," said he, " I shall now name the author of all these public calami- " ties. I believe no one can mistake the person to whom " I allude ; every one must be convinced that I mean the " Bight Honourable Gentleman opposite J£ it should " be asked why I impute all these evils to one person, I " reply, because that one person has grasped in his own " hands every branch of government ; that one person " has attained the sole direction of affairs, monopolised " all the favours of the Crown, compassed the disposal of " all places, pensions, titles, ribands, as well as all pre- " ferments, civil, military, and ecclesiastical ; that one " person has made a blind submission to his will, both in " Elections and Parliament, the only terms of present " favour and future expectation I therefore move, " That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, " that he would be graciously pleased to remove the Bight " Honourable Sir Eobert Walpole from His Majesty's " presence and counsels for ever." Lord Limerick having seconded this motion, it was next suggested that Sir Eobert should be directed to re tire from the House during the debate — a course sup ported by several ancient precedents, where specific charges or points of evidence were in question, but in this case most unjust, as enabling any enemies to heap vague imputations upon the Minister, without allowing him any opportunity for explanation or reply. The mover of this last proposal, Mr. Wortley Montagu, was a gentleman of immense property and consequent weight 1741. MR. WORTLEY MONTAGU. 71 amongst his contemporaries, but only known or deserving to be known to posterity as the husband of the British Sevigne\ He appears to have combined very moderate talents with most overweening vanity. From several of Lady Mary's letters to him we may gather that no flat teries were too gross for his taste. Thus, " I never knew " any man capable of such a strength of resolution as " yourself." " I have always told you it is in your power " to make the first figure in the House of Commons." — " You have a stronger judgment than any ! " * No man of real sense would have endured such fulsome praises of'it. The motion of Wortley Montagu was seconded by Mr. Gibbon ; but, so general seemed the feeling in the House of its unfairness, and of the inapplicability of the prece dents, that the proposal was withdrawn, and it was agreed that Walpole should be permitted to hear every accusa tion and to speak the last. The debate then reverting to the main question was long and acrimonious. The Mi nister was defended by Pelham and Stephen Fox, per haps with more zeal than talent : the ablest speeches against him were Pitt's and Pulteney's. Edward Harley, brother of the Lord Treasurer Oxford, and who a few months afterwards, on the death of his nephew, succeeded to the earldom, gave a rare and most praiseworthy ex ample of moderation. " I do not," said he, " stand up " at this time of night either to accuse or flatter any man. " Since I have had the honour to sit in Parliament, I " have opposed the measures of administration because " I thought them wrong, and as long as they, are I shall " continue to give as constant an opposition to them. " The state of the nation by the conduct of our Ministers " is deplorable ; a war is destroying us abroad, and poverty " and corruption are devouring us at home. But what- * To Mr. Wortley, January 25. 1742, June 1. 1740, and March 23. 1744. It is asserted that jiiere stnl exists in MS. a speech of this " first figure in the House of Commons," which he intended to read. from his hat; it has certain notable hints for the delivery carefully ar ranged along the margin, such as "here pause for a minute" — "look round" — "slow" — "loud" — "cough." — I hope his hearers never applied the latter hint to themselves ! See Quarterly Review, No. xlvi. p. 416. f 4 72 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. utULT. aaiu. " ever I may think of men, God forbid that my private "opinion should be the only rule of my judgment! I " should desire to have an exterior conviction from facts " and evidences A Noble Lord to whom I had the " honour to be related has been often mentioned in this " debate. He was impeached and imprisoned ; by that " imprisonment his years were shortened ; and the pro- " secution was carried on by the Bight Honourable Gen- " tleman who is now the subject of your question, though " he knew at that very time that there was no evidence " to support it. I am now, Sir, glad of this oppor- " tunity to return good for evil, and to do that Bight " Honourable Gentleman and his family that justice " which he denied to mine." — So saying he left the house, and was followed by his kinsman Mr. Bobert Harley. As remarkable, though on very different grounds, was the conduct of Shippen. He observed that he looked upon this motion as only a scheme for turning out one Minister and bringing in another ; that it was quite indifferent to him who was in or who was out ; and that therefore he would give himself no concern in the question. With these words he withdrew, and was followed by thirty- four of his friends. Nay, Lord Cornbury even went further ; and, declaring that no man whose ardour for vengeance had not extinguished every other motive of action could resolve to sanction a method of prosecution by which the good and bad are equally endangered, an nounced that he should vote against the motion. The course of these Jacobite Members excited much surprise, and called forth many conjectures. So far as Shippen himself is concerned, it is explained by a fact which one of his relatives communicated to Mr. Coxe. Some time before, Sir Bobert Walpole having discovered a corre spondence which one of Shippen's party carried on with the Pretender, Shippen called on the Minister, and en treated him to save his friend. Sir Bobert readily com plied, and then said : " Mr. Shippen, I cannot desire you " to vote with the administration, for with your prin- " ciples I have no right to expect it. But I only require, " whenever any question is brought forward in the House " affecting me personally, that you will recollect the favour 1741. walpole's REPLY. 73 " I have now granted you." * It is not to be supposed, however, that this engagement could bind any one but Shippen himself. But a letter of Mr. Thomas Carte, in the Stuart collection, and referring to this very subject, shows that the hopes inspired by Walpole's message to the Pretender were not yet wholly dissipated. f It proves also that the motion of Sandys had been hastily brought forward without due and sufficient communication to the Jacobite Members, and that at the last moment they felt displeased, and determined to show their displeasure, at this arrogant neglect. When Pulteney had sat down Sir Eobert rose, and de livered a speech equal if not superior to any of his former efforts. Some of the charges against him, such as the despotic dismissal of officers, did not in my opinion admit of any satisfactory answer ; but on many points his de fence was conclusive, and on all most able. He observed that the parties combined against him might be divided into three classes, the Tories, the dissatisfied Whigs, call ing themselves Patriots, and the Boys — the latter phrase denoting how generally the young men of promise who entered Parliament had joined the Opposition banner, and thus afforded, perhaps, the surest of all omens of a Mi nister's fall. " The Tories," said Sir Bobert, " I can " easily forgive ; they have unwillingly come into the " measure, and they do me honour in thinking it necessary " to remove me as their only obstacle " Gentlemen have talked a great deal of patriotism — a " venerable word when duly practised ; but I am sorry to " say that of late it has been so much hackneyed about, " that it is in danger of falling into disgrace : the very " idea of true patriotism is lost, and the term has been " prostituted to the very worst of purposes. A patriot, " Sir ! why patriots spring up hke mushrooms ! I could " raise fifty of them within the four-and-twenty hours — " I have raised many of them in one night. It is but re- " fusing to gratify an Unreasonable or an insolent demand, " and up starts a patriot. I have never been afraid of * Memoirs of Walpole, vol. i. p. 671. t Mr. Carte to the Pretender (Received April 17. 1741.). Sea Appendix. 74 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXHI. " making patriots, but I disdain and despise all their " efforts I am called repeatedly and insidiously " prime and sole Minister. Admitting, however, for the " sake of argument, that I am prime and sole Minister in " this country; am I therefore prime and sole Minister of " all Europe ? am I answerable for the conduct of other " countries as well as for that of my own ? Many words " are not wanting to show that the particular views of " each Court occasioned the dangers which affected the " public tranquillity ; yet the whole is charged to my ac- " count. Nor is this sufficient ; whatever was the conduct " of England, I am equally arraigned. If we maintained " ourselves in peace, and took no share in foreign trans- " actions, we are reproached for tameness and pusilla- " nimity. If, on the contrary, we interfered in the disputes, " we are called Don Quixotes, and dupes to all the world. " If we contracted guarantees, it was asked, why is the " nation wantonly burthened ? If guarantees were de- " clined, we were reproached with having no allies." Sir Eobert next proceeded to vindicate the Treaty of Hanover, and the whole series of his foreign policy. In his financial administration, he contended that within the last sixteen or seventeen years no less than 8,000,000Z. of the Debt had been discharged by the application of the Sinking Fund, and 7,000,OOOZ. more taken from that fund and applied to the relief of the agriculturists through the diminution of the Land Tax. As to the conduct of the war, " as I am neither Admiral nor General," said he, " as I have nothing to do either with our Navy or Army, " I am sure I am not answerable for the prosecution of it. " But were I to answer for every thing, no fault could, I " think, be found. It has from the beginning been carried " on with as much vigour, and as great care of our trade, " as was consistent with our safety at home, or with our " circumstances at the beginning of the war ; and if our " attacks upon the enemy were too long delayed, or if " they have not been so vigorous or so frequent as they " ought to have been, those only are to blame who have " for many years been haranguing against standing armies. " .... In conclusion, what have been the effects of this " corruption, ambition, and avarice with which I am so " abundantly charged ? Have I ever been suspected of 1741. WALPOLE'S TRIUMPHANT MAJORITY. 75 " being corrupted ? A strange phenomenon, a corrupter " himself not corrupt ! Is ambition imputed to me ? Why " then do I still continue a Commoner ? I, who refused " a White Staff and a Peerage! — I had, indeed, like to " have forgotten the little ornament about my shoulders, " which gentlemen have so repeatedly mentioned in terms " of sarcastic obloquy. But surely, though this may be " regarded with envy or indignation in another place, it " cannot be supposed to raise any resentment in this " House, where many must be pleased to see those honours " which their ancestors have worn restored again to the " Commons I must think that an Address to " His Majesty to remove one of his servants, without so " much as alleging any particular crime against him, is " one of the greatest encroachments that was ever made " upon the prerogative of the Crown ; and, therefore, for " the sake of my master, without any regard for my own, " I hope all those that have a due respect for our Con- " stitution, and for the rights and prerogatives of the " Crown, without which our Constitution cannot be pre- " served, will be against this motion." This speech, which was not concluded till nearly four in the morning, produced a strong effect, and was followed by a triumphant division; the numbers being, for the motion 106, against it 290, an unusually large majority, mainly resulting, however, from the secession of the Tories. Li the Upper House, that evening, Lord Car teret was powerfully supported by Argyle and Bathurst, but opposed by the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of New castle, and Lord Hervey, and the motion was negatived by 108 votes against 59. The Prince of Wales was pre sent, but did not vote; and it was observed that Lord Wilmington, though holding office under the Govern ment, likewise remained neutral. A strong protest, which had been prepared, as is said, by Bolingbroke*, was signed by 31 Peers. The remark of Sir Bobert himself, in a conversation with Sandys, was, that they might, perhaps, get the better of him, but he was sure no other Minister would ever be * Charles Yorke to Philip Yorke. Coxe's Walpole, vol. iii. p. 565. 76 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTIT. able to stand so long as he had done — twenty years.* The first effect of these motions seemed to be the securing of Walpole in power. His levee the next morning was the fullest ever known j; congratulations poured in from all sides; while his opponents, baffled and confounded, were imputing to each other the blame of their failure. But in its ulterior consequences the motion of Sandys served in the ensuing General Election to point and con centrate every attack upon the Minister, as the one great grievance of the state; and on the other hand, it is asserted that his success on this occasion threw him off his guard, and by increasing his confidence slackened his exertions.^ An occurrence of this Session, still more important in its consequences, was the Subsidy granted to the Court of Vienna, where there had arisen a new conjuncture of affairs, portentous and eventful to the other European states. The Emperor Charles the Sixth had died on the 20th of October 1740. His daughter Maria Theresa, the heiress of his dominions with the title of Queen of Hun gary, was but twenty-three years of age, without ex perience or knowledge of business ; and her husband Francis, the titular Duke of Lorraine and reigning Grand Duke of Tuscany, deserved the praise of amiable quahties rather than of commanding talents. Her Ministers were timorous, irresolute, and useless : " I saw them in de spair," writes Mr. Bobinson, the British envoy, " but that " very despair was not capable of rendering them bravely " desperate." § The treasury was exhausted, the army dispersed, and no General risen to replace Eugene. The succession of Maria Theresa was, indeed, cheerfully ac knowledged by her subjects, ahd seemed to be secured amongst foreign powers by their guarantee of the Prag matic Sanction ; but it soon appeared that such guarantees are mere worthless parchments where there is strong temptation to break and only a feeble army to support them. The principal claimant to the succession was the * Opinions of the Duchess of Marlborough, p. 108. The date of 1 739 is clearly erroneous. t Mr. T. Carte to the Pretender. Letter received April 17. 1741. \ Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 491. § Mr. Robinson to Lord Harrington, October 22. 1740. Coxe's House of Austria. 1741. FREDERICK THE SECOND OF PRUSSIA. 77 Elector of Bavaria, who maintained that the will of the Emperor Ferdinand the First devised the Austrian states to his daughter, from whom the Elector descended, on failure of male lineage. It appeared that the original will in the archives at Vienna referred to the failure, not of the male but of the legitimate issue of his sons ; but this document, though ostentatiously displayed to all the Mi nisters of state and foreign ambassadors, was very far from inducing the Elector to desist from his pretensions.* As to tho Great Powers — the Court of France, the old ally of the Bavarian family, and mindful of its injuries from the House of Austria, was eager to exalt the first by the depression of the latter. The Bourbons in Spain followed the direction of the Bourbons in France. The King of Poland and the Empress of Bussia were more friendly in their expressions than in their designs. An opposite spirit pervaded England and Holland, where motives of honour and of policy combined to support the rights of Maria Theresa. In Germany itself the Elector of Cologne, the Bavarian's brother, warmly espoused his cause ; and " the remaining Electors," says Chesterfield, " like electors with us, thought it a proper opportunity "of making the most of their votes, — and all at the " expense of the helpless and abandoned House of " Austria! "f The first blow, however, came from Prussia, where the King Frederick William had died a few months before, and been succeeded by his son Frederick the Second ; a Prince surnamed the Great by poets, and who would have deserved that title better had he not been one of them himself. It is difficult to understand how the same spirit could sometimes soar to the most lofty achievements — sometimes creep in the most wretched rhymes ; and when we painfully toil through page after page, and volume after volume, of intolerable dullness, here and there enlivened by blasphemy, we can scarcely believe that they really proceeded from the first warrior and statesman of his age. Voltaire, who knew him well, * Mr. Robinson to Lord Harrington, October 26. and November 7. 1740. f Case of the Hanover Forces, 78 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTTT. gave him the nickname of Cesar-Cotin.* Nor was there a less striking contrast between the qualities of his heart and of his head. Vain, selfish, and ungrateful, destitute of truth and honour, he valued his companions, not from former kindness, but only for future use. j But turn we to his talents, and we find the most consummate skill in war, formed by his own genius and acquired from no master ; we find a prompt, sagacious, and unbending adminis tration of affairs ; an activity and application seldom yielding to sickness and never relaxed by pleasure, and seeking no repose except by variety of occupation ; a high and overruling ambition, capable of the greatest exploits or of the most abject baseness, as either tended to its object, but never losing sight of that object ; pur suing it with dauntless courage and an eagle eye, some times in the heavens and sometimes through the mire, and never tolerating either in himself or in others one moment of languor or one touch of pity. This aspiring Prince had found on his accession an immense treasure and an excellent army ; he panted for an opportunity of employing both, and availed himself of the Emperor's death to revive some obsolete claims to certain duchies and lordships in Silesia. While others negotiated, he acted. He quietly collected his troops, all the while continuing his professions of amity to the Court of Vienna ; and, when his preparations were com plete, secretly quitting Berlin at the close of a masked ball, on the 23d of December he entered Silesia, at the head of thirty thousand men. He had not strengthened himself by any engagements with the Court of Versailles, * Abbe Cotin, the constant butt of Boileau's satire, was also the original of Moliere's Trissotin in Les Femmes Savantes. The name was at first Tri-cotin, but afterwards altered, the allusion being thought too plain. t This appeared from the very outset of his reign. See in the Appendix a letter from Lord Deskford to Marquis Visconti, Decem ber 26. 1740. A similar statement is made by Voltaire. He tells us that when at Berlin some persons remonstrated with the King for fa vouring him so highly. " ' Laissez faire,' dit le Roi, ' on presse l'orange, " ' et on la jette quand on a avale le jus.' La Metrie ne manqua pas "de me rendre ce bel apophthegme digne de Denis de Syracuse. ' Je " resolus des lors de mettre en surete les pelures de l'orange.' ~(Me- moires de Voltaire, p. 224. ed. 1822.) 1741. THE PRUSSIANS INVADE STLESIA. 79 but he rehed on its ancient animosity against the House of Austria, and perceived that he might sign an alliance whenever he gained a victory. As he set off, he said to the French Ambassador, the Marquis de Beauvau : " I " am going, I believe, to play your game ; and if I should " throw doublets, we will share the stakes." * At the same time, however, Frederick made an overture in the opposite quarter. He despatched Count Gotter as his agent to Vienna, to announce his intended invasion, and to propose that the Queen of Hungary should cede to him the province of Lower Silesia, on which condition he would undertake to change sides, and employ his troops and treasure in defending Her Majesty against all her enemies and obtaining for the Duke her husband the Imperial Crown. But the high spirit of Maria Theresa could ill brook such submission. She declared that so long as the King of Prussia had a man in Silesia she would sooner perish than enter into any terms with him, and Gotter returned in disappointment to his master.f Meanwhile the invasion of Silesia was easy and almost unopposed. The Queen's troops, only 3000 in number, were compelled to retreat into Moravia ; and the Protes tants, who had suffered severely under the Austrian yoke, hailed Frederick as a champion of their faith. Before the end of January he had reduced the whole province except the fortified towns of Glogau, Brieg, and Neiss. Yet still he affected to call himself a friend of the House of Austria, and wrote to the Duke of Lorraine : — " My " heart has no share in the mischief which my hand is " doing to your Court." J Such hypocritical assurances tended only to inflame the resentment of Maria Theresa She collected an army of about 24,000 men in Moravia, and drew Marshal Neipperg from a prison to place him at its head.§ According to her orders, Neipperg, crossing the mountains, entered Silesia, ahd pushed forward to * Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. ch. vi. f Coxe's House of Austria, voL iii. p. 232 — 234. X Despatch of Mr. Robinson to Lord Harrington, February 22. 1741. § Neipperg had been disgraced and sent to the castle of Hallitz in 1739, for signing the preliminaries of a disadvantageous peace with the Turks. (Coxe's House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 198.) 80 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIH. Neiss and Brieg, while Frederick, who had returned for a short time to Berlin, hastened back to meet his new antagonist. On the 10th of April the Prussians, ap proaching by rapid marches and favoured by a fall of snow, surprised Neipperg at Molwitz, a village near Brieg. The battle, however, which ensued, seemed at first to declare against them ; their cavalry, much inferior to the Austrian, was entirely routed ; the King's baggage was taken ; and the King himself was borne along by the crowd of fugitives to Oppellen, many miles from the field of action.* But the bravery and steadiness of the Prussian infantry, under Marshal Schwerin, retrieved the day : they not only arrested the progress of Neip- perg's already half victorious troops, but put them to flight with the loss of 3000 men and several pieces of cannon. An express was then despatched to the King in the rear, informing him that the battle which he had long since despaired of was completely won. A strange outset of a hero's career, but nobly repaired in after years. The disaster of Molwitz revealing the weakness of the Austrian monarchy encouraged new claimants to its spoils. The Kings of Spain, of Sardinia, and of Poland as Elector of Saxony, each on different grounds, pre tended to some share in its dominions. On the other hand a generous spirit was rising throughout England to support the injured Queen, and the Opposition already began to clamour against the tameness of the Minister. Thus goaded, Walpole brought forward an Address in the House of Commons, pledging Parliament to maintain the Pragmatic Sanction : he also proposed a Subsidy of 300,000/. to the Queen of Hungary, and acknowledged the national obligation by treaty of assisting her with a force of 12,000 men. These motions were supported by * Frederick's behaviour in this flight was characteristically selfish. On arriving at Oppellen, the place was found to be occupied by an Austrian out-post, and some hussars sallied out against the King's party; upon which Frederick exclaimed to Maupertuis, the French mathematician, and some other attendants, " Farewell, my friends, I " am better mounted than you all ! " and gaily rode off, leaving Mau pertuis and some others to be taken prisoners. This was related by Maupertuis himself at Vienna to Mr. Robinson. (Despatch to Lord Harrington, April 22. 1741.) 1741. FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS. 81 Pulteney and other chiefs of the " patriots," but did not pass without some severe remarks from Shippen, who declared that the measures were intended only to secure the King's Electoral dominions. A similar Address, pro posed by Ministers in the House of Lords, displayed a still wider schism in the Opposition ranks ; Carteret speaking in favour of the motion, but Chesterfield and Argyle opposing it as too Hanoverian. According to Chesterfield, " the Prince of Wales behaved sillily upon " this occasion, making Lords North and Darnley vote " against us ; such was the power of the natale solum. " This has hurt him much with the public." * Carteret on his part, with the view of thwarting Walpole's nego tiations, took care to assure Count Ostein, the Austrian Ambassador, that the Subsidy did not proceed from the good disposition of the Minister, but had been extorted by the general voice of the Parliament and people.-j" - The great object of Walpole's negotiations at this time was to break the confederacy against Maria Theresa, by detaching the King of Prussia from it, nay, even convert ing him into an ally. It was found, however, far from easy to mediate between a victorious invader and a haughty and offended Queen. When Lord Hyndford the English Ambassador urged Frederick to moderate his pretensions, and represented how beautiful a thing is magnanimity, he was impatiently interrupted : — " Do not talk to me, " my Lord, of magnanimity ! a Prince ought first to con- " suit his own interests. I am not averse to a peace, but " I expect to have four Duchies, and I will have them." J Mr. Bobinson at Vienna had full as many obstacles to combat. Scarce any concession could be wrung from Maria Theresa ; she resolutely refused every part of Sile sia, but at length proposed the Duchy of Limburg andother lands in the Low Countries. Even to these inadequate terms she was brought with extreme reluctance, and while empowering Mr. Bobinson to make the offer to Frederick, passionately exclaimed, " I hope he, may reject * Lord Chesterfield to Lord Marchmont, April 24. 1741. March mont Papers, vol. ii. t See the Life of Lord Walpole, of Wolterton, p. 224. X Despatch of Lord Hyndford to Lord Harrington, Breslau, June 12. 1741. VOL. m. G 82 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIH. " it ! " That wish was soon accomplished. On arriving at the Prussian head-quarters the British Minister im mediately opened his commission to the King, but was encountered by a burst of indignation. " Still beggarly " offers ! " cried Frederick. " Since you have nothing to " propose on the side of Silesia, all negotiations are use- " less. My ancestors," added he, with theatrical gestures, " would rise out of their tombs to reproach me, should I " abandon my just rights." So saying he took off his hat, and rushed behind the inner curtain of his tent.* Thus then the war continued, fraught with dangers, and apparent ruin to the Austrian Heiress. At the Court of France the pacific influence of Fleury was over borne by the Marshal de Belleisle, assisted by a female cabal ; and Fleury, when driven to choose between the sacrifice of his power and of his principles, still at the age of eighty-seven clung with dying grasp -to the former. He unworthily consented to preside over councils which he had long gainsaid and still disapproved. Belleisle was despatched to Breslau and to Dresden to concert the terms of alliance; with Munich they were already formed. The projects of Jacobite risings and French as sistance were postponed at Versailles, the more readily, perhaps, since the failure at Carthagena had diminished the fear of British aggrandizement ; and the troops were collected in two great armies for the invasion of Ger many. The first army under Marshal Maillebois passed the Meuse and Bhine and advanced towards Hanover, where King George was then residing, having gone abroad in the spring in spite of the urgent entreaties of Walpole, and leaving that Minister to struggle, as he best might, through the difficulties of the General Elec tion. His Majesty was accompanied by Lord Harring ton as Secretary of State, and was employed in assem bling troops for the support of the Queen of Hungary, when the approach of the French chilled his ardour and arrested his arms. Trembling for what was always nearest to his heart, his Electoral dominions, he con- * The details of this curious interview are related by Mr. Robinson in his despatch to Lord Harrington, August 9. 1741. A second journey of Robinson, with larger offers, proved equally fruitless. 1741. TWO FRENCH ARMIES IN GERMANY. 83 eluded one year's neutrahty for Hanover, stipulating that during that period it should yield no assistance to Maria Theresa, and that at the ensuing Election of Emperor its vote should not be given in favour of her husband. This treaty, signed on the 16th of September, was re probated, and not without some reason, as a pusillanimous and selfish measure, and it is difficult to say whether it excited most displeasure in Austria or in England. The second French army, 35,000 strong, and headed by Marshals de Belleisle and de Broglie, pouring into Bavaria, joined the Elector's forces, and reduced the im portant city of Lintz. There the Elector was inaugurated Duke of Austria, and declared war against Maria The resa by the name of Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Already had his outposts pushed within three leagues of Vienna, already was a summons sent to Count Khevenhiiller, Governor of that capital, already did its inhabitants hastily prepare, some for flight, others for resistance ; and while a suburb which had grown up beneath the fortifications was destroyed, the Danube was covered with barges conveying away the most precious effects. The Queen herself, then advanced in pregnancy, was in duced to depart with her infant son, leaving her husband and her brother-in-law Prince Charles of Lorraine to defend her capital and maintain her cause. Amidst this long train of disasters no resource seemed left to the unfortunate Princess, but a people whose lofty spirit accorded with her own. For years, nay for cen turies, had the Hungarians groaned or rebelled beneath the despotism of her Imperial ancestry. While they formed the outpost of Christendom upon their frontier, they were no less the martyrs of tyranny at home : al most equally assailed from Constantinople and from Vienna, they had to defend their religion with one hand and their privileges with the other. The flower of their chivalry was again and again mowed down in battle by the Turks or immured in dungeons by the Austrians, yet always started up afresh with renewed valour and unconquerable love of liberty. Never, perhaps, had any nation undergone more grievous calamities or displayed more heroic courage. " In going through Hungary," says an English traveller, one hundred and twenty years a 2 84 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXm. ago, " nothing can be more melancholy than to see such " a noble spot of earth almost uninhabited;"* and even at the present day, after a long period of quiet and good government, the scanty and squalid population, the dismal towns, and the uncultivated fields, still bear impressed upon them the stamp of former misery, and show how unavailing are the most lavish gifts of Provi dence where the greatest of all — Peace and Freedom — were denied. It was to this noble nation, resolute against the strong oppressor, but generous to the feeble and the suppliant, that now, at her utmost need, the Austrian Queen ap pealed. She had already, when crowned at Presburg in the June preceding, gratified them by reviving and taking the oath of their King Andrew the Second (it had been abolished by her grandfather) in confirmation of their privileges, and by fulfilling the stately ceremonies which their forms prescribed. Placing on her head the crown of St. Stephen, and borne by a spirited charger, she rode up the ancient barrow called the Boyal Mount, and from thence, according to the established custom, waved a drawn sword towards the four cardinal points, as though defying the universe to war. So fair and graceful was her aspect, that, as an eye-witness ex claimed, she did not require her weapon to conquer all who saw her. I Yet lovely as she seemed in her Boyal Crown, her fascination augmented after she had laid it aside, when her beautiful hair, no longer confined by it, flowed freely in long ringlets on her shoulders, while the excitement of the previous ceremony diffused a warmer glow over her charming features ; and, as she sate down in public state at the Boyal banquet, there was not a heart among the spectators, however chilled by age — or * Lady Mary W. Montagu to the Countess of Mar, January 30. 1717. t Mr. Robinson to Lord Harrington, June 28. 1741. This scene was also detailed by several gentlemen who were present to Sir N. Wraxall (Courts of Berlin, Vienna, &c, vol. ii. p. 299. ed. 1799). He adds, " I am assured by thosewho witnessed her coronation, that " she was then one of the most charming women in Europe : her "figure elegant, her shape fine, and her demeanour majestic." I have compared and combined both descriptions in my narrative. 1741. QUEEN MARIA THERESA AT PRESBURG. 85 worse than age, by selfishness — that did not beat high with chivalrous and loyal admiration. Endeared by these recollections, the young Queen, or as they termed her, the King (for in Hungary the female title is applied only to Queens Consort,) again repaired to Presburg a few months afterwards as a fugitive from Vienna. All the Magnates and other Orders of the king dom were there assembled in Diet. On the 11th of Sep tember, a day whose memory has ever since been cherished in Hungary, she summoned them to attend her at the Castle ; they came, and when marshalled in the Great Hall, the Queen appeared : she was still in deep mourn ing for her father, but her dress was Hungarian, the crown of St. Stephen was on her head, and the scimitar of state at her side. Her step was firm and majestic, but her voice faltered, and tears flowed from her eyes. For some moments she was unable to utter a single word, and the whole assembly remained in deep and mournful silence. At length her infant son, afterwards Joseph the Second, was brought in by the first Lady of the Bedchamber, and laid on a cushion before her. With an action more elo quent than any words, the Queen took him in her arms, and held him up to the assembly, and while sobs still at intervals burst through her voice, she addressed the as sembly in Latin, a language which she had studied and spoke fluently, not from pedantry, as ladies elsewhere, but because it is to this day in common use with the Hun garian people, and still serves to convey the national de liberations. Her speech was no cold and formal harangue of a Sovereign, cautiously declaring projects, or haughtily demanding supplies ; it was the supplication of a young and beautiful woman in distress. When she came to the words* — " The kingdom of Hungary, our person, our " children, our crown are at stake ! Forsaken by all, we * The precise words, as communicated from the Hungarian archives, both to Mr. Coxe and Sir N. Wraxall, are as follows : " Agi- " tur de regno Hungarise, de persona nostra, prolibus nostris et corona. "Ab omnibus derelicti unice ad inclytorum Statuum fidelitatem, "arma, et Hungarorum priscam virtutem confugimus!" The excla mation of the States in reply was " Vitem et Sanguinem pro Majes- " tate Vestra ! Moriamur pro Rege noBtro, Maria Theresa ! " — These words will resound to all posterity. O 3 86 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XJUil. " seek shelter only in the fidelity, the arms, the hereditary " valour of the renowned Hungarian states," — the whole assembly, as if animated by one soul and speaking with one voice, drew their sabres halfway from the scabbard, and exclaimed, " Our lives and our blood for your Ma jesty! We will die for our King Maria Theresa!" — Nowhere, perhaps, does modern History record a more beautiful and touching scene. According to the narra tive of one of the noblemen present, " we all wept, as did " the Queen, aloud, but they were tears of affection and " indignation. In a few minutes afterwards we withdrew, " in order to concert the necessary measures at such a " period of public danger and distress." * It is certainly a great advantage, as all History attests, of female succession, that it tends above all other causes to kindle the extinct or revive the decaying flame of loyalty. The warmest feelings then combine with the most deliberate judgment, and we become Boyalists from enthusiasm as much as from reason. Nay even where a contracted understanding fails to discern the superior benefits of Monarchy, the heart unbidden warms towards one whose sex makes it our pride to protect, as her birth our duty to obey her. And never, not even by our own Elizabeth, were a people's loyalty and love more strongly stirred than then by Maria Theresa. Her attraction was * The narrative of Count Koller, who was present, was taken down from his repeated relation, and in his very words, by Sir N. Wraxall. (Courts of Berlin and Vienna, vol. ii. p. 296—298. ed. 1799.) " The " whole scene," adds the Count, " which has furnished so much matter "for history, hardly lasted more than twelve or fifteen minutes." Archdeacon Coxe discredits the point of the Queen's holding up the infant Archduke to the Diet, because, as he states, it appears from Mr. Robinson's despatches that the Archduke was not brought to Presburg till after the 20th of the month. (House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 266.) Yet we know from other authority that Maria Theresa had taken her son with her from Vienna (Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 520.), and I should be the less inclined to trust Mr. Coxe's dates in this transaction, as he has chosen to transfer the celebrated scene hefore the Diet from the 11th to the 13th. But on referring to the despatch in question among Mr. Coxe's transcripts (vol. ci. p. 214. Brit. Mus.) it is evident that his copyist has put the word " Arch- " duke," by mistake, for " Grandduke" (that is, of Tuscany, and Duke of Lorraine) ; the son instead of the father. See the Appendix of this volume. 1741. ENTHUSIASM OF THE HUNGARIANS. 87 not merely that of form or youth ; goodness and benevo lence of character shone conspicuous in every period of her life ; and even when time and sorrow had deprived her of all pretensions to beauty, she still charmed all those that approached her by her manner and mien, displaying in most harmonious combination, a motherly kindness, a regal dignity, a female grace. Nor did the enthusiasm of the Hungarians evaporate in words. The spirit of the Magnates was caught by the vassals ; military ardour united with feudal duty ; and though with different degrees of power, the energy and exertion were the same in all. From the remotest pro vinces, from the banks of the Save, the Teiss and the Drave, poured hardy and half-savage bands, whose aspect, nay whose very name was yet unknown to Western Eu rope — Croats, Pandours, Tolpaches, Sclav onians — with strange dress and arms, barbarous tongues, and unwonted modes of combat, yet able, as was shown by the event, to cope with most disciplined troops. The subsidy of 300,000J. which had been transmitted from England proved like wise of no small avail, and an army, formidable both in spirit and in numbers, rapidly grew around the Boyal standard. Vienna meanwhile was no longer in present peril from the Elector of Bavaria and his French alhes. Beserving that capital for future prey, and impatient to be crowned 'King of Bohemia, he had turned aside from his Austrian expedition, and invested Prague. Its garrison was only 3000 men ; its governor, Ogilvy, an Irish exile. To re lieve that city became Maria Theresa's first object ; the new Hungarian levies, headed by the Duke of Lorraine and his brother Prince Charles, were set in movement early in November, and were joined by the remains of the Silesian army under Neipperg, as well as by a detachment from the garrison of Vienna. Already had they advanced within five leagues of Prague, when they had the mortifi cation to learn, that on the preceding night, the 25th of November, the city had been taken by surprise. They thereupon retired to a secure position behind the marshes of Budweis, while Prague resounded with the festal coro nation of the pretended King of Bohemia. From that conquest the Elector hastened to a still prouder scene of o 4 88 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTTT. triumph, the Diet of Frankfort, where the neutrality of Hanover had left the Duke of Lorraine without a single vote, and where his rival was accordingly chosen and crowned Emperor by the title of Charles the Seventh.* These, however, were but the continued impulse and flow of his preceding fortune ; the zeal and valour of the Hun garians wholly turned the tide; and my next view of the affairs of Maria Theresa will display a success not un worthy of her spirit and theirs. In England the Parliament had been prorogued on the 25th of April, and dissolved a few days afterwards. I need not here recapitulate what I have already dwelt upon, the many causes that had combined to heap un popularity and discredit upon Walpole. Indeed, if truth were always found half way between opposite angry alle gations, Sir Eobert might be proved a perfect character ; for he was denounced at once as profuse and niggardly, timid and presumptuous, a sycophant and a despot, too hasty and too slow ! But in reality, the faults of the Minister on some points are quite as undoubted as the in justice of the people on others. The Opposition had also been most unremitting in their exertions throughout the country ; and the testimony of a French traveller at this period may possess some interest, as showing what pro gress had been made in the science of Electioneering: " I am now," says he, " at Northampton ; a town where " there are some of the best inns in England, but where " I am lodged at one of the worst ; this has happened be- " cause I fell in with a noble Peer who was going, like " myself, to London, and who insisted upon our travelling " together, which I readily agreed to, not knowing that I " should pay so dearly for the honour of his company. " Each party in this nation has its peculiar inns, which " no one can change unless he wishes to be called a " turn-coat Our dinner consisted of a tough * The coronation at Frankfort was delayed till February 14. 1742. The Margravine of Bareith, who was present, observes: "Le pauvre " Empereur ne gouta pas toute la satisfaction que cette ceremonie " devait lui inspirer. II etait mourant de la goutte et de lagravelle, " et pouvait a. peine se soutenir LTmperatrice est d'une taille " au dessous de la petite, et si puissante qu'elle semble une boule ; " elle est laide au possible, sans air et sans grace." (Mem. de Bareith, vol. ii. p. 342. and 346.) 1741. THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION. 89 ' fowl and a liquid pudding. This was not the worst ; it seemed at one moment as if the innkeeper's hatred of the Minister would give him the privilege of sitting down ' to table with ourselves. The least we could do was, to drink from the same glass as he used, to his health and ' the healths of all those at Northampton, that are enemies of Sir Bobert Walpole (against whom I have not the slightest cause of quarrel) and friends of our innkeeper (with whom, as you see, I have no great reason to be pleased). Nay, more, we had patiently to listen to all ' the arguments of this zealous member of the Opposition, for it was not the innkeeper that paid court to My Lord, but My Lord that paid court to the innkeeper. The ' latter loudly complained that his party in Parliament was far too moderate. ' How shameful ! ' he cried in a ' passionate tone. ' If I were a Peer like your Lordship, ' I would insist that all Ministers should be expelled ' from both Houses, and that the Militia should be dis- ' ' banded, or else (here he added an oath) I would set ' ' fire to the city of London from end to end ! ' With these words he angrily wished us good night. After he was gone, ' Sir,' said my Noble Friend, ' you must not ' ' be surprised at all this. That man is of more im- ' ' portance in the town than you can possibly imagine ; ' ' his understanding is so much respected by. his neigh- ' ' bours that his vote at an election always decides theirs, ' and our party are bound to show him all possible at- ' ' tention.'" * Such details may appear beneath the dignity of History, yet, let us never contemn whatever can best illustrate the temper and manners of the time.-j- One of the first elections that ensued at the Dissolution was that of Westminster. The Court had then a para mount influence in this borough ; and its candidates were Sir Charles Wager, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Lord Sundon, a Lord of the Treasury, and husband of the former favourite of Queen Caroline. No opposition was * Lettres d'un Francais, vol. i. p. 257 — 259. ed. 1745. ¦f This question — as to what circumstances should or should not be excluded from history — is argued with some striking examples in Ernile, livre 4. (vol. i. p. 429. ed. 1821). The author is as usual most able, and what we seldom find him, I think, in the right. 90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIH. at first expected ; but Sir Charles having been summoned to convoy His Majesty to Holland, and Lord Sundon being an arrogant upstart, with no merit but his marriage, a party in Westminster set up Admiral Vernon, then in the height of his popularity, and Mr. Edwin, a gentleman of considerable fortune. Still, however, there was a majority in favour of the Ministerial candidates ; but some tumult ensuing, Lord Sundon was weakly prevailed upon to order the poll-books to be closed, a party of the Guards to attend, and himself and Sir Charles Wager to be re turned by the High Bailiff while soldiers surrounded the hustings. So exasperated were the multitude that the Guards were pelted, and Sundon himself narrowly escaped with his life. This appearance of military force roused a strong re sentment through the country, and is supposed to have turned several elections against the Ministerial candidates. Another powerful lever of the Opposition was a sub scription, to which Pulteney, the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, and the Prince of Wales, were lavish con tributors ; the Prince incurring considerable debts on this occasion. In Cornwall, Lord Falmouth and Mr. Thomas Pitt succeeded in gaining over several of the smaller boroughs from the Government. In Dorsetshire, Weymouth and Melcombe followed the change of Bubb Dodington, who had gone into opposition with the Duke of Argyle, irritated, as it was said, by the refusal of a peerage. Lord Melcombe (such was the title he coveted) would have continued a steady friend, Mr. Bubb became an inexorable enemy ! Scotland was made the battle field of two brothers, the Earl of Isla and the Duke of Argyle ; the former as manager for Walpole, the latter as his prin cipal opponent. In this conflict the Duke prevailed ; and the Scottish members who had hitherto formed a close phalanx in support of the Government, and had even, as we have seen *, received each ten guineas weekly during the Session, were now, for the most part, ranged on the contrary side. On the whole the Ministerial majority was so far reduced, that even its favourers could not boast of above sixteen ; " and I well know," writes Dodington, * See vol. ii. p. 68. 1741. ADVICE OF CHESTERFIELD. 91 " that if we take proper measures, sixteen and nothing is " the same thing ! " * To concert these "proper measures" betimes was there fore a main object. Dodington, Lord Limerick, and several others, urged Pulteney to hold a meeting of the principal leaders, and determine the future operations; but Pulteney, who, hke many other men of quick genius, was always vibrating in his politics between blood-heat and freezing-point, being then at the latter, appeared very indifferent. He said that he saw no use of a meeting nor of concert, — that he would by no means undertake to write to or summon gentlemen, — that he thought a fort night before the Session would be time enough — that if popular and national points were gone upon, people must follow them without further preparation — that he would meet if he was sent to, but would rather his friends would let him know what was resolved upon, and he would take his post — that he was weary of being at the head of a party, and would rather row in the galleys. J On the other hand, Lord Chesterfield wrote from abroad to point out and direct how the Government could be best as sailed. " I am," says he, " for acting at the very begin- " ning of the Session. . . . For example, the Court gene- " rally proposes some servile and shameless tool of theirs " to be Chairman of the Committee of Privileges and " Elections. Why should not we, therefore, pick out " some Whig of a fair character, and with personal con- " nections, to set up in opposition ? I think we should be " pretty strong upon this point. But as for opposition to " their Speaker, if it be Onslow, we shall be but weak ; " he having, by a certain decency of behaviour, made " himself many personal friends in the minority An " Address to the King, desiring him to make no peace " with Spain unless our undoubted right of navigation in " the West Indies without molestation or search be clearly " and in express words stipulated, and till we have ac- " quired some valuable possession there as a pledge of " the performance of such stipulation — such a question " would surely be a popular one, and distressful enough * To the Duke of Argyle, July 3. 1741. Coxe's Walpole. t Ibid. 92 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXHI. " to the Ministry." Chesterfield adds, that the decisive battle must be in the House of Commons, since among the Peers the Ministers are too strong to be shaken, and "for " such a minority to struggle with such a majority would " be much like the late King of Sweden's attacking the " Ottoman army at Bender, at the head of his cook and " his butler ! " * This letter was dated from Spa, Lord Chesterfield hav ing gone thither on account of his health, and the same motive led him in the autumn to the south of France. At Avignon he was for a few days the guest of the Duke of Ormond ; and it is positively asserted by his political opponents, that the true object of his journey was to so licit through the Duke an order from the Pretender to the Jacobites, that they should concur hereafter in any measures aimed against Sir Bobert Walpole. f The Stuart Papers, which I consulted, have afforded me no light upon this question. It is certain that Lord Chester field's illness was both real and severe, it being mentioned as such many years afterwards in his most unguarded correspondence. | But it is far from improbable that the imputed negotiation may also have been a secondary ob-; ject of his journey. Thus much we know — that the meeting of the new Parliament found Chesterfield restored to vigour, and active at his post, and that in the preced ing month letters from James had reached nearly an hundred of his principal adherents, urging them to ex ertions against the Minister. § The other events between the election and the meeting of the Parliament all tended alike to the unpopularity of Walpole and to the downfal of his Government. A gene ral resentment followed the news of the failures at Car thagena and Cuba, and they were readily ascribed to the Minister's partial choice of land officers, or insufficient * Lord Chesterfield to Mr. Dodington, September 8. 1741. t See Horace Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 45. X "lam very glad you begin to feel the good effects of the climate " where you are ; I know it saved my life in 1741, when both the " skilful and the unskilful gave me over." To his sod, December 9. 1766. § Mr. Etough to Horace Walpole the elder. See Coxe's Walpole, vol l. p. 687. 1741. EVENTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 93 preparations. Our commerce was also sustaining heavy losses from the war with Spain ; and though Walpole had foretold these losses, and had often urged them as a motive for preserving peace, they were now charged to his fault. William Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, writes at this period to the Lord President in Scotland : " The trade has suffered by captures to a degree that pro- " duces daily bankruptcies ; and the merchants, enraged " with the smart of their sufferings, impute most of " the losses to neglect, in not stationing properly a few " small ships, which was often desired to be done."* Another fierce outcry was raised when a Spanish arma ment of 15,000 men sailed from Barcelona to attack the Austrian dominions in Italy. Where, it was asked,. is Admiral Haddock ? Has his squadron no better employ ment at this critical juncture than quietly blockading the Spanish flota at Cadiz ? Yet, as Sir Bobert observed to one of his sons, if Haddock had on the contrary allowed the flota to sail for the West Indies, in order to prevent the embarkation for Italy, the Tories would have complained as loudly, and said that he had favoured the Spanish trade, under pretence of hindering an expedition that was never really designed, f It appeared, however, on more accurate intelligence, that Haddock had in truth made an attempt to intercept the Barcelona expedition, but that it had been joined by a French squadron of twelve ships from Toulon, and that the French Admiral had sent a flag of truce to the Eng lish, announcing that he was engaged in the same expe dition, and that if the Spaniards were attacked he had orders to defend them. Haddock, unable to cope with double his force, called a council of war, and in pursu ance of its advice retired to Port Mahon, leaving the French and Spanish ships to proceed to their destina tion. This conduct, though different from the first re ports, was not less unsatisfactory to the British nation.^ But most unwelcome of all was the news of the Han- * Letter, November 18. 1741. Culloden Papers, p. 170. t H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, December 3. 1741. X Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 567. Coxe's House of Bourbon in Spain, vol. iii. p. 321. 94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTH. over neutrahty. It seemed as if His Majesty wished to cast the whole burthen of the war on his kingdom, and to protect his Electorate without any exertion of its own. Walpole was much concerned at this measure, not only as foreseeing its effect upon the public mind, but as jea lous of its having been transacted without his participa tion and advice. He complained that Lord Harrington had not given timely notice to the Cabinet *, and it was only when he found that the treaty was finally concluded, and could not be recalled, that he gave it a sullen and reluctant acquiescence. Such causes then combined to heighten more and more the exasperation that prevailed during the elections. Every day the ferment increased; whether justly or un justly founded was of little importance to its progress f, and it rose at length to such a pitch that no human power, I am persuaded, could have stayed or warded off its violence. Had not Walpole been overthrown by the House of Commons, he would have been overthrown in spite of and against the House of Commons ; had he clung to the steps of the throne for his protection, the throne itself would have been shaken, and perhaps sub verted, rather than allow him to retain his hateful power. Amidst this rising storm of indignation, with col leagues helpless or wavering — Wilmington hoping to succeed him — Newcastle making secret overtures to Argyle — and Hardwicke always siding with Newcastle — under such adverse circumstances did Sir Bobert en counter the meeting of the new Parliament. * According to Horace Walpole the elder, " Lord Harrington's " correspondence (from Hanover) is governed by all the art and skill " of an old courtier. He discovers his master's desires without ex- " plaining them freely and in confidence to others here, or giving his " own opinion upon them ; he pretends to leave the decision of " questions proposed to others here, which questions he states in so " strong a manner as puts them under a dilemma of either disobliging " the King or giving an opinion they think perhaps not for the in- " terest of their country." To Mr. Trevor, August 22. 1741. Life of Lord Walpole of Wolterton. f An eminent modem republican writes to another : — " You know " of how little consequence it is to human action whether opinions be " or be not well founded." Gouverneur Morris to Jefferson, Paris, September 27. 1792. 1741. THE NEW PARLIAMENT MEETS. 95 CHAPTEB XXIV. The King's Speech (for his Majesty had lately returned from Hanover) was dehvered by himself on the 4th of December. Notwithstanding the care and caution with which it had been drawn, it did not fail to excite a vehe ment discussion in both Houses. Ln the Upper, Chester field reviewed the whole foreign policy of Government, glancing with sarcastic bitterness at the Hanover neu trahty * ; and he was supported both by Carteret and Argyle, but the original Address was carried by 88 to 43. Amongst the Commons, where the discussion did not take place till four days later, an amendment was pro posed by Shippen, seconded by Lord Noel Somerset, that His Majesty might be entreated not to engage the king dom in war for the security of his foreign dominions. They were eager for a division ; Pulteney, on the con trary, declared against it, observing with a witticism, that dividing was not the way to multiply, f Sir Bobert, on his part, showed most unusual timidity and sense of weakness, and declared that he was willing, for the sake of unanimity, to omit the whole paragraph relative to the war with Spain. Little did this concession avail him : — " Sir," exclaimed Pulteney, " it is no wonder that " the Bight Honourable Gentleman willingly consents " to the omission of this clause, which could be inserted " for no other purpose than that he might sacrifice it to " the resentment which it must naturally produce, and " by an appearance of modesty and comphance pass easily * Lord Chesterfield made a very fine speech against the Address, " all levelled at the House of Hanover." H Walpole to Sir H. Mann, December 10. 1741. This collection of letters now becomes of great use to history, and (though still with many drawbacks) is far more trustworthy than Walpole's Reminiscences or conversations, fifty years later. f Mr. Orlebar to the Rev. H. Etough, December 10. 1741. Coxe's Walpole. 96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. " through the first day, and obviate any severe inquiries " that might be designed." He then proceeded, in an able philippic, to urge afresh all the grounds of charge that could be gathered against the Government ; and even went so far as to assert that Walpole was influenced by the enemies of the Protestant Establishment. The reply of Sir Bobert, says his son, was delivered " with " as much health, as much spirits, as much force and " command as ever;"* he repeated some words used by Chesterfield in the other House, that this was a " time " for truth, for plain truth, for English truth ; " and re torted the charge of enmity to the Protestant Establish ment by some hints of the secret mission to the South of France. He said he had been long taxed with all our misfortunes ; but did he raise the war in Germany, or advise the war with Spain ? Did he kill the late Em peror or King of Prussia ? Did he counsel the present King of Prussia, or was he First Minister to the King of Poland ? Did he kindle the war between Muscovy and Sweden ? For our troubles at home, he declared all the grievances of the nation were owing to the Patriots. He added, that far from wishing to evade a more strict and less general inquiry, if the gentleman who had thus pub licly and confidently arraigned his conduct would name a day for inquiring into the state of the nation, he would second the motion. This challenge was accepted ; Pul teney named the 21st of January next, and was seconded by Walpole, while the Address omitting the clause on the Spanish war, was passed unanimously. Ln the tactics of the Opposition at this period it seems that Chesterfield's advice from Spa had been adopted. They allowed Onslow to be placed in the Chair without resistance ; but when it came to the election of Chairman of Committees, they brought forward Dr. Lee, a gentle man much respected by all parties. The Ministerial can didate for that office was Giles Earle, a former dependent of the Duke of Argyle, who had forsaken his patron, and made many other enemies by his caustic wit. On the * H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, December 10. 1741. It appears. from thence that the account of Coxe is in several respects erroneous. (Memoirs, p. 690.) 1742. ELECTION PETITIONS. 97 16th of December, after great preparations on both sides, the Opposition prevailed by four votes, the numbers being 242 and 238. " You have no idea of their huzza," writes Horace Walpole the younger, " unless you can " conceive how people must triumph after defeats of " twenty years together They say Sir Bobert mis- " calculated: how should he calculate, when there are " men like Charles Boss, and fifty others he could name ? " * — this Mr. Boss, and some others, having unexpectedly voted against him, in spite of considerable former obliga tions. But even admitting that Walpole may have been thus deceived, he may yet be justly blamed for his im prudence and want of foresight in urging a most unwel come candidate at a most critical juncture. Where any principle was involved, it was his duty at all hazards to' stand firm ; where only personal considerations were at stake, it would have been policy to yield. On another question — a motion for papers on the Ger man negotiations, Walpole was less unsuccessful, carry ing that point against Pulteney by a majority of ten. But the ground for frequent and almost nightly battles was afforded by the Election petitions. At that period the merits of each petition, instead of being referred to a Select Committee, and guarded by the imposition of an oath, were tried in the House by the votes of all the mem bers present, and were almost always decided by con siderations of party, instead of justice. Before the open ing of the Session the Minister had been heard to de clare that there must be no quarter given in Election petitions ] ; and to one of his friends, who felt some scruple as to the Heydon case, he dryly said, " You must take " Walpole or Pulteney." | On the very day after discussing the King's Speech, he prevailed in the Bossiney petition by only seven votes. His son exclaims, " One or two " such victories, as Pyrrhus the Member for Macedon said, " will be the ruin of us ! " But even this narrow majority forsook Walpole on the great Westminster petition which followed. The evidence given at the Bar clearly proved * To Sir H. Mann, December 16. 1741. f Coxe's Walpole, vol.i. p. 691. X H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, December 3. 1741. VOL. HI. H 98 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTV. the interference of the soldiery, and was enforced by the petitioner's Counsel, William Murray, with a brilliant elo quence then for the first time manifested, and winning the applause even of his political opponents. * On a divi sion, this election was declared void by a majority of four, and a further vote for censuring the High Bailiff passed by a majority of two. One of this anti-Ministerial pha lanx was Lord Doneraile, an Irish Peer brought into Parliament by the Court, who had a petition pending against his own return, and who had engaged to the op posite party that if they would withdraw their petition he would vote with them in the Westminster proceedings. So severely did his friends reproach him for his baseness, that he went to Pulteney to recall his offer ; but Pulteney told him that his word of honour had passed, and that he would not release him. It was the vote of this con scientious nobleman that turned the scale in the High Bailiff's censure ; — such were then the dirty underplots of public life ! The Justices who had sent for the sol diers had a day appointed for being reprimanded on their knees by the Speaker. The triumph of the Opposition on the Westminster petition was not confined to the House ; a new election ensuing, no Court candidates ventured to appear at the hustings, and two " patriots," Lord Perceval and Mr. Edwin, were chosen by acclamation. The Houses having adjourned for the Christmas holi days, and an interval for leisure being thus afforded, many personal friends of Sir Bobert earnestly pressed him to resign. They represented to him that his health was broken ; that the serenity of temper and indifference to invectives for which he had ever been distinguished, were now much impaired ; that he had become irritable and fretful in debate, to his own pain, and to the les sening of his dignity and reputation ; and that his age seemed to allow, nay to call for, a well-earned repose ; that the torrent against him was too powerful to stem ; that he could no longer either prevent or punish the treachery of his colleagues ; that it was better to lay * " Murray spoke divinely ; beyond what was ever heard at tho " Bar." H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, December 24. 1741. 1742. OFFER TO THE PRINCE OF WALES. 99 down the seals of office than find them wrested from his hands; that his enemies, who might now be satisfied with his resignation, a few weeks later would call for his "blood. But though health, strength, popularity, friends, success, had forsaken Sir Eobert Walpole, ambition had not. Still did he cling to that darling power, his own for twenty years, which because he would never share he could not always retain. Still did he plan new expedients of Court craft, or Ministerial patronage. Betaining his in fluence with the King, he prevailed upon His Majesty, though not without the greatest difficulty, that an offer should be made to the Prince of Wales of an addition of 50,000£ to his yearly income, and of the future payment of his debts, provided his Boyal Highness would desist from opposition to the measures of the Government. This message was conveyed through Seeker, Bishop of Oxford. It is strange how the falling Minister could so far delude himself as to expect any favourable result from such an overture at such a moment, or imagine that his weakness would pass for moderation. The answer of the Prince, after many expressions of respect and duty to the King, declared that he would never hearken to any proposals so long as Walpole continued in power.* The period of the adjournment was as actively and more successfully employed by Walpole's enemies, in gaining over his adherents, extending their solicitations even into his Cabinet. A letter was addressed by Doding ton to Lord Wilmington, urging him to use his influence with the King for the dismissal of Sir Bobert. f New castle's brain was, as usual, teeming with perfidious ma chinations. Hervey, the Lord Privy Seal, pretending illness, kept aloof from his chief; according to Horace Walpole, "he lives shut up with my Lord Chesterfield " and Mr. Pulteney — a triumvirate who hate one another " more than any body they could proscribe, had they the " power." % It was amidst this turmoil of conflicting intrigues that * Edward Walpole (second son of Sir Robert) to the Duke of Devonshire, January 9. 1742. f See this letter in Coxe's Walpole, vol. iii. p. 588. 1 To Sh- H. Mann, January 7. 1742. II 2 100 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. Parliament met again on the 18th of January. Next day the Opposition, without a division , carried Hume Camp bell, brother of Lord Marchmont, as member for Berwick shire.* On the 21st ensued the long-expected motion of Pulteney, for referring to a Secret Committee the papers which had been laid before the House relating to the war. Pulteney himself made two speeches, elaborate, powerful, and bitter; and on the same side Pitt spoke with equal ability and acrimony. Among the defenders of the Minister, Sir William Yonge, Winnington, and Pelham were much and deservedly admired. In his opening speech, Pulteney protested that the motion was not pointed against any particular person, but merely intended to assist His Majesty with advice, and on this footing the debate was fought, till Lord Perceval, the new Member for Westminster, blundered out the real truth, declaring that he should vote for the motion as a Committee of Accusation. Sir Bobert, perceiving his ad vantage, immediately rose, and observed that he must now take the question to himself. He inveighed against the malice of the Opposition, who for twenty years had not been able to touch him, and were now reduced to a disgraceful subterfuge ; he defied them to the charge, and desired no favour but to be made acquainted with the articles of accusation. He alluded to Dodington, who had called his administration infamous, as a person of great self-mortification, who for sixteen years had conde scended to bear part of the infamy. As to Pulteney, we are told that " Sir Bobert actually dissected him, and " laid his heart open to the view of the House." f In short, his harangue, of which no further' record now re mains, was even by his enemies acknowledged as a mas terpiece of eloquence, and surprised even some of his friends by unwonted readiness in all the foreign affairs.^ -' * " Sandys, who loves persecution even unto the death, moved to " punish the Sheriff (of Berwick), and as we dared not divide, they " ordered him into custody, where by this time I suppose Sandys has " eaten him." H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, January 22. 1742. t Sir Robert Wilmot to the Duke of Devonshire, January 23. 1742. X When the debate was over, Pulteney, who as usual sat near Walpole on the Treasury Bench, said to him that he had never heard so fine a debate on his side, and added : " Well, nobody can do what 1742. CHIPPENHAM ELECTION PETITION. 101 For the division there had been on both sides most strenuous efforts, or, as at present we should term it, " whipping in;" there were brought down the halt, the lame, the blind, — " the lame on our side and the blind " on yours," said General Churchill. But three of the Ministerial sick, who had been kept waiting in an adjoin ing apartment which belonged to Sir Bobert's eldest son, Lord Walpole, as Auditor of the Exchequer, found when they hastened to the House on the question being put, that the Opposition had been beforehand with them, and that the lock of the door was filled with sand and dirt so that it could not be opened. Among the patriots, Sir William Gordon, most dangerously ill, was dragged from his bed and carried to the House, seeming rather like a corpse, wrapped in its cerements, than like a living man. His son, a Captain in the Navy, had lately been lost at sea, and the news had been concealed from Sir Wilham, that he might not absent himself. But when he appeared in the House, a Ministerial member, his friend (there is never any lack of such friends), went up and informed him of his unknown disaster. The old man bore it with great magnanimity, saying that he knew why he was told of it at that moment, but that when he thought his country in danger he would not quit his post. By such exertions the House was fuller than had been known for many years : including the Speaker and Tellers, there were 508 members present, and Pulteney's motion was rejected by a majority of only three ; a result, though not of victory, yet of joy and triumph to the Opposition, The next, and, as it proved, the decisive struggle, was upon the Chippenham election petition. A point arising from it being mooted on the 28th of January, it appeared that the Opposition had so far gained in numbers since . the last division as to prevail against the Minister by a "you can!" "Yes," replied Sir Robert, " Yonge did better." Pulteney rejoined, " It was fine, but not of that weight with which " you spoke." (H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, January 22. 1742.) It is from this letter and Sir Robert Wilmot's that we must glean the only hints remaining of Walpole's speech ; the meagre reports of the time judiciously omit it altogether, though giving Lord Perceval's pompous oration at full length. (Pari. Hist. vol. xii. p. 370.) H 3 102 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXTV. majority of one. Walpole, with an undaunted spirit, was still for maintaining office in the very face of a hostile House of Commons ; but his brother, his three sons, and all his trustiest friends, now combined in most earnestly urging him to resign. Still they would probably not have prevailed had not the same cry resounded from his own official colleagues. It is stated by himself, in a letter to the Duke of Devonshire, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, " I must inform you that the panic was so " great among — what shall I call them ? — my own " friends, that they all declared that my retiring was " become absolutely necessary, as the only means to " carry on the public business."* In truth, it does not appear that any one person of weight gave him the slightest encouragement to continue at the helm, unless it were the King, reluctant to lose a faithful and ex perienced servant, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who went to see him at this period, and said as he took his leave, " Sir, I have been lately reading Thuanus : he " mentions a Minister who, having long been persecuted " by his enemies, at length vanquished them. The " reason he gives, quia se non deseruit." f Moved, though with extreme reluctance, by the all but unanimous opinion of his friends, and yielding to mutiny and panic in his own camp rather than to the force of the hostile phalanx, Sir Bobert, on the night of Sunday the 31st of January, formed the final resolution to resign. When next morning at a private audience he stated the necessity of the case to the Bang, he must have been gratified and yet moved at His Majesty's regret. As he knelt to kiss hands, the King fell on his neck, wept, and kissed him, and requested to see him frequently. On the following day, when the final decision on the Chippenham election was impending, Walpole thought it his duty to send a private intimation to the Prince of Wales of his intended retirement. The circulation and effect of such a rumour were very perceptible in the division that evening ; the majority against the Minister being swelled from one to sixteen. Expecting this event, Walpole bore * Letter, February 2. 1742. Coxe's Walpole. t H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, January 22. 1742. 1742. WALPOLE RESIGNS. 103 it with fortitude and cheerfulness. As the Tellers began their office, he beckoned to Mr. Baynton Bolt, the member whose return was questioned by a Ministerial petition, to sit near him, and entered freely into conversation, ani madverting on the ingratitude of several persons whom he had greatly obliged, and who were now voting against him, and declaring that he should never sit again in that House. Next morning, the 3d of February, the Lord Chancellor conveyed the King's desire that the Houses should adjourn for a fortnight. Some days later, Sir Eobert Walpole resigned all bis places, and was created Earl of Orford. Thus, then, ended Sir Eobert Walpole's long and re nowned administration. Having traced it from its com mencement to its close, I have already, as occasion offer ed, pointed out what seemed to me its merits, or what I thought its errors ; and I need not here enter into a full recapitulation of either. If we compare him to his next successors, their unsteadiness and perplexity, the want of principle in some, and the inferiority of talent in others, will be found to throw by contrast a reflected light on his twenty years of government. If we draw a parallel between him and the preceding Prime Minister, Lord Stanhope, we shall probably pronounce Walpole the su perior in knowledge of finance, in oratorical abilities, in management of the House of Commons. On the other hand, it may be thought that Stanhope's was the higher skill in all foreign affairs. Another marked distinction between them appears in the readiness of Stanhope to introduce measures, as he thought, of practical improve ment ; while Walpole, on the contrary, strove to leave, as nearly as possible, all things as he found them. When Stanhope died, at the age of only forty-seven, he had in preparation five great measures. The first, for the relief of the Boman Catholics, by the mitigation of the Penal Laws affecting their persons or property. The second, for the relief of the Protestant Dissenters, by the abroga tion of the Test Act. The third, for the security of officers in the army, and the lessening of their dependence on the Government, by taking from the Crown the power of dismissal, except under the sentence of a Court Mar- h 4 104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. tial.* The fourth, for the limitation of the prerogative" in the future creations of Peers. The. fifth, not legisla tive, but administrative, for extending the popularity of the reigning family, widening the basis of the Govern ment, and gradually gaining over the party in Opposition by employing several of its more moderate members. Every one of these measures was dropped by Walpole on succeeding to power. It may be maintained in his justi fication, that all these measures were mischievous ; one of them, at least, the Peerage Bill, undoubtedly was so. But it will be found, that the same indifference or aver sion of Walpole to any change, extended even to cases where the change was certainly and clearly beneficial. Thus, for example, in December 1718, Stanhope had moved for and appointed a Lords' Committee on the state of the Public Becords ; and its report, made after some months' inquiry, details the want of arrangement, classi fication, nay even of proper house-room, for the various national documents, and recommends that some of them, at least, may be digested into order — that such of the loose papers as appear to be of value, may be bound up for their better preservation — that catalogues and in dexes of them may be prepared without delay — that better apartments may be provided for their custody.-)- Here, then, what defence can be framed for Walpole in discarding these recommendations ? Was not the evil real and undoubted, the remedy plain and easy, and have we not even in the present times seen reason for lamenting its neglect? And are we not justified in saying, from this and other such examples, that Walpole's dislike to innovation prevailed, even where the innovation was most evidently an improvement ? The character of Walpole might also, as I conceive, be unfavourably contrasted with Stanhope's, in point of dis interestedness and political purity. I am very far — this must have been perceived in many former passages — from adopting the party suspicions and rancorous charges * See on this subject in the Parliamentary History the speeches of Pulteney, February 13. 1734, and of Lord Chesterfield the same day in the other House. f This Report is printed in the Lords' Journals, April 16. 1719. 1742. REVIEW of walpole's administration. 105 of corruption to which in his life-time Sir Eobert stood exposed. I believe, on the contrary, that of such charges great part was falsehood, great part exaggeration. But still, looking only to proved and certain facts, and to the statements of his own partisans and panegyrists, we shall even on such testimony find cause to think that Walpole sometimes swerved from the straight path, and altogether lowered the tone of public morals. Thus, for instance, both he and Stanhope were in office together when the South Sea speculations reached their height. Stanhope thought it his duty to refrain altogether from any such source of profit. Walpole, on the contrary, plunged eagerly into the whirl, turned his own sagacity to good account, sold his shares of 1001. for 1000/., allowed his wife to gamble for herself, and gained a considerable for tune. The same absence — I do not mean of integrity, but of any nice scruples, prevailed, I fear, during his subsequent administration. J£ it be needful any further to exemplify my assertion, I will take the very words of his own affectionate and admiring son. In a letter, several years afterwards, Horace Walpole is inveighing against Keene, Bishop of Chester : " My father," he adds, " gave him a living of 700/. a year to marry one " of his natural daughters ; he took the living, and my " father dying soon after, he dispensed with himself from " taking the wife, but was so generous as to give her " very near one year's income of the living."* I do not now inquire whether this accusation of Keene may not be unduly and untruly heightened. But I ask, could there be any stronger proof of a low tone of public morals than that Sir Bobert should employ Crown livings as portions for his illegitimate daughters, and that his son should tell the story as bearing hard upon the Bishop, but without the slightest idea that it was also most dis creditable to the Minister ? It is possible indeed that a feeling of partiality may blind me, but I will own that I cannot discern in any part of Walpole's career a parallel to the disinterested ness of Stanhope in Spain, when offered by the Archduke an estate and title for his services, but refusing them, * To Sir H. Mann, December 11. 1752. 106 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. and adding that if any gratitude to him were felt, he hoped it might be shown in a readiness to conclude the Treaty of Commerce, which he was then negotiating.* How far less lofty was the course of Walpole on his re signation ! Instead of withdrawing with a noble pride, asking nothing and accepting nothing, as one conscious of great services and resentful of popular ingratitude, he obtained the title of Earl of Orford, a further pension of 4,000Z. a year j, and a patent of rank for his daughter by the mistress whom he had afterwards married. Was it wise for his own reputation to grasp immediate rewards for his services, and leave posterity no part of the debt to pay? Was it just to solicit such signal marks of Eoyal favour at the very moment when overwhelmed by national resentment, and thus to involve the Crown in his own unpopularity ? So fierce was the outcry against these favours to the fallen Minister J, that Sir Bobert was induced to relinquish the pension, which however he again sued for and received two years afterwards. He would, also, probably have cancelled Lady Mary's patent had it not been too late. A letter at this period, from one of his friends, strongly manifests the imprudence of these grants, but at the same time displays his high and unconquerable courage in adversity. Lord Morton writes to Duncan Forbes, President of the Scottish Court of Session : " I cannot finish without a word about our " honest friend Sir Eobert Walpole, for whom, I own, I , " am in some fear. He this day went to Bichmond, " never again to return to Court. The letter of rank for * War of the Succession, p. 177. f The sinecures and places for Hfe held by Walpole's three sons at this very time are enumerated by Coxe (Memoirs, p. 370.), and their yearly income amounts to 14,900?., besides the Rangership of Rich mond Park, which was held by Sir Robert and one of his sons jointly, with benefit of survivorship, and which produced several thousands' more per annum. X It had for many years been an Opposition taunt, that Sir Robert held in reserve a patent for some high title, to be taken out whenever he retired. Swift writes in 1731 : — " E'en quit the House, for thou too long hast sat in't, " Produce at last thy dormant Ducal patent." See Swift's Works, vol. x. p. 530. Scott's ed. 1742. THE KING'S MESSAGE TO PULTENEY. 107 " his daughter has raised such a torrent of wrath against " him, that God knows where it may end. They now " talk of a strict Parliamentary inquiry ; your Lordship " knows how httle any man can stand such an ordeal " after twenty years' administration. The last time I " saw him, which was on Sunday evening, I told him of " the clamour that was raised upon the subject of his " daughter, but the thing was then passed the offices, " and could not be recalled, though she had not been " presented, else I believe he would have stopped it. I " would fain hope, after he is fairly away, that the fury " may subside ; at present it is very violent. Last week " there passed a scene between him and me, by ourselves, " which affected me more than any thing I ever met with " in my hfe, but it is too long to trouble your Lordship " with. He has been sore hurt by flatterers, but has a " great and undaunted spirit, and a tranquillity some- " thing more than human."* Before his departure for Bichmond, Walpole had a considerable share in the choice of his successor. He was desirous to sow dissension in the ranks of his oppo nents, to continue the administration on the Whig basis, and, in case Pulteney should dechne to be First Lord of the Treasury, to appoint Lord Wilmington. Such were his objects ; his means were influence over his Eoyal master. In the same audience of the 1st of February, when he announced his own retirement, he prevailed over the King's aversion to Pulteney, and induced His Ma jesty to send him an immediate message, offering him full power, provided only he would screen Sir Bobert from prosecution. This condition, suggested by Wal pole at that crisis, is surely no proof of a generous and lofty mind. Am I wrong in believing that at such a juncture Clarendon or Chatham would have thought only of their country's, or, at the worst, of their party's benefit, and disdained to seek any safeguard for themselves, ex cept from their own virtue and renown ? The communication to Pulteney was intrusted to the Duke of Newcastle, who accepted it with peculiar plea sure. He had already some days before, though, as it * Letter of February 11. 1742. Culloden Papers, p. 175. 108 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. seems, only on his own account, privately sent to Pul teney, requesting to have a secret meeting with him at the house of the Duke's Secretary, Mr. Stone. Pulteney had answered, that at the present juncture he could not comply with the request for a secret meeting, lest he should give umbrage to his friends, but had no objection to receive His Grace publicly at his own house. This not suiting Newcastle's underhand designs, the commu nication dropped. But the Duke, having now the Eoyal authority, no longer affected mystery, and wrote to Pul teney, stating that he and the Lord Chancellor had a message to him from the King, and were therefore about to wait upon him. A meeting accordingly ensued that same morning be tween Newcastle and Hardwicke on one side, and on the other Pulteney, attended by Carteret as his confidential friend. The Duke opened the conference by saying that the King, convinced that Sir Eobert Walpole was no longer supported by a majority in the House of Com mons, had commanded them to offer the places held by that Minister to Mr. Pulteney, with the power of form ing his own administration, on the sole condition that Sir Bobert Walpole should not be prosecuted. To this Pulteney replied, that if that condition were to be made the foundation of a treaty, he never would comply with it; "and even," said he, "should my inclination induce " me to accept it, yet it might not be in my power to " fulfil my engagement, for the heads of parties are like " the heads of snakes, carried on by their tails. For my " part I will be no screen ; but if the King should be " pleased to express a desire to open any treaty or to hold " any conversation with me, I will pay my duty at St. " James's, though I have not been at Court for many years ; " but I will not go privately, but publicly and at noonday, " in order to prevent all jealousy and suspicion."* This result being communicated to the King, His Ma- * Life of Bishop Newton. At the close of this interview some refreshments being brought in, Newcastle drank, " Here is to our " happier meeting." — Pulteney replied by Shakspeare's lines : " If we do meet again, why we shall smile, " If not, why then this meeting was well made." 1742. SECOND MESSAGE. 109 jesty, without delay, and following the advice of Wal pole, sent Pulteney another private message (it does not appear through whose hands), to request that if Pulteney did not choose to place himself at the head of the Trea sury, he would let Lord Wilmington slide into it. Pul teney acquiesced in this alternative. His friend Carteret, who coveted that office, expressed some dissatisfaction ; but Pulteney declared that if the other would not consent to Wilmington's appointment he would break his own resolution, and take the place himself. " You," he added, " must be Secretary of State, as the fittest person to di- " rect foreign affairs." Thus then Sir Bobert Walpole, writing to the Duke of Devonshire on the 2nd of Fe bruary, the day of the final division on the Chippenham case, was already enabled to announce Lord Wilmington as his successor at the Treasury.* A few days afterwards the King despatched another embassy to Pulteney, consisting, as before, of the Chan cellor and Duke of Newcastle ; but they do not seem to have been made acquainted with the intermediate mes sage. Newcastle declared that he was now commissioned by the King to repeat the former offers, without urging the condition of not prosecuting the fallen Minister ; and His Majesty only requested, that if any prosecution was commenced against Sir Bobert Walpole, Mr. Pulteney, if he did not choose to oppose it, would at least do nothing to inflame it. Pulteney answered, that he was not a man of blood, and that in all his expressions of pursuing the Minister to destruction, he had meant only the destruc tion of his power, but not of his person. He could not undertake to say what was proper to be done ; he must take the advice of his friends ; though he was free to own, that, according to his opinion, some Parliamentary * The details of these negotiations with Pulteney were commu nicated by himself to Bishops Newton and Douglas. (See Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. Pref. p. xxx. and p. 702.) Neither the Bishops nor the Archdeacon attempt to fix the date, but it may be ascertained by observing . that Walpole did not decide on resigning till the night of January 31. ; that it was only on the following morning that he overcame the King's repugnance to apply to Pulteney ; and that on the day after, February 2., he could already announce the name of his successor. 110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. censure, at least, ought to be inflicted for so many years of mal-administration. Newcastle then observed, " The " King trusts you will not distress the Government by " making too many changes in the midst of a Session." The reply of Pulteney was, that he did not insist on a total change, and had no objection to the Lord Chan cellor or the Duke of Newcastle, but that he demanded an alteration of measures as well as men. He required that some obnoxious persons should be dismissed, and the main forts of Government dehvered into the hands of his party ; namely, a majority in the Cabinet, the no mination of the Boards of Treasury and Admiralty, and, of an office to be again restored, a Secretary of State for Scotland. These points being agreed to, though not without some demur, Newcastle said he supposed that Mr. Pulteney would place himself at the head of the Treasury, which, he added, was the earnest and repeated desire of the King. " As the disposition of places is in " my hands," said Pulteney, " I will accept none myself: " I have so repeatedly declared my resolution on that " point, that I will not now contradict myself." He then named the Earl of Wilmington First Lord of the Trea sury, and Samuel Sandys Chancellor of the Exchequer, Carteret Secretary of State, and the Marquis of Tweed- dale the new Secretary for Scotland; while for himself he required a Peerage and a seat in the Cabinet. Concurrently with this negotiation, overtures were made from the Court to the Prince of Wales. His Eoyal Highness was gratified by an addition of 50,000^. to his yearly income, and by the promise that two of his ad herents, Lord Baltimore and Lord Archibald Hamilton, should be included in the new Board of Admiralty. On the 6th he granted a private audience to Sir Bobert Walpole, and assured him of his protection in case of attack — a promise from which he afterwards receded. Meanwhile the rumours of the late negotiations, and of the intended appointments, raised a great ferment in the ranks of Opposition. The Tories, though forming the larger share of the anti-ministerial phalanx, found themselves as yet utterly excluded. Among the " pa- " triots " many wished to be employed, and all to be con sulted. Nay, more, as always happens in such cases, 1742. MEETING AT THE FOUNTAIN TAVERN. Ill several persons, exasperated at the want of concert, murmured against the very course which themselves would have advised, had they been apphed to. Under these circumstances, the chiefs of Opposition, not in the new arrangement, summoned a meeting of the whole party, to be held on the 11th of February (the very day of Sir Bobert's official resignation), at the Fountain Tavern in the Strand. This meeting was attended by nearly three hundred, both Peers and Commoners. Car teret refused to go, only saying that he never dined at a tavern * ; but there appeared Pulteney and the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. A general suspicion was expressed by the persons present that the change would not be complete, and that the old system was still to be continued. Lord Talbot, son of the late Chancellor, and a man of considerable talents, filling a glass of wine, drank to cleansing the Augean stable of the dung and grooms.-)- But the principal opponent of Pulteney at this meeting was the Duke of Argyle, who now, by a change that would have been surprising in any other person, stood forth as the leader more especially of the Jacobites in Parliament. He made a long and solemn speech. After observing, in sarcastic allusion to Pulteney, that a grain of honesty was worth a cart-load of gold, he pro ceeded — " Have we not too much reason to fear that " good use will not be made of the present happy op- " portunity, and that a few men, without any commu- " nication of their proceedings to this assembly, have " arrogated to themselves the exclusive right of nomi- " nation ? They have now been eight days engaged in " this business, and if we are to judge from the few " offices they have already bestowed, may justly be ac- " cused of not acting with that vigour which the whole " people have a right to expect. The choice of those " already preferred having fallen upon the Whigs, is an " ill omen to the Tories. If these are not to be provided " for, the happy effects of the coahtion will be destroyed, " and the odious distinction of party be revived. It is " therefore highly necessary to continue closely united, * H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, February 18. 1742. t Bishop Seeker's Diary, February 12. 1742. 112 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. " and to persevere with the same vehemence as ever, till " the Tories obtain justice, and the administration is " founded upon the broad bottom * of both parties." Pulteney, whose strength lay in eloquence, and who always spoke far more ably than he acted, replied with great spirit and effect. He complained that he and his colleagues should be thus held forth and publicly ar raigned with things of which no man durst venture to accuse them in private. " We deserve," added he, " very different usage for the integrity with which we " have hitherto proceeded, and with which we are deter- " mined to proceed. Overtures having been made to us, " it was our duty (as it would have been the duty of " every man to whom such overtures had been made,) to " employ all our abilities and endeavours to form a happy " settlement. So much for the imputation that we have " taken the management of the negotiation into our " hands ! " He proceeded to argue, that as to the refer ring of the settlement to the whole party, it was an idea fit only for the "superficial vulgar," — that there was neither justice nor prudence in attempting to dictate to the King — that it would have been more to the credit of the party if their patience had extended a little longer than the few days which had elapsed ; that as to the ap pointment of Tories, it must be a work of some time " to " remove suspicions inculcated long, and long credited, " with regard to a denomination of men, who have for- " merly been thought not heartily attached to the reign- " ing family." Still, he added, some instances of friendly intentions to the Tories had already been given in the late removals, and there would be many more; but it must depend upon the prudent conduct of the Tories themselves.1)- Sandys also harangued, saying, the King had done him the honour to offer him a place, and why should he * This was the favourite phrase of the day. H. Walpole writes to Sh- H. Mann, February 18. 1742 : " One now hears of nothing but " the broad bottom ; it is the reigning cant word, and means the taking " all parties and people indifferently into the Ministry." ¦f The account of this speech and of Argyle's is given in " Faction " Detected," a pamphlet of great note, written by Lord Perceval, who was present at the meeting. 1742. ministerial arrangements. 113 not accept it ? If he had not, another would ; if nobody would, the King would be obliged to employ his old Minister again, which he imagined the gentlemen present would not wish to see. The gentlemen present were somewhat appeased by these explanations, and separated in better humour than they had met. But what seems to have principally weighed with them was, that each remembered how many offices were still vacant, and hoped that some were reserved for himself or for his friends. A few days afterwards a conference between the late Opposition leaders was held at the desire and in the presence of the Prince of Wales. On the one side were Argyle, Chesterfield, Cobham, Gower, and Bathurst ; on the other came Pulteney, accompanied by Lord Scarborough*, the Prince's Treasurer. It does not ap pear that any arrangement was concluded at this con ference, yet undoubtedly it tended, hke the larger meeting, to allay dissatisfaction. A wise statesman should always give offended partisans an opportunity to pour ¦ forth their grievances ; their mind seems relieved by the effusion, or their resentment exhausted by its own violence, and when once they have stated their complaints as fully and as bitterly as they desire, they often begin to feel that they have in truth httle or nothing to complain of. The principal demand by the Duke of Argyle was an appointment for Sir John Hinde Cotton, who, as I have elsewhere noticed, was perhaps the most active, and next to Shippen the most avowed, Jacobite in Parliament. That Argyle should now so warmly espouse his interests, and so closely link his cause with his own, seems a strong presumption that the Duke at this period was acting in * This Earl of Scarborough was" not the same who had been the early confidant and friend of George the Second. That nobleman had been always subject to fits of melancholy, and in one of them, in 1740, had unhappily blown out his brains. The post of Secretary of State had been several times offered to him, but always refused. " He " was," says Lord Chesterfield, " the best man I ever knew, and the " dearest friend I ever had." (Characters.) VOL. HI. I 114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. concert with, or at least in favour of, the exiled family* He received at length a reluctant assurance, that Cotton should be included in the new Board of Admiralty, and thereupon he condescended to accept for himself a seat in the Cabinet, the Mastership of the Ordnance,, and the Eegiment of which he had been lately dispossessed. Lord Cobham in like manner was made a Field Marshal, and restored to the command of the Grenadier Guards, which he had lost in 1733 for his opposition to the Excise Bill. Lord Harrington, having resigned the Seals in favour of Carteret, was created an "Earl, and appointed to the Presidency of the Council, vacant by Wilmington's promotion. Sir William Yonge was al lowed to continue Secretary at War, and Mr. Pelham, Paymaster of the Forces. Thus then the new adminis tration being completed,, except the Board of Admiralty,. which, as so many promotions had been referred to it, was itself referred for further consideration, the whole party, headed by the Prince of Wales, went to pay their respects at Court, on the 18th of February,, the day when Parlia ment met f, and on the same evening the new writs were moved in the House of Commons. For a httle time the Government' business glided on with smoothness and despatch, interrupted only by occa sional, harangues from Shippen and Sir Watkin Wynn, whose animosity was not at all abated by the changes. Though, very many others were dissatisfied, they stood at gaze, and would not yet openly oppose. But when the new Board of Admiralty was at length announced, there appeared at the head of it the Whig Earl of Winchelsea (as Lord Finch, the friend and defender of Steele), and among its members the Prince's dependents, Lords Balti more and Archibald Hamilton, but no Sir John Hinde Cotton. The King, it seems, had put a positive negative upon that gentleman, declaring that he was determined to * This, it appears, was the decided opinion of Walpole. See, in - Coxe's Pelham, his confidential letter of October 20. 1743, after Argyle's deaths ¦ f The King's reeeption of his son was very cold and formal. " His " Majesty said,, ' How does the Princess do ? I hope she is well.' " The Prince kissed his hand, and this was alii" H. Walpole to Sir ' H. Mann, February 18. 1742. 1742. CHESTERFIELD AND PITT EXCLUDED. 115 stand by those who had set him and his family upon the throne. At this disappointment the whole Tory party raised a loud yell of indignation. Argyle, as their present chief in the House of Lords, displayed the utmost resent ment ; he had besides, as he conceived, other grounds of his own to complain ; he had set no bounds to his pre^ tensions ; he had expected to engross the whole govern ment of Scotland, and was irritated that the Marquis of Tweeddale, the Secretary of State,, should, as such, pos sess any degree of authority. With these feelings, he, on the 9th of March, resigned all his new appointments, and relapsed into angry Opposition. The Prince of Wales, also, ere long, began to discover, that though his friends were in place, he was very far from power, and he showed first coldness and then aversion to the Government. Thus the elements of a new Opposition speedily gathered and grew. Several of the placemen, moreover, whose writs had been moved, found themselves no longer supported by their former patrons — especially the Dukes of Bridge- water and Bedford; and Lord Limerick, who had been intended for Secretary at War, but who was member for Tavistock, durst not vacate his seat for that Ducal borough. In this arrangement it may justly excite surprise, that no offers were made either to Chesterfield or Pitt. It is certain that the former had excited the resentment of the King, by his bitter invectives against the Hanover neu trality, and probable that Carteret may have feared to place a rival in the Council. Chesterfield himself declares in a letter at that period : — " The public has assigned " me different employments ; but I have been offered " none, I have asked for none, and I will accept of none, " till I see a little clearer into matters than I do at present. " I have opposed measures, not men, and the change of " two or three men only is not a sufficient pledge to me " that measures will be changed, nay, rather an indication " that they will not ; and I am sure no employment whafc " soever shall prevail with me to support measures I have " so justly opposed. A good conscience is, in my mind, " a better thing than the best employment, and I will not " have the latter till I can keep it with the former."* * See Maty's Life, p. 195. 1 2 116 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. With respect to Pitt, we may suppose, with great like lihood, that both he and Lyttleton were passed over a3 members of the Prince's household ; his Eoyal Highness having applied in the first instance for Lords Baltimore and Archibald Hamilton, and these appointments being considered as sufficient for that quarter. In reviewing the conduct of Pulteney at this memor able period, he appears equally conspicuous for good for-. tune and ill judgment. He was placed on an eminence as lofty and commanding as ever British statesman at tained ; the dispenser of all public honours ; the arbiter between the Crown and the people. He saw humbled before him and imploring his forbearance that Monarch, who ten years back had struck his name from the list of the Privy Council, and denied him his Commission as a Justice of the Peace. He saw the assembled Commons, till then the supporters and satellites of Walpole, over throw his haughty rival and hail him their triumphant leader. Above all, he beheld that nation to which'his eloquent voice had so long appealed in vain, now stirred by that voice as by an oracle, and raising their own in its support. How vast but how giddy a height ! How very great appears the occasion — how very unequal the man ! At such a crisis, instead of fixing his eyes on high pubhc principles and objects, he looked only to his own show of consistency, to his previous declarations against receiving public money, or being ambitious of public office. He shrunk at provoking some taunt from Shippen, some lampoon from Hanbury Williams ! Ought such trifles as these to have weighed in the balance with his country's service, if his country really was in danger ? And if his country was not in danger, what pretence had he for having roused it almost to frenzy by his declamations against corruption and misgovernment ? The truth is, that to think of personal reputation instead of the national welfare is rank selfishness, differing only in kind and de gree from that which clings with tenacity to posts of profit. Let every statesman be assured that if he will but take care of his country, his reputation will take care of itself. Posterity is not deceived. A true patriot will be acknowledged and revered, whether in Opposition or in Downing Street ; while he who grasps at office, for the 1742. pulteney's conduct reviewed. 117 sake of sordid gains, or he who declines it from the dread of libellous attacks, will be classed alike in a far lower and less honoured scale. But even admitting that Pulteney was defensible in his own refusal, with what justice could he yield the Treasury to Wilmington, a man even at the prime of life proved unfit for high rule, and whose dulness of disposi tion was now aggravated by the torpor of age? Was not this of all others the post which, as having been held by Walpole, would most attract the notice of the public, and indicate the intentions of the Government ? Should then Walpole's principal opponent have left that post to one of Walpole's colleagues, who was pledged as such to Walpole's whole course of measures, and who could not swerve from them, without far greater inconsistency than Pulteney so anxiously avoided in himself? — I must own that I concur with Lord Chesterfield in thinking that so partial a change in the Cabinet, far from being a pledge that measures would be altered, was rather a sign that they would not. Then again why claim a peerage ? If Pulteney shrunk from the labours, he should also have relinquished the prizes of public life. The sacrifice should have been entire and complete. But it appears that this act of poli tical suicide (for such it proved to the new Lord Bath), though prompted by his own inclination, had been aided and facilitated by the influence of Walpole with the King. The veteran Minister clearly foresaw the impending ruin of reputation to his rival, and it was with this view that he laboured to remove His Majesty's reluctance to Pul teney's expected demand — nay more, when Pulteney wished afterwards to recede from his promised patent, the King, under Walpole's direction, insisted on his taking it. " I remember," says Horace Walpole, " my father's " action and words when he returned from Court, and told " me what he had done : — 'I have turned the key of " ' the closet on him ! ' making that motion with his "hand."* * Reminiscences (Works, vol. iv. p. 317.). There is also a story of Pulteney flinging down and trampling upon the patent when he first received it ; but on this point Horace Walpole can only speak from rumour. I 3 US HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. Never, certainly, was any statesman's conduct more fatal to himself. He lost ground alike with King and people. As Chesterfield observes, " the King hated him " almost as much for what he might have done as for " what he had done ; the nation looked upon him as a " deserter ; and he shrunk into insignificance and an Earl- " dom." * From the moment of Wilmington's appoint ment, his influence and popularity began to decline ; the cry being that the nation was betrayed, and an infamous compromise effected for screening Sir Bobert Walpole. But at the news of his own creation as Earl of Bath, which was deferred till nearly the last day of the Session, the public indignation knew no bounds : the peerage was everywhere denounced as the price of perfidy, and the acclamations which used to greet his presence were changed to scoffs and hisses. His attempts to rise from this depression were frequent but ineffectual, for " the " confidence of the public, where once great, and once " lost, is never to be regained." \ The first time that Lord Orford met him in the House of Peers, Orford Walked up and observed to him with malicious pleasantry, " Here we are, my Lord, the two most insignificant fel- " lows in England \"% It must nevertheless be owned that however ill-judged the conduct of Pulteney, his motives were very far from mean or sordid, and that the public resentment, though not without foundation, greatly exceeded all bounds of justice or reason. But such is the common fate of factious men. Pulteney and his coadjutors had raised a spirit in the nation, which they could not lay. All these bawlers against Walpole's system had no practical measures of improvement in view ; and, when placed at the helm, had nothing better to suggest than a continuation of Wal pole's system. The people who had been taught to believe themselves oppressed by the old Government, of course, under such circumstances, believed themselves betrayed by the new. They became unjust to Pulteney, only be cause he had made them unjust to Walpole. Nor are there any characters in History who, in my opinion, * Characters, p. 31. f Th\&. p. 32. X Dr. King's Anecdotes of his own Times, p. 43. 1742. CRY FOR THE BLOOD OF WALPOLE. 119 deserve less compassion, than those who become the victims of the popular ferment which themselves have stirred. We can trace with some accuracy the schemes with which the public mind was teeming at the period of Wal pole's resignation ; since almost immediately after that event, the greatest counties and chief towns in Great Britain sent representations to their Members, stating and urging their wishes. The purport of all these docu ments is nearly the same. First, comes a loud cry for the blood of Walpole. " Shall the disturber of the public," say the Westminster Electors, " be permitted the enjoy- " ment of a private tranquillity? Lenity to such a one " would be cruelty to the nation." We have next heavy complaints from Suffolk of the exportation of English wool, " which many agriculturists apprehend to be the " cause of the fatal decay of that manufacture in this " kingdom, and of the prodigious increase of the poor." In other passages we find an outcry against the recent decay of trade, for which Walpole is considered answer able, as if such decay did not necessarily follow war, or as if Walpole had not been censured by themselves for preserving peace ! The members are earnestly entreated to vote against Standing Armies in time of peace — a strange earnestness in the midst of hostilities lately begun, and so far from any prospect of cessation ! The Sep tennial Act is reprobated — septennial ale being a much less pleasant prospect than triennial ! There is also a de mand for a Bill to limit the , number of placemen in Par liament — undoubtedly a wise and well timed measure, if the limitation had not been carried, as they certainly de signed, too far.* Had there heen a Beformed House of Commons at that period, all these sagacious recommend ations must undoubtedly have prevailed ; the head of * The measure demanded at this period is defined by a contem porary " as a rigid place and pension Bill, excluding from Parliament " every servant of His Majesty, who had abilities and experience." (Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 532.) He adds, " Many of the towns " were for reducing if not abolishing almost all taxes, though they all " agreed in the wisdom and necessity of continuing the war with " double vigour." I 4 120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. Walpole would have rolled upon the scaffold ; and an Act would have passed to check the increase of poor by limit ing the sale of wool ! But in 1742, as on many other occasions, the old nomination boroughs served to restrain the immediate fulfilment of rash desires, and allow the larger constituencies leisure to cool and to reflect. The only point on which the leaders of the late Oppo sition showed a warmth corresponding with the nation's, was the prosecution of vindictive measures against Wal pole. They had employed Mr. Fazakerley, a high Tory lawyer and Member of Parliament, to draw up articles of impeachment * ; but not finding these satisfactory, Lord Limerick, on the 9th of March, moved for a Secret Com mittee to inquire into the administration of Sir Bobert during the last twenty years. Pulteney was not present, being detained by the dangerous and, as it proved, mortal iUness of his daughter ; but his aversion to the motion was privately intimated by his friends ; and this hint, combined with his absence, caused the question to be negatived by a majority of only two, 244 against 242. When, however, Pulteney resumed his seat, he found so many and such bitter imputations cast upon his want of zeal, that he was compelled to entreat Lord Limerick to renew his motion. But as the forms of Parliament do not allow any motion, once rejected, to be tried again in the same Session, the term of the proposed inquiry was altered from twenty years to the last ten. In this shape the motion was repeated on the 23d of March, when Pulteney not only voted but spoke for it, declaring, however, that he was against rancour in the inquiry, and desired not to be named on the Committee.f The fallen Minister was de fended by his son Horace in a first and not unsuccessful effort of oratory, but was fiercely and most ably assailed by Pitt, who observed, that if it was becoming in the Honourable Gentleman to remember that he was the child of the accused, the House ought to remember also that they were the children of their country. On the division in a very full House, the question was carried by seven votes, the numbers being 252 and 245. * H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, February 18. 1742. f Bishop Seeker's Diary, March 23. 1742. 1742. SECRET COMMITTEE. 121 The next point was the nomination of this Secret Com mittee, through the means of lists given in by every member, and then examined by a Committee appointed for that purpose. This Committee of examination con tinued at their labour for twenty-two hours without any intermission.* At length the names being announced, were found, out of 21, to comprise many rancorous op ponents, and only two decided friends of Walpole. j The Committee having met and chosen Lord Limerick for their Chairman, entered upon their investigation with all the zeal and activity that hatred can supply. They searched through the Treasury books and papers for proofs of guilt, and summoned before them the persons supposed to have been the secret agents of Walpole in his schemes of corruption. So plain and open was their animosity, that several members of their own party in the Committee became disgusted with it and ceased to attend. Among these, to his high and lasting honour, was Sir John Barnard, who declared that he thought their views had been more general, but that finding them so particular against one man, he would not engage with them. | With all their ardour and activity, the Committee made little progress. Paxton, Solicitor to the Treasury, Scrope, its Secretary, and other persons brought before them, refused to answer, lest any thing in their replies should criminate themselves. The Courtiers also, though silent and cautious, were eager to hush the inquiry : their communications with Orford were secret, but fre quent ; and Mr. Edgcombe, who had been under Walpole the main manager of the little Cornish boroughs, was created a Peer, with the view that the privileges of the * H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, April 1. 1742. This is confirmed by Bishop Seeker's Diary. Only one member fainted from the fatigue. f The difference between Coxe, who states the number of Sir Robert's adherents on this Committee as two, and Horace Walpole, who mentions five, is easily explained by the distinction of sure or doubtful friends. — Sir Robert Walpole, who understood the esprit de corps, was very indifferent to this nomination of a few of his ad herents. He observed, " They will become so zealous for the honour " of this Committee that they will no longer pay regard to mine." X H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, April 22. 1742. 122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. Upper House might shield him from examination. Under these circumstances the Committee, much perplexed, ap plied to the House. Paxton was committed to Newgate, and a Bill was introduced to indemnify evidence against the Earl of Orford, that is, granting to every witness a remission of all penalties or punishments to which he might become liable by his disclosures. This Bill, which, like that against Bishop Atterbury, broke through the settled forms and safeguards of law, in order to strike at one obnoxious head, was readily passed by the House of Commons, the members being then, as always happens in the heat of party, intent on their im mediate object, and careless of final results. Li the Lords the measure was warmly supported by Chesterfield and Bathurst, but as warmly and more effectually opposed by Carteret and the Chancellor Hardwicke. " In my opi- " nion," said the latter, " it is a Bill calculated to make " a defence impossible, to deprive innocence of its guard, " and to let loose oppression and perjury upon the world. " It is a Bill to dazzle the wicked with a prospect of " security, and to incite them to purchase an indemnity " for one crime by the perpetration of another. It is " a Bill to confound the notions of right and wrong, to " violate the essence of our Constitution, and to leave us " without any certain security for our properties or rule " for our actions. So clearly do I see the danger and " injustice of a law like this, that I believe if I were con- " demned to a choice so disagreeable, I should more will- " ingly suffer by such a Bill passed in my own case, than " consent to pass it in that of another ! " * Ln tcsordance with the judgment of this great magistrate, a large ma jority of Peers decided for the rejection of the Bill. This disappointment was severely felt by the enemies of Walpole in the Commons. Lord Strange, son of the Earl of Derby, a young man of some talent, but more violence, moved a Besolution that the proceedings of the * Pari. Hist. vol. xii. p. 695. Horace Walpole observes in his lively manner : " By this Bill, whoever is guilty of murder, treason, " forgery, &c, have nothing to do but to add perjury, and swear " Lord Orford knew of it, and they may plead their pardon ! " To Sir H. Mann, May 13. 1742. 1742. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 123 Peers were " an obstruction to justice," and the two Houses would have come into collision, had not Pulteney, and the Members of the new administration, opposed the motion, and determined its rejection by a majority of fifty-two. Thus baffled in their attempt at obtaining larger powers, the Secret Committee resumed their sit tings, and again endeavoured to intimidate Scrope, the Secretary of the Treasury. But this old man, firm against all threats, had formerly braved a sterner tyranny than theirs. As a stripling, he had fought under Monmouth at Sedge Moor, and carried intelligence to Holland in woman's clothes. He now, with as bold a spirit, answered the Committee that " he was fourscore years of age, and " did not care whether he spent the few months he had to " hve in the Tower or not, but that the last thing he " would do was to betray the King, and next to the King, " the Earl of Orford." * We may conclude that his cour age and his years wrought favourably with the more generous minds in the Committee. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, also, pleaded in behalf of a useful secre tary ; and, on the whole, Scrope was dismissed without further molestation. It was not till the 30th of June, very nearly at the close of the Session, that the Committee presented their Second Beport. The insignificance of the charges it contains appears one of the strongest arguments in favour of the fallen Minister. For even admitting that great obstacles might be thrown in the way of discovery, yet still, as I have elsewhere contended f, if Walpole's acts of bribery and corruption had been of such common and daily occurrence as his enemies had urged, nay, even if they approached in any degree to the representations of them, it is impossible that a band of determined enemies, armed with all ordinary powers, should have failed to bring to light a considerable number. Instead of these, the Beport can only allege, that during one election at Weymouth, a place had been promised to the Mayor, and a living to his brother ; and that some Eevenue Officers, who refused to vote for the Ministerial candidate, had * H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, June 17. 1742. t See voL i. p. 268. 124 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. been dismissed. It denounces a contract with Messrs. Burrell and Bristow as fraudulent, because the contrac tors had gained 14 per cent., forgetting that large profit in one case is often required to counterbalance total loss in another. It then proceeds to express some loose suspi cions as to the applications of the sum for Secret and Special Services, which, as it asserts, amounted during the last ten years to no less than 1,453,000?., whereas, in a corresponding period of ten years from 1707 to 1717, they were only 337,000?. But it appears that, in the first place, there is great disingenuousness in these calcula tions, since the latter omits a sum of 178,000?., accruing from a deduction of two and a half per cent, from the pay of all foreign troops in the British service, and also omits a part of the sum of 500,000?., paid by Parlia ment in 1713, as the debt of the Civil List. It appears, moreover, that several expenses which at present are provided for under different heads, and in a more open manner — especially all pensions paid from the Trea sury — were at those periods classed as Secret or Special Service. Nor should we forget, that at a time when nearly all foreign Courts were most disgracefully open to corruption, large sums might be necessary to procure early and exact intelligence of their intentions, or pro duce a favourable decision in their councils. Still, I ac knowledge I think it probable, and scarcely to be doubted, that some part of the money was corruptly spent at home. But if such corruption had been common, flagrant, or un blushing, I ask again, why should not the Committee have been able to trace and expose it, in like manner as they showed that of these sums for Secret Service, 50,000/., during the last ten years, that is, 5,000?. an nually, had been paid to Walpole's writers in newspapers and pamphlets ? On the whole, this Beport of the Committee from which so much had been expected, instead of exciting indigna tion against the Minister, rather drew ridicule upon themselves, and as we are told by a contemporary, was received by the public with contempt.* * Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 545. See the Report at full length in the Pari. Hist. vol. xii. p. 788 — 827., and the elaborate but partial Commentary which fills the 61st Chapter of Coxe's Walpole. 1742. SUBSIDY TO QUEEN MARIA THERESA. 125 Another remarkable proceeding of this Session was a motion to repeal the Septennial Act, when Pulteney, till then the warm promoter of such motions, stood forth as its opponent, and caused it to be rejected by his in fluence. His creed on that occasion seems by no means clear ; he said he thought annual Parliaments would be best, but preferred septennial to triennial.* This memorable Session was also distinguished by a zeal ous determination to support the Queen of Hungary. A subsidy of 500,000?. was granted to her on the motion of Pulteney, and a supply of upwards of 5,000,000?. voted for the prosecution of the war. Carteret, who had now succeeded to the chief, indeed the sole, management of foreign affairs, and who had often complained of Wal pole's backwardness, was fully resolved on more vigorous measures, and prevailed with his colleagues that a body of 16,000 men should be sent as auxiliaries to Flanders. Their command was entrusted to the veteran Earl of Stair, who was drawn from his twenty years' retirement out of pubhc business, and dignified with the title of Field Marshal. But the slow forms and indecisive tem per of the Dutch restrained them from taking the part that was expected in conjunction with those troops, though bound by the same engagements, and by a much stronger interest, than England, to support the Pragmatic Sanction. In vain did Stair remonstrate ; in vain did Carteret himself hasten over to the Hague at the close of the Session ; the hghtning of his eloquence flashed in effectually upon the sluggish mass : and it was not till some time afterwards, that in the struggle of their jarring fears, their apprehensions of the French power prevailed, and induced them to assume a more prominent position. From thence it happened that the British forces, during the whole of this campaign, remained in Flanders, " idle, " unemployed, and quarrelling with the inhabitants." f * Bishop Seeker's Diary, March 31. 1742. The motion was brought forward by Sir Robert Godschall, Lord Mayor and Member for the, City, a very dull man. Once in discussing some merchants' petitions, there was a copy of a letter produced, the original being lost, and Godschall asked, whether the copy had been taken before the original was lost, or after ! f These are the words of Tindal (Hist, vol viii. p. 589.). 126 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. Happily for the Queen of Hungary, the ardour of her subjects atoned for the slackness of her allies. During the winter, her new levies, headed by Prince Charles of Lorraine, recovered no small part of the open country of Bohemia, and confined Marshal de Broglie and his French nearly to the ramparts of Prague. Another division, under Count Khevenhiiller, the most enterprising of the Austrian generals at this period, defeated the French and Bavarians united, at Linz, and compelled a large bcdy of the former to capitulate. Not satisfied with this success, Khevenhiiller became the invader in his turn ; his troops pouring into Bavaria, overspread its vast plains almost without resistance, and entered its capital, Munich, on the very day that its sovereign was elected Emperor at Frankfort. And thus, by a singular coincidence, while a Court of Sovereigns hailed Charles their chief — while the orb of the world was, according to ancient custom, borne before him, as though all subject to his sway — he was despoiled even of his own hereditary states ! * Grate ful for such successes, the Queen of Hungary sent Khe-, venhuller an affecting letter of thanks, with the pictures of herself and her son. The letter was read, and the pic ture displayed to the assembled soldiers, raising their en thusiasm to the highest pitch, and calling forth a solemn and unanimous expression of their devotion to her cause. Besides the enthusiasm of her own soldiers and people, Maria Theresa, at this period, derived no small advan tage from the jealousies and animosities prevailing he- tween the httle German Princes.-)- Ceremony and pre cedence were then, as it appears, the favourite business of their hves. Whether a single or an arm-chair should be assigned to each other at an interview — whether their right hand or their left should be held forth in a festival — whether they ought to be addressed as eure durchlaucht * A satirical medal was struck about this time ; on one side the head of Francis of Lorraine, afterwards Emperor, and the motto aut o^sar aut tvttttt. ; on the reverse the head of Charles, with ei CLESAJt ET NIHIL. f A practised diplomatist observed eight years before: " Such is- " the eternal envy in the neighbouring Courts of Germany, that they " most cordially hate one another." Horace Walpole (the elder) to Sir Robert, October 22. 1734. 1742. PRUSSIAN INVASION OF BOHEMIA. 127 (your Highness) or Euer liebden, (a subdivision of rank so minute as to defy translation,) — such were the points on which they most deeply felt and most frequently con tended.* Not a few of them, says Chesterfield, would borrow a ducat's worth of gold on purpose to exercise the invaluable jus cudend-s: monetje. With such prejudices, we may easily conceive that to assist the rapid aggran dizement of one of their own number — to find a sove reign where they had hitherto beheld an equal, — would be far more galling than a continuation of the old respect and homage so long paid to the Court of Vienna. And it was, probably, in a great measure from this jealousy that many of the smaller German states, at first un friendly to Maria Theresa, began to lean to her interests, upon the enthronement of her Bavarian rival. Again, the stronger minds, among these Princes, en tertained well-founded alarms of the encroachments and conquests of the French in Germany. So prevalent was this apprehension with the King of Prussia, as to render bim most desirous of peace and not unreasonable in bis terms. Early in the winter he had even agreed to a secret armistice, which proved highly serviceable to Maria Theresa, as allowing her to employ her forces else where, - — to take Munich and to threaten Prague. But finding that he could not prevail in obtaining a peace with the concessions he desired, Frederick abruptly re sumed the offensive, entered Moravia, reduced Olmutz, and then passing into Bohemia engaged the army of Prince Charles on the 17th of May, at the village of Czaslau. The numbers on each side were nearly equal, not so the skill of the commanders ; and the Austrians were worsted with considerable loss.f This defeat in- * The constant recurrence of such discussions, and the grave manner of treating them, are very striking in the Memoirs of the Margravine of Bareith — a princess certainly of no ordinary under standing. See the case of Euer Liebden (vol. ii. p. 249.). At Frank fort, in her interview with the Bavarian Empress, the point of chairs caused terrible difficulties. " On disputa tout le jour. .... Tout " ce qu'on put obtenir fut que l'lmperattice ne prendrait qu'un tres " petit fauteuiL et qu'elle me donnerait un grand dossier ! " (Ib. p. 345.) X Coxe's House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 273. 128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. duced the Queen of Hungary to recede from her deter mination with respect to Silesia, and to yield that pro vince as a peace-offering to the most dangerous of her antagonists. A treaty with this condition was accord ingly signed at Breslau, in the ensuing month, including likewise the accession of the King of Poland as Elector of Saxony, who was gratified with some small districts on the Bohemian frontier. Thus freed from the Prussian arms, Prince Charles was enabled to turn his undivided force to the reduction of Prague, where the French, about 25,000 strong, had been joined and were now commanded by Marshal Belle isle. The place was closely invested by the Austrians, who, however, pushed their attacks with very slender skiU and slow progress ; but a stiU more formidable enemy — famine — was wasting the French ranks within. Belleisle, in a conference with Konigsegg, one of the Austrian Generals, offered to evacuate the city and all Bohemia, provided he had leave to march with his arms, artillery and baggage. He also presented to Konigsegg a letter from Cardinal Fleury, in which that Minister expressed his readiness for peace, and declared that he had been forced into the war against his inclination. But the Austrian leaders would hear of no terms but unconditional surrender, and gave no other answer to Fleury's letter than by printing it in the public papers, to the great discredit and mortification of the Car dinal. * To relieve the French at Prague, Marshal Maillebois was directed to advance with his army from Westphalia. At these tidings Prince Charles changed the siege of Prague to a blockade, and marching against his new op ponents, checked their progress on the Bohemian fron tier ; the French, however, still occupying the town of * Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. ch. 7. He adds : " Le Cardinal, " voyant sa lettre imprimee, en ecrivit une seconde, dans laquelle il " se plaint au General Autriehien de ce qu'on a publie sa premiere, " et lui dit qu'il ne lui ecrira plus desormais ce qu'il pense. Cette " seconde lettre lui fit encore plus de tort que la premiere," These letters are inserted in the Memoires de Noailles (vol. v. p. 413 — 19.), but the second does not contain the threat of insincerity which Voltaire asserts. 1742. FRENCH RETREAT FROM PRAGUE. 129 Egra. It was under these circumstances that Belleisle made his masterly and renowned retreat from Prague. In the night of the 16th of December, he secretly left the city at the head of 11,000 foot and 3000 horse, hav ing deceived the Austrians' vigilance by the feint of a general forage in the opposite quarter ; and pushed for Egra through a hostile country, destitute of resources and surrounded by superior enemies. His soldiers, with no other food than frozen bread, and compelled to sleep without covering on the snow and ice, perished in great numbers ; but the gallant spirit of Belleisle triumphed over every obstacle : he struck through morasses almost untrodden before, offered battle to Prince Lobkowitz, who however declined engaging, and at length suc ceeded in reaching the other French army with the flower of his own. The remnant left at Prague, and amounting only to 6000 men, seemed an easy prey ; yet their threat of firing the city, and perishing beneath its ruins, and the recent proof of what despair can do, ob tained for them honourable terms, and the permission of rejoining their comrades at Egra. But in spite of all this skill and courage in the French invaders, the final result to them was failure ; nor had they attained a single per manent advantage beyond their own safety in retreat. Maillebois and De Broglie took up winter quarters in Bavaria, while Belleisle led back his division across the Ehine ; and it was computed that, of the 35,000 men whom he had first conducted into Germany, not more than 8000 returned beneath his banner. As in Germany apprehension of the French wrought in favour of Maria Theresa, so did apprehension of the Spaniards in Italy. The Queen of Spain made no secret of her desire and intention to obtain an independent sovereignty for her younger son Don Philip, as she had already the kingdom of Naples for Don Carlos, and this indeed had been her main motive for entering into the war ; but the project was so distasteful to the King of Sardinia, who imagined that it might be realised partly at his own expense, that he was induced not only to relinquish his alliance with France and Spain, but to espouse the opposite cause of Maria Theresa. His acces sion gave the Austrians a decided superiority in the field, vol. in. K 130 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIV. enabling them to drive the Spanish general, the Duke de Montemar, out of Lombardy, with the loss of nearly half his army. At the same time no less important services were achieved by the British fleet on these coasts. Its commander was no longer Haddock ; he had been super seded by Admiral Lestock, and Lestock in his turn by Admiral Mathews, who was sent out on the change of administration with seven additional ships of the line, and who arrived eager to justify the choice, and to cor rect the inactivity so much complained of in this quarter. One of his captains, cruising in pursuit of five Spanish galleys, and finding them take refuge in the little French port of St. Tropez, was not withheld by the peace which still subsisted with France (for both France and England had hitherto engaged only as auxiliaries), but entered the harbour after them, attacked them, and by the aid of a fireship reduced them to ashes. This insult to the French flag, though passed over by Cardinal Fleury, affected him most deeply: when the tidings were brought to him we are told that he covered his eyes with his hands, exclaiming Si mea credita trahunt me ! — which he repeated again and again.* Another squadron of the British fleet, entrusted to Commodore Martin, suddenly appeared in the Bay of Naples, and threatened an immediate bombardment, unless the King would engage in writing to withdraw his troops (there were 20,000 men) from the Spanish army, and to observe in future a strict neutrality. The Neapolitan Court, wholly unprepared for the defence of the city, en deavoured to elude the demand by prolonging the nego tiation. But the gallant Englishman, with a spirit not unworthy the Eoman who drew a circle around the Asiatic despot, and bade him not step from it until he had made his decision j-, laid his watch upon the table in his cabin, and told the negotiators that their answer must be given within the space of an hour, or that the bom bardment should begin. This proceeding, however, railed at by the diplomatists as contrary to aU form and etiquette, * Mr. Villette to the Duke of Newcastle, July 19. 1742. Ap pendix. t Liv. Hist. lib. xlv. c. 12. 1742. FORCED NEUTRALITY OF NAPLES. 131 produced a result such as they had seldom attained by protocols. Within the hour Don Carlos acquiesced in the required terms. Thus was the neutrality of a con siderable kingdom in this contest secured by the sight of five British ships of the line during four-and-twenty hours ; for their number was but such, and no longer time elapsed between their first appearance and their final departure from the bay.* * Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. iii. p. 335, Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 570. 132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. CHAPTEE XXV. When in November, 1742, the new administration again encountered the assembled Parliament, it had already survived the popular impulse which gave it birth, and, while itself discordant, could only lean for strength on the discord and division of its opponents. It had en deavoured, at the close of the last Session, to gratify the Tory party by appointing Lord Gower Privy Seal in the place of Hervey, and Lord Bathurst Captain of the Band of Pensioners. Shortly afterwards, also, the office of Solicitor General was bestowed, and most worthily, on William Murray. But the Tories, and indeed the whole people, disappointed in their vast though vague expecta tions of national advantage from the Ministerial change, looked on, for the most part, in moody discontent. They felt, as Bolingbroke observed (for Bolingbroke had come over to England on a summer ramble, or perhaps with an ambitious hope), that " the principles of the last Op- " position have been the principles of very few of the " opposers." With still greater bitterness does he add to Marchmont, " Your Lordship and I, and some few — very " few — besides, were the bubbles of men whose ad- " vantage lies in having worse hearts." * And again at a later period, " Liberty has been the cry of one set of " men, as prerogative was formerly of another. But it " has been no more than a cry ; and the cause of liberty " has been as little regarded by those leaders who gave " it out to their troops, as the cause of St. George or St. " Denis was concerned in the battles of the English and " the French." f Yet, notwithstanding such angry de nunciations of his countrymen, Bolingbroke had deter mined once more to live among them. We find him again returned to England in January, 1743 X ; and he chiefly * To Lord Marchmont, October 30. 1742. f To the same, November 25. 1746. j See the Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 289. 1742. DIVISIONS IN THE NEW CABINET. 133 resided, till his death in 1752, at a house near Battersea, surrounded by the veteran friends of his youth, or the youthful admirers of his genius, and manifesting a far diminished influence, but an unabated eagerness in all political cabals. The new Cabinet was divided into two great and nearly equal sections ; the former opponents and the former colleagues of Sir Eobert Walpole. Among these last, the most eminent undoubtedly was the Chancellor, Philip Yorke, Lord, and afterwards Earl of, Hardwicke. The family of Hardwicke was neither rich nor old ; he owed his elevation solely to himself, to high character, extensive knowledge, and eminent abilities. He was born in 1690, the son of an attorney at Dover; and at th& early age of twenty-two we find him amongst the smaller contributors to the Spectator.* He was first brought forward in public life by Newcastle and Stanhope, of whom the former named him a Member of Parliament in 1718, and the latter, Solicitor General in 1720.-f Eising through the different stages of his profession, and dis tinguishing himself in all, he at length, in 1737, became Chancellor on the death of Lord Talbot, and continued such for nearly twenty years. Never was that high office more worthily or honourably filled. If we compare him to Somers — yet how difficult to assign the palm between two such mighty names ! — we should say, perhaps, that Somers was the more distinguished as a statesman, but Yorke the superior as a magistrate. His decisions have ever been revered as a great landmark in our law ; nor has calumny once dared to breathe against the upright ness of his motives. Amidst a degenerate age — while a too prevalent corruption had deeply tainted the State, his Judge's ermine, like the fleece of Gideon, shone forth un sullied and pure. As an orator, he was never warm or impassioned, but clear, weighty, and convincing. When he rose in debate, it seemed, says Lord Lyttleton, like Public Wisdom speaking.j His knowledge, high as it * Park's Continuation of Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. iv. p. 267. Mr. Yorke was the author of the letter on travelling, in No. 364., signed Philip Homebred. •f Boyer's Political State, vol. xix. p. 351. ± See H. Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 303. K 3 134 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. soared in his own department, was not confined to it : in literature he was accomplished ; with foreign affairs well acquainted. Lord Waldegrave, who does not praise him as a statesman, owns, that even in that capacity he had been the main support of the Duke of Newcastle's ad ministration.* The principal blemish which his enemies imputed to him, and probably not without some truth, was avarice ; yet, it should be borne in mind that Chan cellors are easily, but unjustly, exposed to this charge, from being contrasted with their colleagues and asso ciates, men in general of hereditary fortunes and large expense, whilst the Head of the Law, on the contrary, must endeavour to found a family, and earn an estate, and not leave his son, as a poor Peer, a burthen on his country. This endeavour every thoughtless spendthrift or envious 'detractor may call avarice ; but should not the Historian award to it a nobler name ? Of the others who had been Walpole's colleagues, Lord Wilmington, though nominally at the head of the Govern ment, was justly regarded both by his own subordinates and by the pubhc as a mere cypher. The Pelhams, namely, the Duke of Newcastle and his brother, backed by Lord Harrington, cowered beneath the storm that had overwhelmed their late chief; they were supported by the still powerful influence of that chief, from his retirement at Houghton, and by the good opinion of their Boyal master ; but they directed their views chiefly to future op portunities, and prudently awaited the clearing of the sky. On the opposite side in the Cabinet were Mr. Sandys, Lords Winchelsea, Tweeddale, Gower, and Carteret ; the latter considered by the people, and being in fact, the new Prime Minister. His character, which I have elsewhere more fully portrayed ], was a strange medley of brilliant abilities and of boyish freaks. Sometimes astonishing and over-awing his colleagues by his genius, at other mo ments he must have become their laughing-stock, as when he insisted upon reading to them in Council the love letters he received from Lady Sophia Fermor, a young beauty who became his second wife. " He is never * Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 85. f See vol. ii. p. 53. 1742. LORD CARTERET. 135 " sober," writes Horace Walpole, " and his rants are " amazing, but so are his parts and his spirit." * The period of his Government was called " the Drunken Ad- " ministration," in allusion partly to his convivial habits, but describing also his dashing, bold, and buoyant tem per. We are told that, on coming to power, he was base enough to think, and rash enough to say publicly, that England could only be governed by corruption.-)- He was admirably skiUed in all foreign affairs as well as lan guages, and speedily gained the King's highest favour by going all lengths in his Hanoverian measures. But intent as he was upon diplomatic negotiations and Boyal smiles, he neglected all those smaller but necessary cares, by which alone party influence can be acquired or retained. On one occasion we are told, that when the Chief Justice Willes came to apply to him for an appointment, " What " is it to me," cried Carteret, " who is a Judge and who " a Bishop ? It is my business to make Kings and " Emperors, and to maintain the balance of Europe ! " " Then," answered the Chief Justice, " those who want " to be Judges or Bishops will apply to those who will " condescend to make it their business ! "J And so, in deed, it proved. The disposal of patronage was a labour of love to the Pelhams, and to them accordingly the whole pack of place-hunters — always a large one — re paired. Thus it happened, that in the race of power, which had begun even now, from the declining health of Wilmington, and for the spoils of his succession, Lord Carteret — immeasurably superior as he was in genius to the Pelhams — far higher as he stood at one time, both in Boyal and popular regard — sunk down, over powered beneath their active, consistent, and decorous mediocrity. The great object of George the Second at this time was, to appear, in emulation of William the Third, at the head of a confederate army, and to assist his Electoral * To Sir H. Mann, November 30. 1743, and April 15. 1744. f This remark is eagerly fastened upon by Mr. Carte, and he shrewdly adds, that " the world sooner forgets an ill action in a " man than an imprudent speech." To the Pretender, May 4. 1743 Appendix. X See H. Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 147. K 4 136 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. dominions as largely as possible from his kingdom's re sources. With this view, had the British troops been sent to Flanders ; with this view, had they been rein forced by 6000 Hessians, taken into British pay, under a convention which Walpole had not long since concluded, and which forms one of the least justifiable acts of his whole administration. But it was now desired to extend this measure still further, and more directly to Hanover, by hiring from the British Treasury 16,000 soldiers of that country. Much as Carteret had clamoured against such a system, while yet in Opposition, he now readily acceded to it, thereby gaining at once the King's highest confidence ; it was also, strange as it seems, concurred in by Lord Bath and Mr. Sandys, and adopted by the Cabinet. But when at the opening of Parliament the King's Speech announced the 16,000 Hanoverians, and when hints of British pay for them were thrown out in the Ministerial ranks, it may easily be conceived how adverse was the feeling excited in the country. The hiring of foreigners in bands of mercenaries, however consonant to the rude military system of the darkest ages, is condemned alike by religion and natural reason : it is neither praise worthy in those who sell their blood, nor in those who buy it ; and is rightful only when the former have some national interest of their own in the quarrel, and when the latter have already raised, armed, and tried their own force, and found it unequal to their enemy's. But, inde pendently of these general reflections, it seemed very far from constitutional to have taken a step of such import ance, and so great extent, without the previous deliber ation and consent of Parliament. But even waiving this also, there still remained the chief grievance which the people felt or the Opposition urged — the glaring par tiality to Hanover. It was heaping fuel on a fire that already burned high. Since 1714, it had always been the cry that Hanover was preferred to England: that cry had resounded sometimes with and sometimes without reason; but never had more just cause been afforded it than now. The nation observed, that though Hanover was far more immediately concerned in the event of the present war than England, it did not appear to have con- 1742. HANOVERIANS IN BRITISH PAY. 137 tributed any thing to the support of the common cause. It was also not left unnoticed that, on this occasion, Hanover had made a far more profitable bargain for her self than in 1702, when Marlborough had negotiated for the hire of 10,000 men from Luneburg, there being in that contract no stipulation either for levy or recruit money, whereas, in this present case, these amounted to 160,000?.* It was said, that a force to the same amount might be safely spared to go abroad, from the 23,000 soldiers whom we idly maintained at home. It was contended likewise, that if we must have mercenaries we ought to have taken any rather than from Hanover, because we might have engaged the Prince whose troops we hired, to join us in espousing the cause of the Queen of Hungary, and be cause, if the Hanoverians were once taken, our future ad ministrations would always be ready to gratify the King, by finding pretexts for retaining them. Nay, the more eager partisans carried their exaggeration so far as to de clare that the Act of Settlement, providing that Great Britain should never engage in war on account of Han over, had been violated, and they did not even shrink from the inference to which that declaration seemed to lead. The ambiguity of the King's Speech as to the pay of the Hanoverians, restrained discussion upon them, until that pay was actually moved for in the House of Commons. All doubts, however, were speedily dispelled. On the 10th of December, Sir William Yonge, as Secretary at War, proposed a grant of 657,000?. for defraying the cost * Compare the Commons' Journals, November 19. 1704, and December 3. 1742. The additional items in the latter are as follows : — £ Levy Money ----- 139,313 Recruit Money from August till December 1742, Horse - - - 2,215 Foot - - - - 2,555 Till December 1743, Horse - - - - 6,912 Foot - 7,914 These charges are inaccurately stated in Tindal There is also a provision for an excessive number of staff officers. 138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. of these troops, from August 1742 till December 1743. He defended the proposal with his usual volubility, and was supported (with signal courage, considering former •professions,) by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. But several eloquent voices were raised against them. " As the King," said Sir John St. Aubyn, " has every " other virtue, so he has, undoubtedly, a most passionate " love for his native country ; a passion the more easily " to be flattered, because it arises from virtue. I wish " that those who have the honour to be of his councils " would imitate his Boyal example, and show a passion " for their native country too ! " * The invective of Pitt was as bitter, and more direct. " It is now too apparent " that this great, this powerful, this formidable kingdom is " considered only as a province to a despicable electorate, " and that, in consequence of a scheme formed long ago " and invariably pursued, these troops are hired only to " drain this unhappy nation of its money." f Yet, on a division, the Ministers could muster 260 votes against 193 — a clear sign how many of the patriots had com bined with Walpole's friends, and how weak, even against the most unpopular proposals, was the new Opposition. It was on another such debate, relative to the British troops lying unemployed in Flanders, that Murray the new Solicitor General made his first speech in Parlia ment : it was received with high applause, and was an swered by Pitt ; and observers could foresee, even from this first trial, that the two statesmen would henceforth be great rivals.J As, however, the principal members of the Cabinet and leaders of the Opposition were now in the House of Peers, it was there that the main debate on the Hanoverian troops ensued. The question was brought forward by Lord Stanhope, son and successor of the late Prime Mini ster. Philip, second Earl Stanhope, was born in 1714, and therefore only seven years old at his father's decease. He had great talents, but fitter for speculation than for practical objects of action. He made himself one of the best — Lalande used to say the best — mathematicians * Pari. Hist. voLxii. p. 952. t Ibid. p. 1035. t H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, December 9. 1742. 1743. PHILIP, SKCOND EARL STANHOPE. 139 in England of his day, and was likewise deeply skilled in other branches of science and philosophy. The Greek language was as familiar to him as the English ; he was said to know every line of Homer by heart. In pubhc life, on the contrary, he was shy, ungainly, and embar rassed. So plain was he in his dress and deportment, that, on going down to the House of Lords to take his seat, after a long absence on the Continent, the door keeper could not believe he was a Peer, and pushed him aside, saying " Honest man, you have no business in this " place." — "I am sorry, indeed," replied the Earl, " if " honest men have no business here ! " From his first outset in Parliament he took part with vehemence against the administration of Walpole.* He had been educated chiefly at Utrecht and Geneva, and the principles he had there formed or imbibed leaned far more to the democra- tical than to the kingly or aristocratical branches of the constitution ; they are even termed " republican " by Horace Walpole j, but unjustly, for, like his father, he was a most zealous assertor of the Hanover succession. The speech of Stanhope on this occasion was pre-com- posed and full of strong arguments, but delivered, as we are told, "with great tremblings and agitations." He said, " the country these troops come from makes it pro- " bable they will frequently be taken, and affairs abroad " embroiled for the sake of lending them. What would " Poland think of taking Saxons into pay ? Why should " not some regard be had to the opinion of the people, " who will always judge right of the end though not of " the means, as well as to the inclinations of rulers who " may aim wrong in both 1" \ and he concluded with a motion for an Address to the King, that he would be gra ciously pleased to exonerate his people of those Mercena ries, who were taken into pay last year, without consent * " We are to have Lord Rockingham and Lord Stanhope (who " are just come of age) in the House of Lords ; the first of whom I " hear will be with us, the latter against us. All the Stanhopes and " Spencers are taught to look on a Walpole as one they are to hate " by inheritance." Lord Hervey to Horace Walpole the elder, December 23. 1735. Coxe's Walpole. f H. Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 100. X Bishop Seeker's Diary, February 1. 1743. 140 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. of Parliament. He was ably seconded by Lord Sandwich, and still more ably answered by Lord Carteret. Hervey spoke with much eloquence against, and Bathurst for the Hanoverians ; a strange transposition of parts, and surely not unconnected with the loss of office in one case, with the acquisition of it in the other ! Lord Bath, rising for the first time in that House, declared, in nearly the same terms as Walpole had so often urged against himself, that he " considered it an act of cowardice and mean- " ness to fall passively down the stream of popularity, " and to suffer reason and integrity to be overborne by " the noise of vulgar clamours, which have been raised " by the low arts of exaggeration, fallacious reasonings, " and partial representations." He added that the term of " Mercenaries," in Stanhope's motion, seemed designed rather to stir the passions than to influence the judgment. " This was not," said he, " the rash measure of any single " man, but the united opinion of all the administration " that were present " (for Lords Gower and Cobham it appears had stayed away) : " it was not only acquiesced " in, but approved on a solemn deliberation. We have ¦ " now an Address to dismiss flagrante bello, troops, " which the other House have given money to pay. " What a difficulty would this put the King under ! It " would be a greater blow to the Queen of Hungary than " losing ten battles." — A brilliant oration from Chester field, and an able argument from Hardwicke, concluded the debate. On the division the Ministers had 90, the Opposition only 35 votes ; but among the latter, to their high honour, were two members of the Cabinet, Cobham and Gower. Their consequent dismissal was expected by the public *, but did not ensue. Although these divisions in both Houses were decisive of the subject, so far as the Government was concerned, it was too powerful a weapon for the Opposition to relin quish ; and the public mind continued to be stirred by pamphlets, among which, the " Case of the Hanover " Forces," written by Lord Chesterfield, in conjunction * H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, February 2. 1743. He speaks only of Gower, but we may conclude that the same expectation existed with respect to Cobham. 1743. REPEAL OF THE GIN ACT. 141 with Mr. Waller, excited the most attention, and received the highest applause. I need scarcely add how eagerly the Jacobites forwarded and swelled a cry so favourable to their hopes and designs. Yet while I condemn the measure on principle, I must acknowledge that in its effects it produced a great collateral advantage ; since, it was the taking of these troops by the Government, and their confirmation by the House of Commons, that appear to have mainly determined the wavering temper of the Dutch, and brought them, at this very period, to a co operation and concert of measures with the King. Nor should it be forgotten, that His Majesty in some measure softened the objections to the grant of British money, by reinforcing, of his own accord, the 16,000 Hanoverians with a body of 6000 more, paid from his Electoral re venues. Another remarkable proceeding of this Session was the repeal of the Gin Act, passed in 1731.* It was found, as Walpole had foretold, that the duties imposed by that Act, and amounting nearly to a prohibition, had only afforded encouragement and opportunity to fraud. Infor mers were terrified by the threats of the people ; justices were either unable or unwilling to enforce the law ; and it was proved that the consumption of gin, instead of diminishing, had considerably augmented since the heavy duties were imposed. Though no license was obtained, and no duty paid, the liquor continued to be , sold at all corners of the streets ; nay, we are even assured that the retailers of it used to set up painted boards, inviting people to be drunk at the small expense of one penny, assuring them they might be dead drunk for two-pence, and have straw for nothing ! They accordingly provided cellars or garrets strewed with straw, to which they con veyed those poor wretches who were overpowered with intoxication, and who lay there until they recovered some use of their understanding ; whilst the other dens for drinking were hideous receptacles of the most filthy vice, resounding with continual riot, oaths, and blas phemy j. To check these frightful disorders, and at the * See vol. ii. p. 187. ¦j- See Smollett's History, book ii. ch. 7. sect. 36. 142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. same time prevent the loss to the Eevenue, the Ministers had framed a new Bill, by which a small duty per gallon was laid on the spirits at the still-head, and the price of licenses reduced to twenty shillings. Through this mea sure it was calculated that the price of gin by retail would be moderately but really rais%ed — so much as to discourage the drunkard, yet not so much as to encourage the smuggler — that the law, being mitigated, would be enforced — and that the Eevenue would gain a clear and certain accession. And if even it were true, as the Opposition affirmed, that the latter motive was the main one with the promoters of the Bill, and that, in the words of a great Spanish historian, " 111 rulers never " deem their Exchequer wrong ;"* still the wisdom of the preceding consideration would deserve our praise, — as what reason suggests, and experience has fully con firmed. The Bill passed the House of Commons rapidly, and almost without remark ], but in the Lords encountered a most vigorous resistance. All the Bishops opposed it. It was denounced as a sanction to vice — as a license granted to the people for poisoning themselves ; as " a " bait spread over the pit-falls of debauchery "%, — as an infamous attempt to raise the Eevenue at the expense of the health and morals of the people. Lord Hervey, in a dexterous speech, moved that several eminent physicians should be summoned to the Bar, to prove to the House the fatal effects of dram-drinking. But the palm of elo quence on this occasion was undoubtedly borne away by Chesterfield : his two speeches on this question, far better reported than most others of that day, may still attract our admiration, and have seldom been surpassed, as combina tions of lively wit and impressive forebodings. Some times, comparing the measure to " the tax which Vespasian " laid on spirituous liquors of another kind, that would * " Fisci causa sub malo Principe nunquam est mala." Mariana, Hist. Hispan. lib. xvii. c. 4. f " It was hurried through the other House with the utmost pre- " cipitation, and passed almost without the formality of a debate." Chesterfield's Speech, February 21. 1743. This is better authority than Tindal's to the contrary. X Chesterfield's Second Speech, February 24. 1743. 1743. THE KING GOES TO GERMANY. 143 "not indeed admit of a total prohibition;"* in other passages, again, he thunders against it as the infallible harbinger of national decline, depopulation, and ruin, Yet, notwithstanding his exertions, and those of the Eight Beverend Bench, the Bill passed by a great ma jority. Li this Session an attempt was also made to renew the inquiry into the conduct of Lord Orford, the proposal being brought forward by Mr. Waller, seconded by Sir Watkin Wynn ; but it was defeated by large numbers — a proof that the current of popular feeling had already turned. The forces voted for the year were 40,000 sea men and 11,000 marines, 16,000 British troops in Flan ders, and 23,000 for guards and garrisons at home. The supplies did not fall short of 6,000,000?. f The King having prorogued the Parliament on the 21st of April, hastened over to his German dominions, ac companied by his son the Duke of Cumberland, and at tended by Lord Carteret, as Secretary of State. In the preceding January a strong impulse had been given to the war, on the part of France, by the death of Cardinal Fleury in the ninetieth year of his age. His pacific policy died with him ; and the hostilities which he had begun from compulsion were continued and extended from choice. The young King, selfish, indolent, and de voted to pleasure, took no part in public business ; but the power of Fleury was shared between Count D'Argen- son, Minister of War, an expert diplomatist, and Cardinal Tencin, a subtle insinuating priest, of considerable talents, but fitted for intrigue rather than for government, dis graced by some acts of fraud in early life f, and devoted to the House of Stuart, which had wrought his elevation to the Purple. His sister, Madame de Tencin, a nun who had renounced her convent, was celebrated for her wit and gallantries. Bolingbroke is said to have enjoyed her favours during his embassy at Paris ; and at another period she became the mother — it would be most pre- * See Bishop Seeker's Diary, February 24. 1743. f Commons' Journals, November 25. 1742, &c. f St. Simon, Mem. vol. xx. p. 4. ed. 1829. Tencin resided at Rome in 1740, and is described by President des Brosses in his Travels, voL ii. p. 79. and 86. 144 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. sumptuous to assert by whom — of D'Alembert, the well- known mathematician and philosophist. The French Ministers, eager to signalize themselves by a vigorous prosecution of the war, and excited by the unfavourable news that came from Germany, collected a large army under the Mareschal Duke de Noailles, who had been distinguished in the Spanish campaigns, to support their other forces in the Empire. These forces, first com manded by Maillebois, and afterwards by De Broglie, had ceased to threaten Hanover, by their march for the relief of Prague. They had afterwards wintered in Northern Bavaria; and it was through their diversion that the Emperor Charles the Seventh was enabled to re enter his capital. But in the spring of 1743 he was again defeated by the Austrians, and once more driven from his hereditary states ; De Broglie being intent only on his own security, and restrained by his instructions from hazarding a battle. The unfortunate Emperor, whose exalted rank served but to sharpen the sting of his calamities, and to make them more conspicuous and deplorable, sought shelter in the free city of Frankfort ; a Sovereign without any states to rule, nay, even without any revenues to maintain him. De Broglie, on his part, retreated in confusion from Bavaria, harassed by the Austrian cavalry, and sustaining heavy losses, until, on the banks of the Neckar, he received a reinforcement of 12,000 men from Noailles, and again attempted to keep Prince Charles of Lorraine in check. During that time the British troops also were advanc ing into Germany, having begun their march from Flan ders, at the end of February, under the command of the Earl of Stair. They were joined on their march by some Austrian regiments, headed by the Duke of Aremberg and by the 16,000 Hanoverians in British pay, who had win tered in the Bishoprick of Liege. But so tardy was their march, that it was the middle of May before they crossed the Bhine, and fixed their station at Hochst, between Mayence and Frankfort. Here Lord Stair determined to await the junction of the 6000 Hanoverians in Electoral pay, and also of the same number of Hessian mercenaries, who had been employed in garrisoning the Flemish for tresses, but who were now relieved by an equal body of 1743. ADVANCE OF THE FRENCH ARMY. 145 Dutch troops, and left at liberty to rejoin the main army. Even without any fresh accessions, however, Lord Stair could muster at Hochst nearly 40,000 soldiers, and might easily have seized the Emperor at Frankfort, had not the neutrality of that free city been scrupulously respected by both parties in this contest — or, to speak more truly, had not the seizure of the Emperor promised but small advantage. The Mareschal de Noailles, on his part, whose army, even after the detachment sent to De Broglie, amounted to 60,000 men, likewise passed the Bhine, and approached the Mayn on the southern bank, as the British on the northern. The two camps were no more than four leagues distant from each other. Yet still, amidst these hostile manifestations, and an impending battle, the two nations nominally remained at peace, and only acted as auxili aries: there was still a British Besident at Paris, and a French in London. " A ridiculous situation ! " writes Horace Walpole. " We have the name of war with Spain " without the thing, and war with France without the " name ! " * In the manoeuvres that ensued, Lord Stair, whose mili tary genius, never very bright, was rusted with age, ap pears to have committed blunder upon blunder. Having first determined to await the Hessians and Hanoverians, he suddenly altered his intentions, recalled the detach ments which he had sent across the Mayn, and advanced up the course of that river on the right bank, with the view of drawing supplies from Franconia, and of commu nicating with the Austrian forces. He reached Aschaf- fenburg on the 16th of June, closely followed and com pletely out-generalled by Noailles. The French com mander took up a strong position near Gross Ostheim, while his detachments occupied the principal fords and passes on both the Upper and Lower Mayn, so that the English found themselves cut off both from their own magazines at Hanau, and from the expected Franconian supplies. Moreover the duties and details of our Com missariat appear in that age to have been ill understood, * To Sir H. Mann, July 19. 1743. VOL. HI. L 146 HISTORT OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. or grossly neglected. " England, that is famous for neg ligence," — says Marlborough in one of his letters* Under these circumstances, when on the 19th King George arrived from Hanover, with Lord Carteret and the Duke of Cumberland, he found affairs in a most critical posture ; the soldiers on half rations, the horses pining for want of forage ; Stair and Aremberg divided by a violent feud, and the army reduced to 37,000 men, and cooped up in a narrow valley that runs between Mount Spessart and the Mayn, and extends along that river from the town of Aschaffenburg to the large village of Dettingen f, while in sight appeared a far superior force of French, ably commanded and well supplied, and in confident expectation that the allies must either sur render prisoners of war, or be cut to pieces in their retreat. The expected Hessians and Hanoverians, it ap peared, had nearly reached Hanau, but so far from being able to advance and join, were themselves in peril of being taken by the French. Still, under every disad vantage and danger, the soldiers were full of spirits and eager to fight, and the presence of their King became a further incentive to their valour. After repeated councils of war, the only measure that seemed practicable was to fall back on the magazines and reinforcements at Hanau; and this resolution was hastened by so utter a failure of forage, that, had they remained but two days longer, they must have sacrificed their horses.J The movement, however, was neither safe nor easy in the face of a superior enemy, quick at dis cerning and powerful to prevent the design. At the first signs of their intended retreat, Noailles immediately al tered his own position from their front to their rear, advanced to Seligenstadt, threw two bridges over the * To Lord Godolphin, September 2. 1702. f The distance between Aschaffenburg and Dettingen is one and a half German or about eight English miles. Dettingen was then and is" now the post station on the road from Aschaffenburg to Hanau which is two German miles further. } " On manquait de fourrages au point qu'on proposa de couper " les jarrets aux chevaux, et on l'aurait fait si on etait reste encore 11 deux jours dans cette position." Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV ch. x. 1743. BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 147 Mayn, and sent his nephew, the Duke de Grammont, with 23,000 men, across the river to secure the defile of Dettingen, through which the Allies must march. These troops were accordingly drawn up on very strong ground, while batteries were also raised along the opposite bank of the Mayn, and these precautions were the more danger ous, because in a great measure unknown to the English, who still believed the principal force of Noailles to be on the other side of Aschaffenburg. Before day-break, on the morning of the 27th of June, the Allies struck their tents and began their march to wards Dettingen in two columns. The King himself commanded the rear guard, which, from the ignorance of Noailles's movements, was considered the post of danger. But when they found their advanced posts repulsed from Dettingen, and beheld the French forces pouring over the bridge of the Mayn, they perceived that their front was chiefly threatened. Their columns were immediately halted, and the King, riding to the first ranks, drew up the army in order, the infantry before and the cavalry behind ; its right extending to the slopes of the Spessart, and its left to the river. Their only hope lay in cutting their way through the French lines, yet these were strong as nature and skill could make them. The village of Dettingen, occupied by Grammont, was covered by a mo rass and a ravine, the bed of a small rivulet ; and further reinforcements to support him were already in motion from the army of Noailles. The batteries on the other side of the Mayn began to play upon the British flank; behind them Aschaffenburg, which they had left, was already taken by a French division of 12,000 men : thus were they completely enclosed and hemmed in, and our military fame — the lives and liberties of our soldiers — nay even of our King — seemed already within our enemy's grasp. Happily at this decisive moment the Mareschal de Noailles left his post in the front and passed to the other bank of the Mayn, to give some further directions in that quarter. During his absence, the impetuous courage of the nephew marred the uncle's skilful policy. Gram mont, burning to engage his adversaries, and believing that the force before him was only part of their army, n 2 148 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. which he might easily exterminate, ordered his troops to cross the ravine, thus quitting his vantage ground, and giving the Allies battle on equal terms. By this move ment, also, the batteries on the other side of the Mayn, that were already mowing down whole ranks of English, were compelled to suspend their fire, lest it should strike their countrymen as much as their enemies. As the French approached, the horse of George the Second, frightened with the noise, ran away with His Majesty, and had nearly carried him into the midst of the enemy's lines, but was fortunately stopped in time.* The King then dismounted, and put himself at the head of the British and Hanoverian infantry, at the right, flourish ing his sword, and addressing the British in these words, " Now, boys, now for the honour of England ; fire and " behave bravely, and the French will soon run ! " The Duke of Cumberland in like manner, as Major General, commanded the first line on the left. Yet, notwithstand ing the bravery of their Eoyal leaders, and their own, the troops were thrown into some disorder by the first impetuous charge of the young French chivalry. The King, however, with admirable courage and coolness, made every exertion to retrieve this slight confusion, while the battle rapidly spread from flank to flank and became general along the line. The Duke of Cumber land, like his father, appeared in the hottest of the fight, displayed the highest courage, and even when wounded in the leg refused to quit the field, -j" Noailles, who from the other side of the river had be held the first motion of his troops with astonishment and grief, hastened over with all possible speed to give the needful directions ; but on his arrival he found the tide of the battle already turned. The English and the Hano verians vied with each other in the most determined intrepidity ; while the French, though no way inferior in gallantry, did not on this occasion display an equal * Letter from Mr. Kendal, of Lord Ashburnham's troop. f The great gallantly of the Duke of Cumberland in this battle is acknowledged by the French as well as English writers. There is also an interesting story of his generous treatment of a wounded French officer ; but to this the subsequent conduct of " the Butcher" makes it more difficult to give credit. 1743. BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 149 steadiness, and were not, like them, inspirited by the presence and exertions of their King. The conduct of George in this conflict deserves the highest praise ; and it was undoubtedly through him and through his son, far more than through any of his Generals, that the day was won. A dense mass of infantry formed and led by His Majesty in person, broke and scattered the enemy, whom they found exhausted by their own brave but im prudent onset. So dreadful a slaughter ensued in the French ranks, that Noailles despairing of the day, and anxious only to prevent further havoc of his men, gave the signal of retreat across the Mayn. But this retreat speedily became a rout. Many of the French were cut down by their pursuers before they could reach the bridges ; and the bridges becoming choked with the mul titude of fugitives, many more plunged into the river and were drowned. Others, again, turning in the opposite direction, and throwing down their arms, endeavoured to ascend the mountains to the right, and were taken prisoners without resistance. The fighting continued till four in the afternoon, and the King remained on the ground till ten at night. The loss of the French in killed and wounded was computed at 6000, including a large proportion of their officers, whose headlong valour strove during the engagement to repair the error it had caused at the commencement. It seemed only surprising how so many brave men could ever, under any circumstances, be defeated. The Allies on their part suffered severely, their loss being scarcely under 3000 men. Both their Marshals, D'Aremberg and Stair, though eclipsed by their Boyal master, well deserved his praise for intre pidity; the former was wounded in the shoulder, and Stair was eager to pursue the French in their retreat. But considering that so large a proportion of Noailles's army had not engaged and was still quite fresh ; that the Allies were exhausted from their hard won victory, and from their insufficient supplies ; that, as one of their offi cers complains, "we had neither victuals, drink, nor " tents to lie in, after the work was done," — the rash proposal of Stair was wisely overruled, and the troops, after a few hours' halt, continued their retreat to Hanau. They were compelled, however, to leave their wounded l 3 150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. at the mercy of the French commander, who treated them with signal generosity.* Such was the battle of Dettingen, the last in which a King of England has appeared at the head of his troops. Ei its circumstances it might, perhaps, not unaptly be compared to the battle fought by Napoleon, in 1813, against the Bavarians on the neighbouring ground of Hanau, except that on this last occasion the position of the French was inverted, and that they had to force in stead of intercepting a passage. We may also observe that at Dettingen, superior as was the army of Noailles, yet from the French divisions at Aschaffenburg, and on the other side of the Mayn, the numbers actually en gaged were most considerable on the side of the Allies. And, notwithstanding the glory which this battle sheds on both the English and the Hanoverian arms, we must own, that the good conduct of the troops was required by, and could scarcely retrieve, the blunders of the Generals. A few weeks afterwards Voltaire met Lord Stair at the Hague, and took the hberty of asking him his opinion of the battle. " I think," replied the Earl, " that the French " made one great mistake, and the English two : yours, " was not standing still; our first, entangling ourselves " in a most perilous position; our second, failing to pursue " our victory." The latter project has been already men tioned as wild and rash, but the former complaint may, * The chief authorities for the battle of Dettingen are, Lord Carterefs despatch, June 20. 1743, O.S., and the other official accounts — Capt. Kendal's letter, published in the Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1743 — Coxe's Pelham, vol. i p. 65 — 71. — House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 292 — 294. — Memoires de Noailles, vol. v. p. 347 — 357. There was also published in England the same year, a pamphlet con taining several other letters from officers and soldiers present at the battle, for the sake of those who " love truth and particulars " (p. 31.). The latter indeed are sufficiently minute, extending even to Lord Stair's loss of his hat, a few days before the action (p. 44.). It is almost as httle worth while to notice that Frederick the Second, in his " Histoire de Mon Temps," caricatures the conduct of the King in this battle, and represents him as standing all the time, with his sword drawn, in the attitude of a fencing master who is about to make a lunge in carte ! We must remember that Frederick was not present — that he hated his cousin — and that he had never any regard for truth. 1743. THE FRENCH RE-CROSS THE RHINE. 151 with great justice, be urged against Lord Stair himself, as the commander.* At Hanau, the Allied army being joined by the ex pected reinforcements, and thus becoming nearly equal to the French, Lord Stair again proposed to pass the Mayn and attack the enemy. But several circumstances — his own hasty temper, and violent quarrel with the Hanoverian officers — the jealousy of the petty German Princes — the very delays and perplexities of consulta tion — tended to prevent a second battle ; nor, indeed, was it necessary to the expulsion of the invaders from the Empire. For, De Broglie being closely pressed by Prince Charles, and giving way before him, was driven across the Bhine near Manheim ; and NoaiUes; by this means, finding himself placed between two formidable armies, determined on retreat, burned his magazines, and likewise passed the Ehine on the 17th of July, opposite Worms, from whence he and De Broglie withdrew to their own frontier on the Lauter, so that the whole of Germany was now freed from the French. It appears that De Broglie, who had already offended the Emperor by his refusal to defend Bavaria, sent him a message at this time, on the part of his Government, that the King of France could afford him no further assistance, and advised him to make peace with the Queen of Hun gary. The unhappy Prince was then at Frankfort, with out credit for even the common necessaries of life, and obliged to borrow 40,000 crowns from Noailles, who had come (as did also Lord Stair) to visit him after the battle. Yet, notwithstanding his destitute condition, he replied to De Broglie with becoming spirit, saying, that he never would be instructed how to make peace by those who were so ignorant how to make war.")- In conformity with his suggestion, however, he signed a neutrahty for his own hereditary states, which were to remain in the Queen of Hungary's possession till the conclusion of a peace ; and this peace he endeavoured to obtain through the mediation of George the Second, and by the agency of Prince William of Hesse. But Maria Theresa was by * Siecle de Louis XV. ch. x. f Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 632. L 4 152 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. no means inclined to grant any moderate terms, aspiring either to keep Bavaria, or extort the abdication of the Imperial Crown.* Moreover the Ministers in England, much incensed at Carteret's neglect, and want of con sultation with them, resolutely declined to sanction or adopt the preliminaries agreed to between the King and the Emperor, more especially as these provided for a sub sidy of 300,000 crowns to the latter. All the petty Ger man objects of the day, as Chesterfield observes on another occasion, were to be paid in a few ducats, and a great many guineas ! f Under such obstacles, the negotiation with Prince William was reluctantly abandoned by King George and Lord Carteret. On the retreat of the French, the King's quarters at Hanau had become the scene, not merely of this nego tiation, but of several Councils of War which Prince Charles and Count Khevenhiiller left the Austrian army to attend. An immediate invasion of France was planned and announced, and the public expectations, already ex cited by the victory of Dettingen, were wound up to the highest pitch. King George accordingly marched across the Bhine at the bridge of Mayence, and fixed his station at Worms, while Prince Charles, from Alt Breisach, seized a post on the left bank of the river. But these were almost their only achievements ; each considering the season too far advanced, or the French too strong, for further operations. Moreover the King's camp was dis tracted with jarring counsels and rival pretensions : Lord Stair, above all, complained with bitterness that his advice had been slighted ; and he delivered to His Majesty an angry memorial, reflecting on past transactions, hinting at Hanoverian partialities, and asking permission to retire, as he expressed it, to his plough. His resignation was im mediately accepted, not without some marks of the Boyal * " The Queen of Hungary has proposed in form that she should " keep Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, and that the Elector of " Bavaria should in exchange have the kingdom of Naples. . . . " Lord Carteret treats it as impracticable, and has sent strong orders " upon it to Sir Thomas Robinson." Mr. Stone to the Earl of Har rington, July 31. 1743, t To Mr. Dayrolles, September 15. 1752. Chesterfield's Works. 1743. AFFAIRS OF ITALY. 153 displeasure at the language in which it was tendered. * Many other English officers, including the Duke of Marl borough, the second in command, immediately threw up their commissions in disgust, and with loud complaints of their Hanoverian rivals. Amidst such dissensions, at the close of the campaign the King returned to England, and his troops to their former station in Flanders. In Italy, as on the Bhine, the result of this campaign was far from fulfilling the expectations raised at its com mencement. Montemar having been recalled on account of his former failure, the Queen of Spain had appointed as his successor Count de Gages, an officer of English extraction and long service. While stationed at Bologna in the winter, he received peremptory orders from his imperious mistress to give battle to the Austrians within three days, or else resign his command to another officer. Accordingly, marching forward, he engaged Count Traun on the 3d of February, at Campo Santo, and claimed a victory with the capture of some standards and artillery. Nevertheless he was soon afterwards compelled to fall back upon Bimini, and in the autumn towards the frontier of Naples, with an army reduced to 1 2,000 men. Tuscany, though subject to the Queen of Hungary's husband, re mained unmolested under a treaty of neutrality which he had concluded. Savoy and the coast of Nice were ex posed to several inroads and attacks from the Infant Don Philip, and some troops assembled in Dauphiny ; but he was more than once repulsed, and found himself unable to force a passage, f But before the close of the campaign, either in Germany or Italy, a treaty affecting both those countries was signed by King George at Worms, on the 13th of September. The contracting parties were England, Austria, and Sar- * Mr. Stone to Lord Harrington, September 11. 1743. (Coxe's Pelham.) There was circulated among the officers at this time, a French dialogue on the battle of Dettingen, written perhaps by Stair himself, and certainly much in his style. Pierrot asks Harlequin, " Que donne-t-on aux Generaux qui ne se sont pas trouvis a la bataUle ? " " Harl. " On leur darme le cordon rouge." Pierr. " Et que donne-t-on " au Geniral en chef qui a gagne la victoire ? " Harl. " Son conge"." " Pierr. " Qui a soin des blesses ? " Harl. " L'ennemi." X Muratori, Annal. d'ltal. vol. xii. p. 295—302. 154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. dinia. By this alliance the King of Sardinia undertook to assist the common cause with an army of 45,000 men, and to renounce the pretensions which he had advanced to the Milanese ; in return he was to be gratified with the supreme command of the Allied forces in Italy, when ever present in person, — with the cession of the Vigeve- nasco and other districts from Austria — and with a yearly subsidy of 200,000?. from England. Maria Theresa likewise consented to transfer to him her claim to the town and Marquisate of Finale, which had been mort gaged to the Genoese ; and George the Second, besides his subsidy, stipulated to maintain a strong fleet in the Mediterranean. This treaty of Worms had been nego tiated by Lord Carteret in submission to the Electoral wishes of the King, and with scarce any reference to the other Ministers in England ; nevertheless, it being al ready concluded, they gave it a sullen acquiescence. But they absolutely refused to admit a separate and secret Convention agreed to at the same time and place, but not yet signed, and stipulating that Great Britain should pay the Queen of Hungary a subsidy of 300,000?. every year, not merely during the war, but so long " as the necessity " of her affairs shall require ; " and this Convention, ac cordingly, was never ratified nor publicly avowed.* It cannot fail to be perceived in all these negotiations that Carteret made every sacrifice of British interests, and of his own popularity, in order to secure the personal favour of the King. He was sanguine of prevailing in the struggle between the rival parties in the Cabinet, which impended from the declining health of Lord Wil mington, and which came to an issue from the death of that statesman on the second of July. The two candi dates for his succession were Pulteney and Pelham : the former supported by Carteret, the latter by the secret but still powerful influence of Walpole. j * Duke of Newcastle to Mr. Stone, October 14. 1743. (Coxe's Pelham.) He adds, " It is a most strange, unfair, unpardonable " proceeding in Lord Carteret ; but what we must always expect " from him." t The channel of communication between Lord Orford and the Court, was the house of Mr. Fowle, a Commissioner of Excise, in Golden Square. Late in the evenings Walpole used to meet there in 1743. DEATH OF LORD WILMINGTON. 155 The fallen Minister, judging of events with his usual sagacity and foresight, and looking round among the members of his former party, saw none but Henry Pel ham qualified to undertake the direction of the Treasury, and the management of the House of Commons. Pelham himself, with characteristic timidity, shrunk from the dangerous pre-eminence, but was urged forward by the exhortations of Lord Orford, of his brother Newcastle, and of the Chancellor Hardwicke. At length, he had been prevailed upon to solicit the reversion of Wilming ton's office, before the King went abroad : his application was secret; and the answer, by Orford's influence and advice, was a positive promise from His Majesty. On the other hand the friends of Lord Bath perceived the fatal error he had committed, in not taking the Trea sury on Walpole's resignation, and warned him not to be the bubble of his own reputation for consistency. Pul teney admitted the truth of their representations ; he felt that it was a chimerical hope to direct public measures without holding any public appointment, and that de clarations against office thrown out in the heat of debate, or in the bitterness of party struggles, might, to promote his principles, be infringed without blame. Still how ever he wavered, and would make no application previous to Lord Wilmington's demise. But on that event he was persuaded to write a letter to Lord Carteret, to be laid before the King, stating the unanimous wishes of the Board of Treasury in his favour — expressing his own acquiescence — and soliciting the place. This letter he sent express to the Continent by a confidential servant of Sir John Eushout, his warm friend and one of the new Lords of the Treasury. This letter, and a renewed application from Mr. Pel ham, reached His Majesty while he still remained at Hanau. For five weeks no decision was taken upon either. The formal answer to Pelham — that the King would make known his pleasure through Lord Carteret — was far from affording him an omen of success. Al- secret the King's confidential page ; the door being always opened and shut by Mr. Fowle himself ; but his daughters sometimes peeped from the top of the stairs. See Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 733. 156 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. ready did the faint resolution of Pelham begin to sink, and was only sustained by friendly exhortations from Houghton. "If," added Lord Orford, "you had taken " the advice of a fool, (meaning himself,) and been made " Chancellor of the Exchequer, under Lord Wilmington, " the whole had dropped into your mouth. Lost oppor- " tunities are not easily retrieved."* It may, therefore, be supposed with how much surprise and delight the Pel hams hailed a letter from Lord Carteret, dated the 16th of August, Old Style, in which by His Majesty's com mand he announced a decision in their favour. The tone of Carteret in this communication was manly and straightforward, yet not hostile ; he avowed to Pelham that he had striven to the utmost against him, but added, " what could anybody in my circumstances do other- " wise ? If I had not stood by Lord Bath who could " ever value my friendship, and would not you have de- " spised me ? However, as the affair is now decided in " your favour by His Majesty, I wish you joy of it, and " I will endeavour to support you as much as I can." ] Henry Pelham, when he became First Lord of the Treasury, was forty-seven years of age, and had been twenty-four in Parliament. His character was Walpole's in miniature. He had formed himself upon Sir Eobert's model as nearly as his far inferior talents would allow, while his care and caution had restrained him from Wal pole's more open defects. He differed, however, from his model in natural temper: far from the joyous good humour and buoyant courage of Walpole, Pelham was peevish and irritable ; qualities which would have made him very unpopular amongst his party, had they not been usually kept down by an inborn timidity and dread of giving offence. From this difference of temper between * To Mr. Pelham, July 13. 1743. (Coxe's Pelham.) t See this letter in Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 85. In his Memoirs of Walpole, Mr. Coxe says, " it is more than probable that before the " return of Bushout's messenger, the King had consulted the Earl of " Orford." (p. 735.) This, however, appears to be disproved by Orford's confidential letters, as published in Coxe's subsequent work. Nor would it be easy to explain why the King should think it de sirable to consult Lord Orford again, having before^ he left England received his opinion and advice on the very point at issue. 1743. HENRY PELHAM. 157 the two Ministers, it followed that the love of power, in which both concurred, was manifested in opposite ways, — Sir Eobert's by bearing none but mutes in the Cabinet ; Mr. Pelham's by shrinking from any new op ponent in the Commons. In the same proportion, how ever, as his abilities fell below his predecessor's, did they rise above his brother the Duke of Newcastle's. He had probity, industry, punctuality ; he was a good speaker on points of business, and a good Minister for quiet times. He never incurred lavish expense, except when the King very particularly desired it ; nor forsook his friends, but on extremely pinching questions. In short, we may place him in that large and respectable class of statesmen, whom contemporaries do right to keep in office, but whom posterity will seldom take the trouble to re member. The view of the King in preferring Pelham, besides his dislike of Bath and his regard for Orford, seems to have been that, since the Hanoverian troops, the foreign sub sidies, and the dissensions of the Generals were likely to excite considerable clamours, it was absolutely requisite to secure the most powerful assistance in the House of Commons. At the same time, however, Carteret's fa vour and confidence in all foreign business continued unimpaired. Under these circumstances, the following was the advice of Pelham's old patron in Norfolk ; " Gain " time, strengthen yourself, and enter into no hasty en- " gagements. " * Such a course was sufficiently agreeable to Pelham's natural caution. He made no rash or un necessary alterations. He found places for his friend Henry Fox, and for Lord Middlesex, an adherent of the Prince of Wales. The Paymastership of the Forces, va cant by his own elevation, he bestowed on Winnington ; and, requiring for himself the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, he gratified Sandys on his retirement with a peerage and a place in the Eoyal Household. And when, in the ensuing December, two Members of the Cabinet, * Lord Orford to Mr. Pelham, July 13. 1743. This was written in anticipation of the event. In a subsequent letter the veteran statesman and sportsman adds, " Whig it with all opponents that will " parly, but 'ware Tory !" August 25. 1743. 158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. Lords Gower and Cobham, resigned from disgust, at find ing that the Hanoverian troops were still to be continued, the Privy Seal was transferred to Lord Cholmondeley, although on this last occasion, Lord Bath strained his whole influence in favour of Lord Carlisle. It is remark able, that, from the long tenure and exorbitant power of Walpole in government, the office he had filled at the head of the Treasury was now universally considered as that of the Prime Minister, whereas, previous to 1721, the main authority had often been vested in a Secretary of State. Another advantage to Pelham, at this period, accrued from the death of two principal chiefs of the new Oppo sition, Lord Hervey and the Duke of Argyle. The bril liant parts of Hervey had been always checked by his feeble health, while the great name of Argyle was lowered by his rapid changes, and recent Jacobite connections. Leaving no male issue, Argyle was succeeded in his titles and estates by bis brother, and of late his bitter enemy, the Earl of Isla. Never did such near kinsmen display less affinity of mind. With all his faults and follies, Argyle was still brave, eloquent, and accomplished, a skilful officer and a princely nobleman. Ma, on the con trary, was base and mean — " his heart is hke his aspect, " vile," says Hanbury Williams, — suspected of having betrayed Walpole at his fall*, I believe, unjustly, yet, seldom on any occasion, swayed either by gratitude or generosity. The King and Lord Carteret having returned to Eng land, the Parliament was opened on the 1st of December. The Opposition did not appear very formidable on common questions ; thus, an attempt to put a negative on the Ad dress of Thanks was rejected by 278 against 149. But the unpopularity of Hanoverian troops and Sardinian subsidies armed them with extraordinary strength. Ches terfield and Pitt, above all, thundered against Carteret, as * This charge is broadly urged by Sir C. Hanbury Williams, in a poem, from which the line above is taken (Works, vol i. p. 28.) ; and it is more than once hinted by Horace Walpole in his letters. But I observe that Sir Bobert himself attached no weight to it. See his warm letter of congratulation to Isla on his accession to the Dukedom, (Coxe's Walpole, voL iii. p. 599.) 1744. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. 159 the author of these measures, and transferred to him most of the hard names which had so lately resounded against Walpole. On the very first night of the Session, Pitt denounced him as "an execrable, a sole Minister, who " seems to have drunk of the potion, which poets have de- " scribed, as causing men to forget their country." And on another occasion, after calling him " the Hanover- " troop-Minister " — "a flagitious task-master " — *' with " the sixteen thousand Hanoverians as his placemen, and '• with no other party;" in short, after he had exhausted invectives, he added, " But I have done ; if he were " present I would say ten times more ! " * Ei the same debate, a cousin of Lord Strange went even further — if that was possible — in violence ; his own friend, George Grenville, called him to order ; and we find even Mr. Yorke complaining of " the inconsiderate warmth of '¦• Stanley." f Motions against the Hanover troops and Hanover measures were now brought forward, night after night, in every variety of form. The arguments I need not recapitulate ; they were nearly the same as in the pre vious Session. On these points the Ministerial majorities were neither large nor willing, while the nation from without were loud in their expressions of resentment. It frequently happened that the toast of " No Hanoverian " King " was proposed even in loyal companies, and the very name of Hanoverian became a by-word of insult and reproach. Thus fraught with all but universal un popularity, the question of the foreign troops had begun to scare even the most resolute members of the Cabinet. All except Carteret wavered. A letter is preserved from the Duke of Newcastle, in which he argues against the Hanoverian mercenaries, as strongly as he did for them a few months before and a few months after.J Mr. Pelham, as usual, was timorous ; his fears were quick ened by his brother's, and the measure would undoubt edly have been dropped but for the interposition of Lord * H. Walpole to Sir H Mann, January 24. 1744. X Mr. P. Yorke's Journal, Pari. Hist. voL xiii. p. 464. It is added that " the scene could be compared to nothing but a tumultuous " Polish Diet.'' J To Lord Hardwicke, November 7. 1743. 160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. Orford. This veteran statesman, on coming to town, most warmly deprecated such an insult (for so he deemed it) to his Boyal master : he used his authority over Pel ham and his other partisans in the Cabinet — an autho rity that finally prevailed over their alarms. And though, hitherto, he had seldom appeared, and never spoken in the House of Lords, having remarked to his brother Horace that he had left his tongue in the House of Com mons, yet on this occasion his eloquent voice was once more raised, beseeching their Lordships to forget their cavils and divisions and unite in affection round the throne.* It was solely owing to him that the torrent of public opposition was braved and overcome. "The " whole world," says his son, " nay, the Prince himself, " allows that if Lord Orford had not come to town, the " Hanover troops had been lost." f Whatever may be thought of the system of buying troops from Germany, " that great market of men," as Pitt emphatically called it in debate J, we must own that it was no fit season to disband the army, when the perils of the war were rapidly thickening around us. The French Government, irritated by the Treaty of Worms, had, on their part, concluded at Fontainebleau an alliance offensive and defensive with Spain. They determined to send forth a superior army in the next campaign, with their young King at its head, and, instead of continuing the contest as auxiliaries, to issue a direct declaration of hostilities against both England and Austria ; nay, more, they were encouraged by the clamours against the Han overians, and the other symptoms of popular discontent in England, to undertake a Jacobite invasion — an at tempt of which a full account shall presently be given. It was met, however, with prompt resolution, both by the Ministry and by the Parliament. Several members of the Opposition — none more conspicuously than Pitt — laid aside, for the moment, their party animosities to withstand the common danger. The Duke of Marl borough, in spite of his recent resignation, hastened up * See his speech at length, in Coxe's Memoirs, p. 738. t H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, January 24. 1744. j Pari. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 468. 1744. HABEAS CORPUS ACT SUSPENDED. 161 to London to move a loyal Address in the House of Peers. The Earl of Stair, forgetting his wrongs, offered his services in any station, and in return was graciously appointed Commander in Chief. It soon appeared— a fact till lately incomprehensible to foreign nations — that the most ardent adversaries of the Minister might be among the most zealous subjects of the King. The high Tories and Jacobites, on their part, expecting that their cause would soon be decided by other weapons than words, prudently, for the most part, kept aloof from the debates. Supplies were voted to the amount of nearly 10,000,000?. including subsidies of 300,000?. to Austria, and 200,000?. to Sardinia. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, but only for two months. A Bill was brought in, from the ranks of Opposition, providing that the penalties on treasonable correspondence with the Pre tender should extend to correspondence with his children. But on reaching the Upper House two additional clauses were proposed by the' Lord Chancellor : one, to attaint the sons of the Pretender, in case they should attempt to land ; and the other, to extend the penalties of the Act to the posterity of those who should be convicted under it, during the lifetime of both the young Pretenders. The former clause passed unanimously ; but the latter, which tended to impose a cruel punishment on children for the offences of their fathers, was strenuously though ineffectually opposed by the Duke of Bedford and Lord Chesterfield in one House, by Mr. Pitt and Lord Strange in the other. Out of Parliament the proceedings were not less vigorous. A proclamation was issued for putting the laws in force against Papists and Nonjurors. Lord Barrymore and Colonel Cecil were arrested and ex amined, but no material discoveries being made against them they were soon afterwards released* Troops were * The Earl of Barrymore, an Irish Peer, and a Member of _ the House of Commons in England, was at this time the oldest Lieu tenant General in the service : he died in 1747, at the age of eighty. His fortune was great, but his temper penurious ; in Ins political principles he was wholly devoted to the exiled family. See Mr. Yorke's Journal, Pari. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 668. and Tindal's History, vol. ix. p. 27. VOL. IH. M 1'62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. directed by forced marches to the Southern coast, and an application was sent to the Dutch for the 6000 auxiliaries which they were bound by treaty to furnish in case of an invasion. Loyal addresses and protestations of service poured in from every quarter. Yet, with all this out ward show, it appears that, in truth, no more than 7000 Englishmen, in arms, could be drawn together for the defence of the capital or any of the neighbouring coun ties ; while, on the other hand, the Jacobite conspiracy was extensive, well laid, and ready to burst forth. The veteran brother of Sir Eobert Walpole, whose sagacity and zeal for the Protestant Succession are equally un questionable, laments in private that, " I see nothing but " words stirring in the City, for the support of the Go- " vernment. I do not look upon Addresses to carry with " them powder and ball — and I apprehend that the peo- "¦ pie may perhaps look on and cry, ' Fight dog ! fight " ' bear ! ' if they do no worse ! " f As it appears to me, the fate of England at this juncture hung suspended on the winds and the waves : had these not favoured us the cause of the Stuarts might, nay must, for a season have prevailed ; but, as with the Spanish Armada, flavit Deus et dissipantur. " See Mr. Walpole's confidential letter to Mr. Trevor, March 3. 1 744, in Coxe's Life of the former, p. 259. .1744. project of invasion. -163 CHAPTEE XXVI. Ever since the accession of Cardinal Tencin to power, the Jacobites had formed the most sanguine hopes of French support. His attachment to the House of Stuart ' — the favours it had bestowed upon him — his enter prising temper, as contrasted with the dilatory prudence of Fleury — the rancour excited by the progress of the war — these circumstances might well justify their ex pectations. Nor were they disappointed. The Cardinal immediately renewed the negotiation with the British exiles at Paris, which had greatly languished in the last year of Fleury's life, but which was still in the hands of Lord Sempill, and Drummond of Bohaldie. He also disposed the French Government in favour of the scheme, and found the King's mind, though indolent, yet well inclined to the Stuarts, as to his kinsmen, in whose veins as in his own ran the heroic blood of Henri Quatre. Nor were considerations of policy wanting, to show the French the importance of at least distracting the British from foreign affairs, and if possible, placing a grateful ally upon their throne. Arrangements were, therefore, speedily in progress for an expedition to England, and a smaller one to Scotland, to be assisted by simultaneous risings in both countries. For these was needed the pre sence of the exiled Prince as their object and leader. But, even the youth of James had never been remarkable for enterprise, and he was latterly weighed down by age and disappointments. He had even formed a project (as we learn by some mysterious hints in the Stuart Papers) of resigning his titular Crown in favour of his eldest son ; a project from which at a somewhat later period it needed the young prince's most anxious entreaties to dissuade him.* James had hoped that there might not be even a * See in the Appendix the letter of Prince Charles to his father dated June 12. 1745. M 2 164 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV. whisper of such a scheme until the moment for its execu tion ; but certainly no secret is so hard to be kept as the intended resignation of a Sovereign or abdication of a Minister. It seems that some slight rumours of his purpose were already rife among his partisans ; and at all events, conscious as they were of his infirmities, their main hopes had for some time rested on his son Prince Charles, then in the twenty-fourth year of his age, en dowed by nature with many, and by their imagination with all, great qualities.* Charles Edward Stuart is one of those characters that cannot be portrayed at a single sketch, but have so greatly altered, as to require a new delineation at different periods. View him in his later years, and we behold the ruins of intemperance — as wasted but not as venerable as those of time; — we find him in his anticipated age a besotted drunkard, a peevish husband, a tyrannical master — his understanding debased, and his temper soured. But not such was the Charles Stuart of 1745 ! Not such was the gallant Prince full of youth, of hope, of courage, who, landing with seven men in the wilds of Moidart, could rally a kingdom round his banner, and scatter his foes before him at Preston and at Falkirk! Not such was the gay and courtly host of Holyrood ! Not such was he, whose endurance of fatigue and eagerness for battle shone pre-eminent, even amongst Highland chiefs ; while fairer critics proclaimed him the most win ning in conversation, the most graceful in the dance ! Can we think lowly of one who could acquire such un bounded popularity in so few months, and over so noble a nation as the Scots ; who could so deeply stamp his image on their hearts that, even thirty or forty years * The fervid imagination of the Jacobites at this time in favour of Prince Charles was assisted by the unpopularity which they, not without some foundation, ascribed to his rival Prince Frederick. Thus we find Mr. Carte writes to James : " Your Majesty's cause " seems to me to have derived several advantages from this Session. " Among them I reckon the utter contempt into which Prince Fred- " erick is fallen by his conduct at that time, so that nobody for the " future will have any recourse to him or dependence upon him." Letter dated May 4. 1743, in the Stuart Papers. See Appendix. 1745, PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 165 after his departure, his name, as we are told, always awakened the most ardent praises from all who had known him — the most rugged hearts were seen to melt at his remembrance — and tears to steal down the fur rowed cheeks of the veteran ? Let us, then, without de nying the faults of his character, or extenuating the degradation of his age, do justice to the lustre of his manhood. The person of Charles — (I begin with this for the sake of female readers) — was tall and well-formed ; his limbs athletic and active. He excelled in all manly exer cises, and was inured to every kind of toil, especially long marches on foot, having applied himself to field sports in Italy, and become an excellent walker.* His face was strikingly handsome, of a perfect oval and a fair com plexion ; his eyes light blue ; his features high and noble. Contrary to the custom of the time, which prescribed perukes,. his own fair hair usually fell in long ringlets on his neck. This goodly person was enhanced by his graceful manners : frequently condescending to the most familiar kindness, yet always shielded by a regal dignity, he had a peculiar talent to please and to persuade, and never failed to adapt his conversation to the taste or to the sta tion of those whom he addressed. Yet he owed nothing to his education : it had been entrusted to Sir Thomas Sheridan, an Irish Eoman Catholic, who has not escaped the suspicion of being in the pay of the British Govern ment, and at their instigation betraying his duty as a teacher. I am bound to say that I have found no corro boration of so foul a charge. Sheridan appears to me to have lived and died a man of honour ; but History can only acquit him of base perfidy by accusing him of gross neglect. He had certainly left his pupil uninstructed in the most common elements of knowledge. Charles's letters, which I have seen amongst the Stuart Papers, are written in a large, rude, rambling hand, hke a school boy's. In spelling they are still more deficient. With him " humour," for example, becomes timer ; the weapon he knew so well how to wield is a sord ; and, even his own father's name appears under the alias- of gems. Nor * Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides, p. 231. ed. 1785. n a 166 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVIw .are these errors confined to a single language : who — to give another instance from his French — would recognize a hunting-knife in cooto de chas? I can, therefore, readily believe that, as Dr. King assures us, he knew very little of the History or Constitution of England.* But the letters of Charles, while they prove his want of education, no less clearly display his natural powers, great energy of character, and great warmth of heart. Writing confidentially, just before he sailed for Scotland, he says, " I made my devotions on Pentecost Day, recorn- " mending myself particularly to the Almighty on this " occasion to guide and direct me, and to continue to me " always the same sentiments, which are, rather to suffer fi any thing than fail in any of my duties." t His young brother, Henry of York, is mentioned with the utmost tenderness ; and, though on his return from Scotland he conceived that he had reason to complain of Henry's cold ness and reserve, the fault is lightly touched upon, and Charles observes that, whatever may be his brother's want of kindness, it shall never diminish his own.J To his father, his tone is both affectionate and dutiful : he frequently acknowledges his goodness ; and, when at the outset of his great enterprise of 1745, he entreats a bless ing from the Pope, surely, the sternest Bomanist might forgive him for adding, that he shall think a blessing from his parent more precious and more holy still. § As to his friends and partisans, Prince Charles has been often accused of not being sufficiently moved by their sufferings, or grateful for their services. Bred up amidst monks and bigots, who seemed far less afraid of his re maining excluded from power, than that on gaining he * Anecdotes of his own Time, p. 201. t Second letter of June 12. 1745. See Appendix. X Letter to his father, December 19. 1746. § Letter of June 12. 1745. James on bis part writes to his son with warm affection, many of his letters beginning with the Italian name of endearment, "My dearest Carluccio." — But my remarks apply no further than July, 1747, when the nomination of Henry as a Cardinal — a measure most injurious to the Stuart cause, and Carefully concealed till the last moment from his brother, so as to prevent his remonstrances — produced an almost complete estrange ment between Charles and his family. . 1745. , PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 167 should use it liberally, he had been taught the highest notions of prerogative and hereditary right. From thence he might infer, that those who served him in Scot land did no more than their duty — were merely fulfilling a plain social obligation, and were not, therefore, entitled to any very especial praise and admiration. Yet, on the other hand, we must remember how prone are all exiles to exaggerate their own desert, to think no rewards suf ficient for it, and to complain of neglect, even where none really exists ; and moreover that, in point of fact, many passages from Charles's most familiar correspondence might be adduced to show a watchful and affectionate care for his adherents. As a very young man, he deter mined that he would sooner submit to personal privation than embarrass his friends by contracting debts.* On returning from Scotland he told the French Minister, D'Argenson, that he would never ask any thing for him self, but was ready to go down on his knees to obtain .favours for his brother exiles.! Once, after lamenting some divisions and misconduct among his servants, he declares that, nevertheless, an honest man is so highly to be prized that, " unless your Majesty orders me, I " should part with them with a sore heart." J Nay more, as it appears to me, this warm feeling of Charles for his unfortunate friends survived almost alone, when, in his decline of life, nearly every other noble quality had been dimmed and defaced from his mind. In 1 785 Mr. Greathed* a personal friend of Mr. Fox, succeeded in obtaining an interview with him at Bome. Being alone with him for some time, the English traveller studiously led the con versation to his enterprise in Scotland. The Prince showed some reluctance to enter upon the subject, and seemed to suffer much pain at the remembrance ; but -Mr. Greathed, with more of curiosity than of discretion, .still persevered. At length, then, the Prince appeared to shake off the load which oppressed him ; his eye bright ened, his face assumed unwonted animation ; and he * " I never love to owe, but, on the contrary, I will deprive myself "of little conveniences rather than run in debt." — Letter, June 1 1744. Stuart Papers. t Letter of Dec. 19. 1746. j Letter of January 16. 1747. M 4 168 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. began the narrative of his Scottish campaigns with a vehement energy of manner, recounting his marches, his battles, his victories, and his defeat, his hair-breadth escapes, and the inviolable and devoted attachment of his Highland followers, and at length proceeding to the dreadful penalties which so many of them had subse quently undergone. But the recital of their sufferings appeared to wound him far more deeply than his own ; then, and not till then, his fortitude forsook him, his voice faltered, his eye became fixed, and he fell to the floor in convulsions. At the noise in rushed the Duchess of Albany, his illegitimate daughter, who happened to be in the next apartment. " Sir," she exclaimed to Mr. Greathed, " what is this ! you must have been speaking " to my father about Scotland and the Highlanders ! No " one dares to mention these subjects in his presence."* Once more, however, let me turn from the last gleams of the expiring flame to the hours of its meridian bright ness. — In estimating the abilities of Prince Charles, I may first observe that they stood in most direct contrast to his father's. Each excelled in what the other wanted. No man could express himself with more clearness and ele gance than James : it has been said of him that he wrote better than any of those whom he employed j ; but, on the other hand, his conduct was always deficient in energy and enterprise. Charles, as we have seen, was no penman ; while in action — in doing what deserves to be written, and not in merely writing what deserves to be read — he stood far superior. He had some little experience of war, having, when very young, joined the Spanish army at the siege of GaetaJ, and distinguished himself on that occasion, and he loved it as the birthright both of a Sobieski and a Stuart. His quick intelligence, his prompt ness of decision, and his contempt of danger, are recorded on unquestionable testimony. His talents as a leader * Scottish Episcopal Magazine, vol. ii. p. 177. ; and Chambers's His tory of the Rebellion of 1745, vol. ii. p. 321. The right date must be not 1783 but 1785, as Charles was still at Florence in the former year, and not yet joined by his daughter. t See Macpherson's State Papers, voL ii. p. 225. j Muratori, Anna! d'ltal. vol. xii. p. 207. 1745. PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 169 probably never rose above the common level; yet, in some cases in Scotland, where he and his more practised officers differed in opinion, it will I think appear that they were wrong and he was right. No knight of the olden time could have a loftier sense of honour ; indeed he pushed it to such wild extremes, that it often led him into error and misfortune. Thus, he lost the battle of Culloden in a great measure because he disdained to take advantage of the ground, and deemed it more chivalrous to meet the enemy on equal terms. Thus, also, his wilful and fro- ward conduct at the peace of Aix la Chapelle proceeded from a false point of honour, which he thought involved in it. At other times, again, this generous spirit may de serve unmingled praise : he could never be persuaded or provoked into adopting any harsh measures of retaliation ; his extreme lenity to his prisoners, even to such as had attempted his life, was, it seems, a common matter of complaint among his troops*; and, even when encourage ment had been given to his assassination, and a price put upon his head, he continued most earnestly to urge that in no possible case should the " Elector," as he called his rival, suffer any personal injury or insult. This anxiety was always present in his mind. Mr. Forsyth, a gentleman whose description of Italy is far the best that has appeared, and whose scrupulous accuracy and superior means of information will be acknowledged by all travellers, relates how, only a few years after the Scottish expedition, Charles, relying on the faith of a single adherent, set out for London in a humble disguise, and under the name of Smith. On arriving there, he was introduced at midnight into a room full of conspirators whom he had never pre viously seen. " Here," said his conductor, " is the person " you want," and left him locked up in the mysterious assembly. These were men who imagined themselves equal, at that time, to treat with him for the throne of England. " Dispose of me, gentlemen, as you please," said Charles ; " my life is in your power, and I therefore " can stipulate for nothing. Yet give me, I entreat, one " solemn promise, that if your design should succeed, the » Capt. Daniel's Narrative, MS. , 170 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. " present family shall be sent safely and honourably " home." * . Another quality of Charles's mind was great firmness .of resolution, which pride and sorrow afterwards hardened into sullen obstinacy. He was likewise, at all times, ^prone to gusts and sallies of anger, when his language .became the more peremptory from a haughty conscious ness of his adversities. I have found among his papers a note without direction, but no doubt intended for some tardy officer : it contained only these words : " I order " you to execute my orders, or else never to come back." Such harshness might, probably, turn a wavering adherent to the latter alternative. Thus, also, his public expressions of resentment against the Court of France, at different periods, were certainly far more just than politic. There seemed always swelling at his heart a proud determination that no man should dare to use him the worse for his evil fortune, and that he should sacrifice any thing or every thing sooner than his dignity. Such is, I conceive, a true and impartial portrait of Prince Charles, as he departed from Bome, and as he arrived in Scotland. I shall afterwards have occasion to explain some of the causes that ere long impaired the merits and darkened the shades of his character ; and, at this place, it only remains for me to touch upon some fea tures, inconsistent with the portrait I have drawn, but resting, as I think, on no sufficient evidence. " He was " a miser," says Dr. King. " I have known him, with " two thousand louis-d'ors in his strong box, pretend he " was in great distress, and borrow money from a lady in -' Paris who was not in affluent circumstances. His most " faithful servants were ill rewarded." f .... First it should be remembered that the testimony of Dr. King is very far from impartial to the Stuarts ; he was that worst * Forsyth's Italy, p. 587. Geneva ed. He is, however, mistaken as to the date of this journey, which was undoubtedly September, 1750. See King's Anecdotes, p. 196. There seems to have been another such conspiracy two years afterwards. A medal, in my possession; has on one side Prince Charles's head, and on the other the inscrip tion, letamini cives, sept, xxiii. mdcclii. This date, there is reason to conjecture, refers to Charles having declared himself a Protestant. f Anecdotes of his own Time, p. 202. ' 1745. PRINCE CHARLES STUART. 171 of all enemies, a former friend. If the facts of his story be truly stated — and his authority, though not impartial, is yet, I own, of no inconsiderable weight — they will cer tainly admit of no defence. But as to the charge of ava rice in general, and of sparing rewards to his servants, I may observe that for the sake of the exiles themselves, and with a view to their certain and complete relief, it was surely better for Charles to be thrifty of his means, and to collect money for the execution of one great enter prise, rather than to scatter it in vague and casual acts of bounty. " But he was a coward ! " Such is the language of those who love to trample on the fallen, and to heap imputations upon him whom fortune has already over whelmed. When Lochiel, Lord George Murray, and so many other brave men so often censured Charles as rash, and checked his headlong eagerness for battle, can it be doubted that he equalled (for none could exceed) them in bravery ? But who are they that assert the contrary ? Helvetius, the French philosophist, whose house at Paris was for some time Charles's residence, told David Hume that the Prince was utterly faint-hearted, insomuch that when the expedition to Scotland was in preparation, it had been necessary to carry him on ship-board by main force, bound hand and foot.* Now, on the contrary, there are no facts in all history better attested than that, throughout his stay in France, Charles warmly pressed the expedition against many of his friends, who wished to await a more favourable opportunity, and that, in Scot land, it was solely his earnest persuasion that prevailed upon the first Highlanders to rise. The documents which have since appeared not only establish these facts in the clearest manner, but must tend, by subverting the testi mony of Helvetius on one point, to render it worthless on all others, t But the cowardice of Charles is also asserted by the Chevalier Johnstone, an officer of his own army. This, * Letter from Hume to Dr. Pringle, February 13.- 1773. Memoires Secrets de Dubois, vol. i. p. 139. f See this argument more fully urged in a note to Waverley, vol. ii. p. 272. revised ed. ; 172 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. at first sight, may appear unimpeachable authority. The keener eyes, however, of Sir Walter Scott, and other Scottish antiquaries, have discovered that Johnstone, in other parts of his narrative, shows himself quite unworthy of credit. Thus a most minute and circumstantial story, which he ascribes to Gordon of Abbachie, is proved to be in all its parts an utter fiction. Thus, again, his own private circumstances are found to be in some respects the very opposite from what he represents them.* After such detections, I can only value Johnstone's Memoirs for their military criticisms and remarks, but shall never admit them as sufficient evidence for facts. The com plaints of men who in their vanity think their services slighted, or the calumnies of those who forsake, and then, to excuse their forsaking, slander, the defeated, are always too readily welcomed by contemporary rancour. But there is I believe no higher duty — I am sure there is no greater pleasure — in history, than to vindicate the memory of a gallant and unfortunate enemy. Early in the summer of 1743, Cardinal Tencin wrote to the old Pretender, urging that Prince Charles should at once proceed from Eome to France, so as to be ready to take the command of the intended expedition when ever that should be prepared. The answer of James, however, far more sagaciously points out, that his son's journey should rather be deferred till those preparations were completed, as it would otherwise serve to put the British Government upon its guard, and induce it to adopt more active measures of defence.-)" Accordingly, the previous step was to draw together 15,000 veterans at Dunkirk, to be commanded, under Charles, by the Mares chal de Saxe, an illegitimate son of the late King of Poland, and at that time the most skilful and intrepid officer in the French service : a large number of trans ports for the descent were collected in the Channel, and a fleet of eighteen sail of the line, for their protection was ready to sail from the harbours of Eochefort and Brest. Notice of these equipments, and of their state of forward ness, being duly sent to Bome, James, on the 23d of De- * See the Quarterly Review, No. ixxi. p. 211. f Letter of June 27. 1743, the day of Dettingen. 1745. JOURNEY FROM ROME. 173 cember, 1743, put his name to several important acts — a proclamation to the British people, to be published on the landing — and a Commission, declaring the Prince, his son, Begent, with full powers in his absence.* On the same day he likewise signed a patent to secure, rather than to reward, the doubtful fidelity of Lord Lovat, by naming him Duke of Fraser, and the King's Lieutenant in all the counties north of Spey.f Thus prepared, and full of hope and ardour, Charles took leave of his father, and set out from Eome on the night of the 9th of January, 1744, on the pretence of a hunting expedition, and afterwards in the disguise of a Spanish courier. He was attended only by a single servant, a faithful groom, who personated a Spanish secretary. Both the King of Sardinia by land, and Admiral Mathews by sea, were eager if they could to intercept him ; but so skilfully were his measures taken, that his departure remained a secret even to his younger brother during several days. Travelling day and night, he reached Savona, and, embarking in a small vessel, ran through the British fleet at great risk of being captured, but arrived safe at Antibes. From thence he pursued his journey, riding post, with such speed as to enter Paris on the 20th of the same month — the very dny on which the pretended King at Bome publicly, at his own table, an nounced his son's departure, and received the congratula tions of his family. An interview with the King of France was now eagerly solicited by Charles, but in vain ; and it is remarkable, that he was never admitted to the Boyal presence, until after his return from Scotland.^ He held, however, re peated conferences with the Earl Marischal, and Lord Elcho ; the former his avowed, the latter his secret, ad- * Seo these papers in the Collection of the Declarations and other State Papers of the Insurgents at Edinburgh. Reprinted 1749. t See Lord Lovat's Trial, 1747, p. 24. j Tindal alleges an interview (vol. ix. p. 21.), and ho is followed by all the later writers j but the Stuart Papers seem to prove the con trary. James writes to Mr. O'Bryen, August 11. 1745, — " Depuis " que le Prince etait en France, il a ete tenu guere moins que prison- " nier ; on no lui a pas permis d'allcr a Tannec, et il n'a meme junai» " vu le Koi." 174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVT. herent. He then hastened from Paris to direct the intended expedition, and took up his residence at Grave- lines, where he lived in strict privacy, under the name of the Chevalier Douglas, and with only Bohaldie attending him as secretary. It was from thence that his eyes, for the first time, greeted the white cliffs of that island, which he believed himself born to rule, and was destined so soon to invade. What visions of glory and empire may then have floated before him, and seemed to settle on the distant British hills ! How little could the last heir and namesake of the martyred Charles at that time foresee that he should be even more unhappy, because self- degraded, and unlamented in his end ! The letters of Charles, at this period, to his father, give a lively picture of his close concealment : — " The situ- " ation I am in is very particular, for nobody knows " where I am, or what is become of me ; so that I am " entirely buried as to the public, and cannot but say that " it is a very great constraint upon me, for I am obliged " very often not to stir out of my room for fear of some- " body's noting my face. I very often think that you " would laugh very heartily, if you saw me going about " with a single servant, buying fish and other things, and "squabbling for a penny more or less!" And again: " Everybody is wondering where the Prince is : some put " him in one place, and some in another, but nobody " knows where he is really ; and sometimes he is told " news of himself to his face, which is very diverting." — " I have every day large packets to answer, without any " body to help me but Maloch (Bohaldie). Yesterday I " had one that cost me seven hours and a half."* About this time, however, the Prince received a visit from Lord Marischal, who intended to join the expedition to Scotland, but was informed by Charles that it was deferred until that to England had sailed. Meanwhile the squadrons at Brest and Bochefort had combined, and, led by Admiral Eoquefeuille, were already advancing up the British Channel. Our fleet had, till lately, lain anchored at Spithead : it consisted of twenty- '• * To his father, April 3. April 16. and March 6. 1744. Stuart Papers. 1745. DREADFUL STORM IN THE CHANNEL. 175 one ships of the line ; and its commander was Sir John Norris, an officer of much experience, but whose enterprise, it is alleged, was quenched by age. He had now steered round to the Downs, where, as Captain of Deal Castle, he had long been well acquainted with the coasts, and where, being joined by some more ships from Chatham, he found his force considerably greater than the French. Boque- feuille, by this time, had come abreast of the Isle of Wight, and, perceiving no ships left at Spithead, rashly adopted the conclusion that they had all sought shelter within Portsmouth Harbour. Under this belief, he despatched a small vessel to Dunkirk, to urge that the expedition should take place without delay, a direction which was cheerfully complied with. Seven thousand of the troops were at once embarked in the first transports, the Prince and the Mareschal de Saxe in the same ship, and they had put out to sea, while Boquefeuille, proceeding on his voyage, was already at anchor off Dungeness. At this critical moment the British fleet, having ad vanced against Boquefeuille, anchored within two leagues of him, so that the Downs and Isle of Thanet were, for the time, left open to invasion. The French fleet might have been attacked with every advantage, and almost certain prospect of not only their defeat, but their destruction ; but though a good officer, Norris was no Nelson ; and, considering the state of the tide, and the approach of night, resolved to defer the battle till next morning. Next morning, however, the French fleet was gone. Boquefeuille seeing the very great superiority of his opponent, and satisfied with having made some diver sion for the transports, had weighed anchor in the night, and sailed back towards the French harbours. Next day a dreadful tempest, which greatly damaged his ships, pro tected them, however, from any pursuit of Norris. But the same storm proved fatal to the transports. It blew — as was observed in London on the same day — directly on Dunkirk, and with tremendous violence: some of the largest ships, with all the men on board, were lost ; others were wrecked on the coast ; and the re mainder were obliged to put back to the harbour with no small injury. For some time Charles hoped to renew the attempt ; but the French Ministers were discouraged, and 176 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. the French troops diminished by this disaster. The Mareschal de Saxe was appointed to the command in Flanders, the army withdrawn from Dunkirk, and the expedition relinquished. Under these mortifying circumstances, Charles, not yet losing hope, sent a message to Lord Marischal to repair to him at Gravelines, and proposed that they should engage a small fishing vessel and proceed together to Scotland, where he said he was sure he had many friends who would join him. This bold scheme — yet scarcely bolder than that which Charles put in execution a year later, and far better timed as to the preparations of his party — was strenously opposed by Lord Marischal, and at length reluctantly abandoned by Charles. The Prince's next wish was, to join the French army in the ensuing campaign, a project which was in like manner withstood and finally baffled by the Scottish nobleman. On this last occasion Charles wrote to his father in terms of high resentment against Lord Marischal.* It certainly is no matter of blame to a young Prince if he ardently pants for warlike distinction ; but on the other hand, Lord Marischal was undoubtedly most kind, judicious, and far- sighted in preventing him from entering the French ranks against his own countrymen, where his restoration was not concerned, and thereby heaping a needless unpopu larity upon his head. As another instance how rife were divisions and ani mosities amongst those who had every motive to remain united, it may be mentioned that Charles had, at first, neglected to summon the Duke of Ormond from his re tirement at Avignon, to embark with the intended expe dition. Ormond, it is true, was now an octogenarian, and his exertions even in his prime were little worth ; but his name and popularity in England had long been a tower of strength. The Prince perceived his error when too late, and hastily wrote to the Duke pressing him to join the armament, and Ormond accordingly set out ; but, receiving intelligence upon the road that the design had already miscarried, returned to his residence. Disappointed in all proj ects of immediate action, whether * Letter, May 11, 1744. Stuart Papers, 1745. PRINCE CHARLES AT PARIS. 177 in England, in Scotland, or in Flanders, Charles now returned to Paris. He received a message from the King directing him to remain concealed ; accordingly, he writes to his father — "I have taken a house within a league of " this town, where I am like a hermit."* But in a little while the zeal and loquacity of his adherents betrayed his presence ; so that, as is observed by himself, " at last my " being in Paris was le secret de la comedie."-)- At some intervals, accordingly, he was allowed to live pri vately in the capital, but at others, he found it necessary to retire to Fitz-James, the seat of the Duke of Berwick, where he sought recreation in field sports. During all this time he carried on an active correspondence with his Scottish partisans, whom he soon perceived to be greatly superior in zeal and determination to his English. " The " truth of the matter is," says he at a later period, " that " our friends in England are afraid of their own shadow, " and think of little else but of diverting themselves ; " otherwise, we should not want the King of France." J During the last two years his adherents in the North had employed, as their principal agent, Mr. John Murray, of Broughton, a gentleman of birth and property, whom they knew to be active and able, and believed courageous and trusty; and this person being despatched to Paris in the summer of 1744, held frequent conferences with Charles. In these the Prince appeared sanguine of French assistnnce, but declared himself willing to go to Scotland though he brought but a single footman. § The invasion of England had not been the sole object of the armaments at Dunkirk and at Brest; the French were equally desirous of striking a decisive blow upon the naval resources and reputation of Great Britain. With this view the fleet at Toulon, consisting partly of French, partly of Spanish vessels, was likewise directed to sail from that harbour, and to risk an engagement with Admiral Mathews. The two fleets met off Toulon on the 22nd of February, New Style ; the British vessels were the more numerous, but in worse condition from * Letter, June 1. 1744. Stuart Papers. t To his father, November 16. 1744. X To his father, February 21. 1745. § Examination of Mr. Murray of Broughton, August 13. 1746. See Appendix. VOL. III. N 178 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. the length of time they had kept the sea, and a deadly- feud rankled between Mathews and Lestock, the first and second in command. Mathews, with his own division, attacked the Spanish squadron very gallantly, himself bearing down upon the Spanish flag-ship, a vessel of 114 guns. Lestock during this time kept aloof, withheld, as Mathews alleged, from motives of personal envy ; as him self declared, from the confused and doubtful signals of his chief. When night parted the combatants, the Span iards had suffered severely ; their Admiral's ship was shattered to a mere wreck : the Boyal Philip was dis abled ; and the Poder, after being taken and retaken, was finally burnt by the English. Next day, the combined squadrons retiring in disorder, Lestock, with his division, gave them chase, and was followed by the whole fleet ; but. just as he was in hopes of coming up with the enemy, Mathews gave the signal to cease from pursuit ; a, measure difficult to explain from any other causes than jealousy and resentment. Lestock was, moreover treated with great personal harshness by his superior officer, sus pended from his command, and sent for trial to England, where, however, Mathews himself was speedily sum moned to answer for his conduct. After some proceed ings in the House of Commons, there ensued a Court Martial, and a most protracted and wearisome inquiry : the result being at last, that Lestock was honourably ac quitted, and Mathews declared incapable of serving His Majesty in future. The Spaniards, on their part, ac cused the French, though unjustly, of having deserted them in the engagement, and, as unjustly, claimed for themselves the honour of the day, decorating their Ad miral, Don Joseph Navarro, with the pompous title of Marquis de la Victoria. The naval designs of the French Government, and their reported reception of the young Pretender, contrary to the stipulations of treaties, were loudly complained of by Mr. Thompson, who was still British Besident at Paris. His representations, however, were met by haughty answers, and terminated by a public declaration of war, * Coxe's Bourbon Bangs of Spain, vol. iii. p. 346. 1744. CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS. 179 issued by France in the month of March, and couched in most offensive terms.* About the middle of May, King Louis took the field in person, on the side of Flanders, with De Saxe for his general, with 80,000 effective men for his army. The Allies had undertaken to have 75,000 in that quarter ; but, so grievously had the Dutch and Austrians failed in their contingents, that the whole united force did not exceed 50,000. Besides the British commander, Marshal Wade, though a respectable officer, was ill qualified to cope with the practised skill and daring energy of Saxe. He might also complain that the Dutch and Austrian generals im peded all his measures — as they once had Marlborough's — by their jarring and jealous counsels; and he had not Marlborough's high serenity of temper and gift of pa tience — " patience," says that great man, " that will over- " come all things "] — to support him. Thus the French, feebly opposed by inferior and divided adversaries, re duced within six weeks Courtray, Menin, Ypres, Fort Knoque, and Furnes, and spread alarm to the inmost pro vinces of Holland. But, in July, their progress was arrested by the tidings, that another Austrian army had suddenly burst into Alsace. Prince Charles of Lorraine had with great promptitude drawn together a considerable force at Heilbronn, and with great skill passed the Bhine near Philipsburg in the very face of the enemy, from whence, at the head of 60,000 men, he forced the lines of the Lauter, and drove the French before him to the ramparts of Strasburg. To avert the threatened danger Louis the Fifteenth resolved to march in person, with half his army, leaving the rest, under De Saxe, to maintain their ground. This would have been the moment for the Allies in Flanders to undertake some important operation ; but discord and in? efficiency were still the bane of their councils, and their campaign closed as it had begun without enterprise or glory.J * See this declaration and the counter one of England in Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 28—32. f Duke of Marlborough to Lord Godolphin, July 13. 1702. t Lord Hardwicke to the Duke of Newcastle, August 16. 1744. N 2 180 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. The French King had been but little inured to the fatigues of the field, and had sought to alleviate them by the pleasures of the table.* He had advanced as far as Metz on his march to Alsace, when he was seized with a violent fever, which increased so rapidly that, in a few days, his life was despaired of. The news reached Paris in the middle of the night; immediately the Queen and Boyal Family hastened away to the scene of danger, and arrived just when the King's illness had taken a favour able turn. But the general grief and consternation in the capital can scarcely be described. The cry was, " If " he dies it will be from marching to our defence." The churches were opened at midnight, and prayers offered for His Majesty's recovery ; but the voices of the priests were often overpowered by their own emotion, or lost amidst the rising sobs of a loyal and afflicted people ; and, when the tidings of the King's convalescence came, the messenger who brought them was embraced and nearly stifled by rejoicing .crowds; his very horse was covered with kisses, and led in triumph through the streets.1)- Such feelings are the more remarkable, as flowing from duty and principle rather than from gratitude. Louis had, hitherto, done nothing for the welfare of his sub jects, and seldom even bestowed a thought upon them except as instruments of his pleasures : he was selfish and cold-hearted, incapable of friendship, but always blindly governed by some female favourite. In his ill ness, however, he discerned the error of his ways, and hearkened to the voice of priestly admonition ; he dis missed his reigning mistress, Madame de Chateauroux, and declared that if Providence spared his life he should henceforth devote it to the good of his people. Almost every man, when sick, forms an earnest resolution of amendment, and his progress in recovery may be accu rately traced, day after day, by the slackening of his good intentions. And so it proved with Louis. As he grew in strength he recalled his former mistress, and sunk back to his old voluptuous indolence. And thus it happened in the course of time, and by the progress of misgovern- * Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 74. f Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xii. 1744. campaign in Germans1. 181 ment, that the surname of le bien-aim^, which he justly obtained from such signal marks of popular affection, has become a byword of derision whenever coupled with his name. " The French King," says Chesterfield only eight years afterwards, " is both hated and despised, which " seldom happens to the same man." * During the King's illness at Metz there came a di version to Alsace, still more effectual than he could have afforded had he remained in health. Frederick of Prussia had for some time viewed with jealousy the rapid successes and reviving power of the Austrians, and apprehended that, a restoration of Silesia would become the aim of their ambition. He had, indeed, pledged himself to Maria Theresa, both by public treaties and private promises, but his liberal mind was emancipated from any such narrow prejudices as to speak the truth or to keep his word. Be- solved to renew hostilities, he had lately negotiated at Frankfort an engagement with the Emperor, and now broke into Bohemia at the head of 60,000 soldiers, while Moravia was invaded by another division of his army. On the 16th of September he reduced Prague, after a ten days' siege, making the garrison, no less than 15,000 men, prisoners of war. Encouraged by his example, the Im perial troops, under Marshal Seckendorf, entered Bavaria, drove a diminished force of Austrians before them, and once more reinstated Charles the Seventh in his capital, and in the greater part of his Electorate, Even the city of Vienna began to tremble at and provide against a siege. But on the very first movements of" the King of Prussia, Prince Charles had been hastily summoned from his con quest of Alsace ; he repassed the Bhine with skill and with safety in the presence of a superior enemy, and led his army by forced marches to the frontiers of Bohemia, him self proceeding to Vienna to concert the military opera- tions.-)" Maria Theresa, on her part, again repaired to * Earl of Chesterfield to Mr. Dayrolles, May 19. 1752. X See a curious letter on the state of the war, from Sir Thomas Robinson, dated September 16. 1 744, and printed in my Appendix. The King of Prussia, on beginning hostilities, published a letter or address to the people of England : " a poor performance ! " says Horace Walpole. " His Voltaires and his Literati should correct his N 3 182 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. Presburg, again appealed, and not in vain, to the chival rous loyalty of the Hungarians ; roused the gallant nobles to renewed exertions in her cause, and saw tumultuous but intrepid levies crowd beneath her banner. By these, and by Prince Charles's troops combined, the Prussian conquests were speedily retrieved ; and, before the winter, Frederick found himself compelled to evacuate as speedily as he had overrun Bohemia. The campaign in Italy was marked by several im portant events. The French, headed by the Lnfant Don Philip, and by the Prince de Conti, not only conquered Savoy, but reduced Nice, forced several mountain passes, and routed the King of Sardinia in person at the bloody battle of Coni. On the other hand the Austrians, under Prince Lobkowitz,' drove the Spanish troops from their strong position at Bimini, and pursued them towards the frontier of Naples with every prospect of defeating them. At this critical moment, however, the King of Naples broke his neutrality, and joined the Spaniards with some forces. The Austrians, though out-numbered, not dismayed, formed a gallant scheme, resembling Prince Eugene's at Cremona, to surprise the Neapolitan King and Generals at the head-quarters at Velletri ; and their first column successfully penetrated into the place, set fire to the suburbs, and spread no slight consternation among the Spanish army; but reinforcements coming up, they were finally repulsed with considerable slaughter. They then commenced their retreat towards the Po, and closed the campaign in nearly the same positions as at its com mencement.* This year England obtained, as captives, the two prin cipal, promoters of the war, the Mareschal de Belleisle and his brother. They had been sent in the autumn, by the King of France, on a mission to the King of Prussia, but stopping to change horses at Elbingerode, a village of the Electorate of Hanover, were detained by the magis trates. From thence they were conveyed to England, and, " works before they are printed. To pen manifestoes worse than the " lowest commis that is kept jointly by two or three Margraves, is " insufferable." To Sir H. Mann, August 16. 1744. ;* Muratori, Annal. dTtal. vol. xii. p. 308—316. .1744. DEATH OF THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. 183 refusing to give their parole in the mode it was required, were confined for security in Windsor Castle. The Em peror complained of their arrest as a breach of the privi leges of the Empire ; the prisoners, themselves, claimed the benefit of the cartel of exchange; and the British Government was inclined to consider them as prisoners, not of war but of state. The question was referred by the King to his three Field Marshals, Stair, Cobham, and Wade, who, after a due examination of Belleisle's papers and commissions, gave it as their opinion that Belleisle and his brother were prisoners of war ; and they were accordingly released under the cartel, and sent back to France, after several months' detention * : but we must acknowledge that in this transaction, the British Govern ment appears neither rightful in its claims, nor speedy in its justice. On the same day, in the month of October, died the Countess of Granville and the Duchess Dowager of Marl borough. The former event is only remarkable for the succession to her title of her son, Lord Carteret, who must henceforth be mentioned as Earl- Granville. Sarah of Marlborough was nearly a nonagenarian, surviving both enemies and friends : her rival, the Duchess of Buck ingham, had died in the preceding year ; her satirist, Pope, only five months before. To her last, she was pre cisely the Attosa of his masterly delineation : — " cursed " with every granted prayer ; childless with all her chil- " dren ;" she appeared a living proof that riches cannot surely bestow happiness, nor offspring always inspire- affection. Much as she hated all those who had ever crossed her own or her husband's path, .her fiercest ran cour, perhaps, was reserved for some of her own descend ants ; nor did her gratitude for kindness at all keep pace1 with her resentment of injuries. , It may be doubted whether her dogs, of whom she speaks with peculiar ten derness and respect, did not at last engross the larger portion of her heartf Her enormous wealth, as during^ » Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 107. and 136. t " My three dogs have all of themgratitude, wit, and good sense, *' things very rare to be found in this country. They are fond of " going out with me, but when I reason with them, and tell them it " is not proper, they submit, and watch for my coining home, and sr 4 184 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. her life it had indulged her in every caprice of tyranny, enabled her, in her Will, not only to endow her favourite grandson, John Spencer (Earl Spencer's ancestor), but to mark, by large legacies, her admiration of several leading opponents of the Ministry. To Lord Chesterfield she be queathed 20,000?., and the reversion of the Wimbledon estate * ; to Pitt 10,000?., in consideration of " the noble " defence he has made for the support of the laws of Eng- " land, and to prevent the ruin of his country." f The new Earl Granville was now in the very crisis of < his Ministerial fate. His unscrupulous support of all Hanoverian measures had lost him his reputation, both in Parliament and with the people, in the same degree as it had secured the boundless favour of the King. His Majesty's regard to Granville was at this time still fur ther enhanced by his displeasure with the other Ministers ; who, in the first place, had opposed his undertaking an other journey to Hanover, and induced him, much against his inclination, to remain this year in England. He said to one of the Foreign ambassadors at his Court, that the people here were angry at his going to Hanover, when they all went out of town to their country-seats ; but that it was unjust, for Hanover was his country-seat, and he had no other.J Secondly, they were unwilling to sup port His Majesty in new payments to other German principalities. On one occasion he exclaimed to the Chancellor, " I wish Saxony could be assisted with a sum " of money ! " " Upon this," writes Lord Hardwicke, " I took the liberty to observe that the large additional " subsidy which His Majesty had already granted to the " Queen of Hungary, was an additional reason against " the practicability of this Saxon demand. The King " made no reply, but pulled some papers out of his pocket; " so I made my bow ! " § But the Eoyal displeasure was " meet me with as much joy as if I had never given them good " advice." Opinions of the Duchess of Marlborough, 1737, p. 15. * Maty's Life, p. 228. t Thackeray's Life, vol i. p. 137. X Marchmont Papers, vol. i. p. 54. His Majesty appears to have overlooked Hampton Court and Windsor Castle. § To the Duke of Newcastle, August 6. 1744. Coxe's Pelham. 1744, CABALS IN THE CABINET. 185 soon more unequivocally manifested. " Our refusal," says Newcastle, " in the Saxon affair, has produced all the " resentment that can be shown by manner, by looks, by " harsh expressions to those, and to me in particular, " who he thinks have obstructed his views .... And I " think I can see by the air of the Court and the courtiers, «' a greater shyness towards us, or at least towards me, " than I have ever yet observed. . . ; Upon the whole, I '* am of opinion that the King thinks, at present, he has " nothing more to hope from us, and nothing to fear ; " that we will go on with his favourite, Lord Carteret, " and he will use us accordingly." * Granville on his part, conscious of far superior talents, elated with the Eoyal favour f, and drunk with ambition and wine, continued to treat the Pelhams with haughty disdain. He had even frankly told them, a few months before, that he should insist on a larger share of power. " Things," said he, " cannot remain as they are. I will " not submit to be overruled and outvoted upon every " point by four to one. If you will take the Government " upon you, you may ; but if you cannot, or will not, there " must be some direction, and I will do it." J Under these circumstances, but not without considerable hesita tion, the love of power in the brothers triumphed over their timidity, and impelled them to decisive measures. Early in November they declared to the King, for them selves, and for the greater part of their colleagues, that His Majesty must choose between their resignations and the dismissal of Lord Granville. The alternative, as they foresaw, was most painful. On the one side lay the King's inclinations, on the other his necessities : Hanover with Granville, the House of Commons with Pelham. How could he venture, while requiring large subsidies for his German objects, to alienate the money -giving part of the Legislature, and convert its leaders from placemen * Duke of Newcastle to Mr. Pelham. August 25. 1744. X " Lord Granville's maxim was, ' Give any man the Crown on his " ' side and he can defy every thing.' Winnington asked him, ' If that " ' were true, how he came to be Minister ? ' " H. Walpole to Sir H; Mann, November 26. 1744. X Coxe's Life of Horace Lord Walpole, p. 269. '186 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. into patriots ? Yet George made every resistance in his power, consulted with Granville how to avert the storm, and sent for Lord Orford, who was sick at Houghton, entreating him to come to London, and give his advice and assistance. Nay, at this crisis, he even received as sistance from the Prince of Wales, who agreed with his father only on one point, devotion to Hanover, and who rightly considered Granville as the victim of his Electoral zeal. But Frederick had httle weight even with his own party : the advice of Orford was strongly against Gran ville ; the latter failed in his overtures to the Opposition chiefs ; and, thus compelled, the King, on the 23d of No vember, announced to the Chancellor his sullen submis sion. Accordingly, next day the Seals were resigned by Granville, and given back to his predecessor, the Earl of Harrington.* With Granville retired Lord Winchelsea and his Board of Admiralty, and other persons of inferior note, which, together with some cyphers and secret enemies to be flung out, left sufficient vacancies for a large accession of new strength. The object of the Pelhams was now to guard against the return of their rival, and to facihtate their Government in the House of Commons, by a coalition of parties. They accordingly opened a negotiation with the principal men in Opposition, especially with Chesterfield, Gower, and Pitt. So well pleased were these at the fall of the '•' sole and execrable Minister," that they expressed their readiness to assist in maintaining the honour of Great Britain, and carrying on the war upon a practicable footing. It was agreed that they should unite against Granville and Bath ; that as to public questions, the Hanoverians in British pay should be relinquished ; and that, as to personal points, the heads of Opposition, whe ther Whig or Tory, should so far as possible be admitted into place. * See Mr. Yorke's Journal, Pari. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 975—983. He calls Granville " this hunted Minister, at present an outcast from " all parties." The King ascribed the whole blame to Newcastle, who, in His Majesty's own words, " is grown as jealous of Lord Gran- " ville as he had been of Lord Orford, and wants to be Prime " Minister, which, a puppy ! how should he be ? " H Walpole to Sir H. Mann, Nov. 26. 1744. 1744. CHESTERFIELD AND PITT. 187. During this time the Parliament had met, when there' appeared a dead calm in both Houses, and in consequence, of it a very thin attendance. The leaders had imposed silence on their party ; but this interval of apparent tran quillity was filled up by active negotiations and con ferences among themselves. But here, again, the utmost difficulties were encountered from the King's personal , aversion, especially to Lord Chesterfield and Mr. Pitt. His Majesty warmly resented the zeal of both against his Hanoverian objects, nor had he forgotten Chesterfield's connection with the Duchess of Kendal, and claims under the Will of George the First.* He was also — ahd it must be owned not unreasonably — displeased at the prospect that an undoubted adherent of the exiled family,, like Sir . John Hinde Cotton, should be forced into the nominal service of his own.-f The repugnance of George prevailed in a few cases ; in most others it was surmounted by the necessity of his affairs, he exclaiming with bitterness, " Ministers are the " King in this country ! " J As the Tories continued to insist on some place for Cotton, as the condition of their support, he was appointed Treasurer of the Chamber in the Eoyal Household. Lord Gower resumed the Privy Seal ; and, according to the elder Horace Walpole, " several other " Tories, knights of the shire, were offered places by the " mediation of Gower, but serving for Jacobite counties " could not hazard a new election, and therefore declined " the offer, of which they have since made a merit with " their party. This made room for more of the patriot " kind." § The King's objections to Chesterfield were so far complied with, that the Earl consented to be Lord Lieutenant of Lreland instead of Secretary of State ; the * See vol. ii. p. 111. f A caricature was circulated, representing the Ministers thrusting Sir John Hinde Cotton, who was extremely corpulent, down the King's throat. (Coxe's Life of Horace Lord Walpole, p. 276.) It would seem that political caricatures were much in vogue, in England, at that period ; two very curious ones are mentioned in a letter of Earl Marischal, of November 4. 1743. See Appendix. . X Notes of Conversation between the King and Lord Chancellor. Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 202. § To Mr. Trevor, December 28. 1744. 188 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. former post not requiring, and indeed precluding, his fre quent access to the Eoyal presence. The Duke of Devon shire, the devoted friend of Walpole, and often called by him " the rough diamond," * became Lord Steward. The Duke of Bedford was made First Lord of the Admiralty, with the Earl of Sandwich as second Commissioner. A seat at the same board, for George Grenville, gratified his uncle Lord Cobham. In the room of Lord Sandys, Lord Bathurst, and Sir John Eushout, stepped in Waller, Dodington, and Lord Hobart, while a Lordship of the Treasury was conferred on Lyttleton. Pitt alone was placeless. He loftily declared that he would accept no office, except that of Secretary at War, and the Ministers were not yet able to dispense with Sir William Yonge in that department. This resolution of Pitt, joined to the King's pertinacity against him, excluded him, for the present, from any share of power. But the Pelhams felt his importance, and anxiously courted his aid. They promised to take the earliest opportunity to soften or subdue the prejudice against him which rankled in the Eoyal mind ; and they were sincere in that promise. Their great object was to prevent the return of Granville to office ; their great dread, that Granville might form a party in the Lower House : and it was, therefore, their evident policy to attempt no deception, and to give no offence to any Commoner, so able and aspiring as Pitt. On the other hand, Pitt cheerfully concurred in the new arrangements ; he resigned his place in the Household of the Prince, who had fallen into great contempt, by cling ing, like the King, but against his own former professions, to Hanover and Granville ; and he undertook to support the Ministerial measures in the House of Commons. An opportunity for Pitt's public declaration was afforded in the January ensuing, when Sir William Yonge moved a grant for continuing the army in Flanders ; a grant which the patriots had heretofore strenuously opposed. Pitt, at this time, was disabled with gout, and painfully, nay dangerously ill ; yet he desired to be carried to his place, and, rising upon his crutches, spoke with undiminished eloquence and fire. " If," said he, " this were to be tho * H. Walpole's Memoirs of George the Second, vol. i. p. 170. 1745. PITT RECONCILED, 189 " last day of my life, I would spend it in the House of " Commons, since I judge the condition of my country to " be worse than even that of my own health." He argued, that the question was changed since the preceding year, when a certain fatal influence prevailed in His Majesty's councils. The object seemed then to multiply war upon war, expense upon expense, and to abet the House of Austria in such romantic attempts, as the recovery of the avulsa membra imperh, without regard to the immediate interest of Great Britain. " The object now is," he con tinued, " to enable ourselves by a close connection with " Holland, to hold out equitable terms of peace, both to " friends and foes, without continuing the war a moment " longer than is necessary for our own rights and those of " our allies. We are now free of that Minister, who, " when not ten men in the nation were disposed to follow " him, supported himself in the Closet, on that broken " reed, a dependence on foreign Princes." He then pro ceeded to compliment Mr.Pelham on his genuine patriotism and capacity for business, and the new Ministry, for pur suing moderate and healing measures. " I perceive," he exclaimed, " a dawn of salvation in my country breaking " forth, and I will follow it as far as it will lead me. I " should, indeed, consider myself as the greatest dupe in " the world, if those now at the helm did not mean the " honour of their master, and the good of the nation. If " I find myself deceived, nothing will be left but to act " with an honest despair '" A Member present, no friend of Pitt, declares that " his fulminating eloquence silenced " all opposition," and the question passed with only a single negative from Lord Strange.* Indeed, so thoroughly were the leading members, whether Tory or Patriot, reconciled by the recent changes, that the Ministers might boast to the King, " If your " Majesty looks round the House of Commons, you will " find no man of business, or even of weight, left, capable * For this remarkable debate see Mr. Yorke's Journal (Pari. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 1052.) and Mr. Cornabe's letter, January 25. 1745, in my Appendix. Sir Watkin Wynn also spoke for the question, saying, that he agreed with the Court for the first time in his life. On the other hand, Sir R. Newdigate drily called it " an old measure " from a new Ministry :" but he was put down by Pitt. 190 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. " of heading or conducting an Opposition." * And though some change occurred in that respect, yet still, from this period to the death of Mr. Pelham, in 1754, the Opposition was so feeble, that the debates in Parliament dwindled almost to insignificance ; they made far less impression on the people, and should fill a much briefer space in History. Thus, for example, the remainder of the Session of 1745 was marked by no important division, and produced only some proceedings on the conduct of the Admirals in the Mediterranean; a silly motion of Mr. Carew for Annual Parliaments ; and an attack upon the City Act of 1725 f, which was repelled this year, but to which Mr. Pelham prudently yielded in the next. It must, however, be acknowledged, that no sooner had Granville fallen, than the Ministers readily shd into what they had previously denounced as " his abominable courtly " measures." J The Hanoverian system was as steadily pursued, the English money as lavishly supplied. All ob jection to the King's favourite wish at this moment — a new Saxon subsidy — disappeared, as soon as the Minister who urged it was removed. In January, 1745, a Quad ruple Alliance was concluded between England, Holland, Austria, and Saxony ; by which, the latter power engaged to furnish 30,000 men for the defence of Bohemia, in con sideration of a subsidy of 150,000/., two thirds of this to be paid by England, and one third by Holland. But the system of German subsidies did not end here ; such ex amples are contagious ; and there was scarcely a Prince in the Empire, who did not, henceforth, think himself entitled to the praise and pay of Great Britain, even when he only defended his own dominions. The Elector of Cologne was gratified with 24,000?. ; another sum of 8,000?. was not too small to tempt the Elector of Mayence. All these, as well as an increased subsidy of half a million * Notes of conversation between the King and Lord Chancellor. January 5. 1745. f See vol. ii. p. 76. X An expression of the Duke of Newcastle. See Coxe's Lord Walpole of Wolterton, p. 377. The Duke, with a faint eft'ort at consistency, writes to his brother, December 30. 1744, " We must not, " because we seem to be in, forget all we said to keep Lord Granville " out ! " 1745. THE GERMAN SUBSIDIES. 191 to the Queen of Hungary, being supported by the patriots, were readily passed by the British Parliament. With respect to the Hanoverian and Hessian mer cenaries, they were indeed dismissed the British service, but by a private agreement with the Queen of Hungary, they were immediately taken into Austrian pay ; and it was with this very view, that her subsidy had been raised from 300,000?. to 500,000?. The only difference was therefore, that, in the first case, the same foreign troops were paid by British money directly, and in the second case, indirectly. Nay, more ; when the outcry against the Hanoverians had died away, the Ministers, knowing that popular clamour can scarce ever be effectually revived upon the same subject, reverted to their former plan. In 1746, 18,000 Hanoverians were once more taken into British pay, and the new Parliament of the ensuing year voted 22,000. In all these measures, a strong case of inconsistency may unquestionably be established against the statesmen who, having first vehemently opposed, afterwards brought forward or acquiesced in them. My admiration of Chat ham does not lead me to assert the perfection, though it does the purity, of his whole political career. Yet, with respect to the Hanover forces, voted after 1745, we should remember that the rebellion, which had manifested the strength of discontent and the want of troops at home, placed their engagement on a new foundation of ex perience, and afforded far more justifiable grounds for their support. The new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, before proceeding to his Government, consented to undertake another em bassy to the Hague, to endeavour to bring the Dutch into a more hearty co-operation in the war. In this object every preceding negotiator had failed ; Chesterfield in a great measure succeeded. His knowledge of Dutch po litics and statesmen, derived from his former mission, the high reputation which he had then left behind, joined to his insinuating manners and skilful address, in a few weeks prevailed over the greatest obstacles.* The Dutch were * See an account of his proceeding, with the French envoy, Abb,e de la Ville, in a letter to his son, September 29. 1752. See alsp Maty's Life; p. 236—243. 192 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVL brought to undertake, upon paper, that they would main tain 50,000 men in the field, besides 10,000 in their garri sons ; and that the Duke of Cumberland, who was to be put at the head of the British forces in the next campaign, should be appointed commander-in-chief of the whole con federate army. And though the Dutch, in reality, did much less than they had promised, it was yet much more than, from past experience, their British allies had any reason to expect. In March 1745, and before the close of the Session, Bobert Walpole, Earl of Orford, expired. The cause of his death was partly the stone, partly a quack medicine which he took to cure it. To the last, amidst severe bodily pain, which he bore with high fortitude and re signation, his mind retained all its wonted sagacity and clearness. Only a few days before he died, the Duke of Cumberland, having in vain remonstrated with the King against a marriage being concluded for him with a de formed Danish Princess, sent his governor, Mr. Poyntz, to consult Lord Orford how to avoid so hateful an alliance. After reflecting a few moments, Orford advised that the Duke should give his consent to the marriage, on con dition of receiving an ample and immediate establishment ; " and believe me," added he, " that the match will be no " longer pressed." The Duke followed the advice, and the result fulfilled the prediction. In January, the same year, one principal obstacle to peace was removed in the Emperor Charles the Seventh, who died at Munich, worn down by disasters as much as by infirmities.* His son and successor in his hereditary states concluded a treaty at Fuessen, with the Queen of Hungary, by which the new Elector renounced all claims to the Austrian succession, engaged to recall his troops from the French army, and promised his vote for the Duke of Lorraine in the next Imperial Diet ; while Maria Theresa acknowledged the vahdity of the late Emperor's * '" II n'avait ete malheurenx que depuis qu'il avait ete Empereur. " La nature des-lors lui avait fait pins de mal que la fortune. " H avait la goutte et la pierre ; on trouva ses poumons, son foie et *' son estomac gangrenes, des pierres dans ses reins, un polype dans " son cffiur ! " (Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xiv.) 1745. BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 193 election, and restored all the territory which she had con quered from Bavaria. In April, the campaign was opened on the side of Flanders, where the French had an army of 76,000 ex cellent troops, commanded by the Mareschal de Saxe. As to the Allies, England had furnished her full contingent of 28,000 men, but Holland less than half of the 50,000 she had stipulated ; there were but eight Austrian squadrons, and the whole body scarcely exceeded 50,000 fighting men. The nominal leader was the young Duke of Cum berland, but subject in a great measure to the control of an Austrian veteran, Marshal Konigsegg, and obliged to consult the Dutch commander, Prince de Waldeck. Against these inferior numbers and divided councils the French advanced in full confidence of victory, and, after various movements to distract the attention of the Allies, suddenly, on the 1st of May, invested Tournay. This was one of the strongest fortresses in Flanders, well provided with stores and provisions of every kind, and garrisoned by no less than 9000 Dutch. To relieve this important city, immediately became the principal object with the Allies ; and the States, usually so cautious, nay, timorous in their suggestions, were now as eager in demanding battle. Ac cordingly, the Duke of Cumberland, who had but lately arrived at the Hague from England, set out again for Brussels, and after a few days passed in preparations, put himself at the head of his troops and led them towards the enemy. On the other hand, the Mareschal de Saxe made most skilful dispositions to receive them. Leaving 15,000 infantry to cover the blockade of Tournay, he drew up the rest of his army, a few miles further, in an excellent po sition, which he strengthened with numerous works; and his soldiers were inspirited by the arrival of the King and Dauphin, who had hastened from Paris to join in the ex pected action. The three Allied Generals, on advancing against the French, found them encamped on some gentle heights, with the village of Antoin and the river Scheldt on their right, Fontenoy and a narrow valley in their front, and a small wood, named Barre on their left. The passage of the Scheldt, and, if needful, a retreat, were secured by the bridge of Calonne in the rear, by a tete de pont, and vol. ar. o 194 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI. by a reserve of the Household Troops. Abbatis were constructed in the wood of Barre ; redoubts between An toin and Fontenoy ; and the villages themselves had been carefully fortified and garrisoned. The narrow space be tween Fontenoy and Barre seemed sufficiently defended by cross fires, and by the natural ruggedness of the ground : in short, as the French officers thought, the strength of the position might bid defiance to the boldest assailant. Nevertheless, the Allied chiefs, who had already resolved on a general engagement, drove in the French piquets and outposts on the 10th of May, New Style, and issued orders for their intended attack at daybreak. The night was passed by all the troops under arms : ours, daunted neither by the strong position nor superior num bers of the enemy, but full of that calm self-reliance, that unboastful resolution, which are scarce ever found want ing in British soldiers. They have, truly indeed, that fear-nought feehng ascribed to them by a General who had often led them forward in former wars. When, in 1714, Cobham and Stanhope went together on an embassy to Vienna, a body of 10,000 excellent cavalry — deemed the best in Europe — was reviewed before them by Prince Eugene ; who, turning to Stanhope, asked him, " 1£ he " thought that any 10,000 British horse could beat those " Austrians ?" " I cannot tell, Sir," answered the General, " whether they could or not, but I know that five thousand " would try ! " * At six o'clock on the morning of the 11th, the cannonade began. The Prince of Waldeck, and his Dutch, under took to carry Antoin and Fontenoy by assault, while the Duke of Cumberland, at the head of the British and Hanoverians, was to advance against the enemy's left. His Eoyal Highness, at the same time with his own attack, sent General Ingoldsby, with a division, to pierce through the wood of Barre, and. storm the redoubt beyond it. But * This reply has sometimes been ascribed to Sir C. H Williams, Sir A. Mitchell, or others, at the Court of Frederick the Second. But the much earlier and respectable authority of Dr. King fixes it beyond all question, on " the English officer who accompanied Lord " Cobham in his embassy to Vienna," that is, General Stanhope. (See King's Anecdotes of his own Time, p. 130. and the first voL of this History, p. 115.) 1745. BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 195 Ingoldsby, finding the wood occupied by some sharp-shoot ers, which he mistook for a considerable body, hesitated — disobeyed his positive orders — and returned to the Duke for fresh instructions ; thus incurring an irreparable loss of time to the army, of honour to himself. On the other wing likewise, the Dutch were repulsed in their attacks, suffering so severely from the fire of the numerous bat teries, that they retired in confusion to some distance from the field, where they remained sluggish and unmoved spectators of the remaining conflict. Nay, more ; one of their Colonels ( Appius was his name) rode away with the greater part of his men, some 15 or 20 miles, to Ath ; and from thence, with an impudent folly equal to his coward ice, wrote a letter to the States, informing them that the Allied army had engaged the French, and been totally cut to pieces, except that part which he had prudently brought off safe ! * While Ingoldsby and the Dutch were thus failing in duty, the British and Hanoverians had not forgotten theirs: These gallant troops, leaving their cavalry in the rear, from the ruggedness of the ground, but dragging forwards several field pieces, plunged down the ravine between Fontenoy and Barre, and marched on against a position which the best Marshals of France had deemed im pregnable, and which the best troops of that nation de fended. At their head was William of Cumberland, con spicuous for his courage, and whose want of experience was supplied by an excellent officer — his military tutor — General Ligonier. The French and Swiss Guards stood before their front, and offered every resistance that brave men could make ; while whole ranks of the British were swept away, at once, by the murderous fire of the batteries on their left and right. Still did their column, diminish ing in numbers not in spirit, steadily press forward, re pulse several desperate attacks of the French infantry, and gain ground on its position. Soon did they begin to retaliate upon the enemy the terrible slaughter they had themselves experienced. One of the first that fell dead * Mr. Yorke to H. Walpole, May 16. 1745. See Appendix. This regiment, though in the Dutch pay, was not of their country, but of Hesse Homburg. o 2 196 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVT. in the French ranks was the young Duke de Grammont, the same whose imprudent valour had hazarded and lost the day at Dettingen. At his side, when he fell, was his uncle De Noailles, an older Marshal than De Saxe, but who would not refuse to serve in any capacity that his King and country required; and who, in this battle, assisted his junior commander with all the skill of a veteran, with all the submission of an aide-de-camp.* The space between Fontenoy and the wood of Barre was so narrow, that the British, as much from necessity as choice, remained in a close and serried column. This mass — firm, solid, and compact, and all animated by the same spirit as though it formed but a single living frame, as though one mighty Leviathan of war — bore down every thiDg before it with irresistible impulse. The news of the Dutch retreat, indeed, and of Ingoldsby's return, struck a momentary damp upon their spirits, but was speedily re paired. Again did the British soldiers stand proudly on the French positions they had won, while charge after charge of the best French cavalry was urged at them in vain. Nay, they even continued to press forward in the rear of Fontenoy, threatening to cut off the communication of the enemy with the bridge of Calonne, and, therefore, his passage of the river. The battle appeared to be de cided : already did Marshal Konigsegg offer his con gratulations to the Duke of Cumberland ; already had Mareschal de Saxe prepared for retreat, and, in repeated messages, urged the King to consult his safety and with draw, while it was yet time, beyond the Scheldt. But Louis, with a spirit which could not forsake even the most effeminate descendant of Henri Quatre, as repeatedly re fused to quit the field. " If," says a French historian, " the Dutch had now put themselves in movement, and "joined the English, there would have been no resource, " nay, no retreat for the French army, nor, in all pro- " bability, for the King and for his son." ] The French Marshal now determined to make one last effort to retrieve the day. The inactivity of the Dutch enabled him to call away the forces that held Fontenoy * Mem. de Noailles, vol, vi. p. 112. f Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xv. 1745. BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 197 and Antoin : he drew together the Household Troops, the whole reserve, and every other man that he could muster, but foremost of all were the gallant Brigade of Irish exiles. Moreover, by the advice of the Duke de Bichelieu, — the destined conqueror of Minorca — he placed and levelled a battery, of four pieces of cannon, against the very front of the advancing British column. A fierce and decisive onset ensued. The British, exhausted by their own ex ertions, mowed down by the artillery in front, and assailed by the fresh troops in flank, were overpowered. Their column wavered — broke — fell back. Yet, still there was neither cowardice nor confusion in their ranks, and their retreat was made slowly, step by step, with their face to their foes, and winning the highest admiration, even from those to whom they yielded. The Duke of Cumberland was the last in the retreat, as he had been foremost in the charge. He called to the troops, aloud, bidding them re member Blenheim and Eamiliies ; and seeing one of his officers running off, His Boyal Highness drew a pistol against him. The cavalry too, which had been unable to take part in the conflict, from the rugged nature of the ground, now came up and proved of essential service in protecting the further retreat. In this guise did they leave the field, and then, in conjunction with the Dutch, fall back to the ramparts of Ath.* In this battle of Fontenoy (for such is the name it has borne), the British left behind a few pieces of artillery, but no standards, and scarce any prisoners but the wounded. The loss in these, and in killed, was given out as 4041 British, 1762 Hanoverians, and only 1544 Dutch; while, on their part the French likewise acknowledged above 7000. To the Allies, it should be deemed an abortive enterprise or a half- won victory — a disappointment rather than a defeat. The misconduct of the Dutch needs no comment ; of the British officers it might, perhaps, be said that they showed, throughout, more courage than capacity. But, amongst the French, the highest praise is due to the * For this battle see especially the official account in the Gazette Coxe's Pelham, vol.i. p. 232—235 — Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xv. — two letters printed in the Culloden Papers, p. 200 — 203., and two others from Mr. Yorke to Mr. Walpole, May 4. and 16. 1745, O. S. which will be found in the Appendix. o 3 198 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVI, Mareschal de Saxe. In him, it was but a feeble tie that bound together a sickly body with a fiery and invincible soul. At this period, so much was he wasted with sick ness that he could scarcely travel ; and Voltaire, who met him at Paris, avowed to him some apprehensions that, if he persisted in setting out, he would never live to reach the army. " The object now," replied the Marshal, " is ".not to live, but to go ! " When he had arrived, he was unable to bear the weight of a breast-place : he sometimes sunk from his horse, and then was carried forward in an osier litter ; but his genius triumphed over its earthly trammels : to him went every report — from him came every order ; and his eagle glance (as was eloquently said of Conde's *) saw through every thing in battle, and was never dazzled there. After the battle, the siege of Tournay might still have delayed the French army some considerable time ; but the treachery of the principal engineer, who deserted to the enemy, and the timidity of other officers in the garrison, produced a surrender of the city in a fortnight, of the citadel in another week.-f The important citadel of Ghent was next invested ; a detachment sent to reinforce the garrison, and headed by the Hanoverian General Molk, was worsted in a skirmish at Mele ; and the besieged capitulated. Equal success crowned similar attempts on Bruges, on Oudenarde, and on Dendermond, while the Allies could only act on the defensive, and cover Brussels and Antwerp. The French next directed their arms against Ostend, which, notwithstanding the arrival of two battalions from England in the harbour, yielded in four teen days ; the Dutch governor refusing to avail himself of the means of defence which the place afforded, by in undating the adjacent country. Meanwhile, the events in Scotland were compelling the British Government to with draw the greater part of their force ; and it was only the approach of winter, and the retreat of both armies into quarters, that obtained a brief respite for the remaining fortresses of Flanders. * " Ce coup-d'ceil d'aigle qui voit tout a la guerre et ne s'y eblonit 'jamais." De Eetz, Mem. vol. i. p. 154. ed. 1817. t Mr. Yorke to Mr. Walpole, May 27. 1745. See Appendix. 1745. PEACE SIGNED AT DRESDEN. 199 King George, in spite of all remonstrances, had repaired to Hanover at the close of the Session, attended by Lord Harrington, who laboured, but at first very ineffectually, to mediate a peace between Prussia and Austria. Maria Theresa had formed sanguine hopes of the reconquest of Silesia, and had sent thither a large army under Prince Charles of Lorraine. The genius of Frederick, however, gained a signal victory over him at Friedberg, on the 3d of June.* In the ensuing September, another battle at Sohr, near the sources of the Elbe, proved equally in fa vour of the Prussians. But some compensation appeared to Maria Theresa for this last disaster, since in the same month her husband was chosen Emperor at Frankfort, by all the Electoral votes except the Palatine and Branden burg. She was present at the ceremony ; and from her balcony, was the first to raise the cry " Long live the " Emperor Francis the First ! " a cry eagerly re-echoed by ten thousand glad voices below. From Frankfort she proceeded to visit her army at Heidelberg, amounting to 60,000 men: she was received by the Emperor himself, at the head of the troops, and passed between the lines, raising the highest enthusiasm by her beauty, her affa bility, and a donation which she directed of one florin to each soldier. Meanwhile the King of Prussia, in spite of his victories, was jealous of the progress of the French in Flanders, and sincerely desirous of peace. The Empress still rejected his overtures ; but another battle which he gained over the Austrians and Saxons, combined, near Dresden, and which gave him possession of that city, overcame her hesitation, and a treaty was signed at Dres den on Christmas Day, confirming to Frederick the pos session of Silesia, and, on the other hand, acknowledging on his part the recent Imperial election. In Italy the campaign proved as disastrous as in Flan ders. A French and Spanish army, again pouring down from the Alps, and headed by Don Phihp and Mareschal * Frederick had very shortly before received from Louis the Fifteenth a notification of the battle in Flanders, and answered him in the following terms : " Monsieur mon frere, J'ai acquitte a Fried- " berg la lettre de change que vous avez tiree sur moi a Fontenoy."- (Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xvi.) o 4 200 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVL de Maillebois, was reinforced by Count de Gages, and his troops, across the Apennines. They were still further strengthened by 10,000 men from Genoa ; a state deeply aggrieved by the cession of Finale under the treaty of Worms. These combined troops forced the passage of the Tanaro, and routed the King of Sardinia, compelling him to seek shelter under the walls of his capital. It was in vain that the British fleet, now commanded by Admiral Bowley, endeavoured to effect a diversion, by battering and burning some towns on the Genoese coast. Don Philip, advancing to Milan in triumph, received the homage of the neighbouring cities ; and the Queen of Spain already saw, in imagination, the Crown of Lombardy encircle the brow of her second son.* From America, at least, there came joyful tidings. The people of New England had formed a design for reducing Louisburg, the capital of Cape Breton, a French port of great importance, and sometimes termed the Dunkirk of America. -j" The King's Government afforded its assistance to the enterprise. Early in the spring, about 4000 volun teers assembled at Boston : they were reinforced by a body of marines, and supported by Admiral Warren, with a squadron of ten ships of war. For their commander they chose Mr. Pepperel, a private gentleman, in whom courage and sagacity supplied the place of military skill. Land ing with very slight loss in the bay of Chapeau Bouge, or as called by a local corruption Gabarus, about four miles from Louisbourg, they invested the place by land while the fleet blockaded the harbour. The walls were newly repaired and the garrison mustered 1200 men, and a resolute resistance was encountered; but, nevertheless, on the 15th of June, after forty-nine days' siege, the town and the whole island were compelled to surrender to the British arms. * Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. iii. p. 366. -j- Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 156. 1745. PRINCE CHARLES AT PARIS. 201 CHAPTEE XXVTL We are now arrived at that memorable period when the cause of the banished Stuarts flashed with brilliant lustre, then sunk- into eternal darkness — when the landing of seven men could shake an empire — when the wildest dreams of fiction were surpassed by the realities of history — when a principle of loyalty, mistaken indeed, but generous, and noble, impelled to such daring deeds, and was followed by such utter ruin — when so many gallant spirits, lately exulting in hope or forward in action, were quenched in violent death, or wasted in the lingering agonies of exile.* The spring of 1745 found the young Pretender still at Paris, harassed by the discords of his own adherents, and weary of leaning on a broken reed — the friendship of Louis the Fifteenth. Since the failure at Dunkirk, the French professions of assistance were continued, but the reality had wholly disappeared. It seems that several Protestant Princes — the King of Prussia more especially * Of the rebellion of 1745 there are three separate histories, which I have consulted and found of great service. First, Mr. Home's, published in 1802 ; it is meagre, unsatisfactory, and by no means worthy the author of Douglas, but it contains several valuable facts and letters. Secondly, Sir Walter Scott's, in the Tales of a Grand father — an excellent and perspicuous narrative, but which, being written for his little grandson, is, of course, not always as well adapted to older persons. Thirdly, Mr. Chambers's — very full and exact. The writer, though a warm partisan of the Stuarts, is always fair and candid, and deserves much praise for his industry in collecting the remaining local traditions. 202 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVII. — had remonstrated against the support which France was giving to the Eoman Catholic party in Great Britain*, and that most of the French Ministers shrunk from offending their continental allies, while others wished every effort to be concentrated for Flanders. Even the Lrish Brigade, though consisting of Charles's own country men and partisans, was not reserved for his service. Even a httle money, for his immediate wants, could only be obtained after repeated solicitation and long delay. Yet Charles's high spirit endured. He writes to his father : " I own one must have a great stock of patience to " bear all the ill usage I have from the French Court, " and the tracasseries of our own people. But my " patience will never fail in either, there being no other "part to take."f And again, " Whatever I may suffer, " I shall not regret in the least, as long as I think it of " service for our great object ; I would put myself in a " tub, hke Diogenes, if necessary."}: It had been intimated to Charles, through Murray of Broughton, and on the part of his principal' Scottish friends, that they could do nothing in his behalf, nor even think themselves bound to join him, unless he came with a body of at least 6000 troops, and 10,000 stand of arms. These he had no longer any hope of obtaining, and he was therefore brought back by necessity to his first and favourite scheme, " having it always at heart," says he in a later letter, " to restore my Boyal Father by "the means of his own subjects alone." § He wrote to Scotland, whither Murray had now returned, announcing his intention, at all hazards, to attempt the enterprise. Meanwhile he made every exertion for procuring arms, borrowed 180,000 livres from two of his adherents, and wrote to his father at Bome, concealing his real project, hut requesting that his jewels might be pawned, and the money sent to him. " For our object," says he, " I would * Memoires de Noailles, vol. vi. p. 22. This passage has hitherto been overlooked, in reference to the conduct of the French Court upon this subject, but fully accounts for it. f Letter, January 16. 1745. Stuart Papers. X Letter, January 3. 1745. § Instructions to Alexander Macleod, Edinburgh, September 24. 1745. See Home's History, Append, p. 324. 1745. PRINCE CHARLEb AT NAVARRE. 203 " pawn even my shirt. ... As for my jewels, I should, on " this side the water, wear them with a very sore heart, " thinking that there might be made a better use of " them. ... It is but for such uses that I shall ever "trouble your Majesty with asking for money; it will " never be for plate or fine clothes, but for arms and " ammunition, or other things that tend to what I am " come about to this country."* The announcement of Charles's intentions excited equal surprise and alarm among his friends in Scotland; all, with the single exception of the Duke of Perth, con demned his project; they wrote dissuasive letters which, however, came too late f, and they stationed Murray on the watch on the Highland coast, that if the Prince came, he might see him, and urge him to return. Murray remained on this station during the whole month of June, and then went back to his house in the south of Scotland, supposing the enterprise abandoned. But, on the con trary, the tidings of the battle of Fontenoy had decided Charles's movements, it seeming to afford a favourable opportunity, such as might never occur again. He made all his preparations with equal speed and secrecy. He was then at the Chateau de Navarre, near EvreuxJ, formerly a favourite haunt of his great ancestor Henri Quatre, and, since Charles Stuart, again the refuge of fallen grandeur in the Empress Josephine. In 1745, it was the seat of the young Duke de Bouillon, between whom and Charles a romantic friendship had been formed. § From Navarre, on the 12th of June, Charles wrote a most remarkable letter to his father, for the first time revealing his design. Here are some extracts : — " Let me mention " a parable : a horse that is to be sold, if spurred it does " not skip or show some signs of hfe, nobody would care * Letter, March. 7. 1745. ¦j- Examination of Mr. Murray of Broughton, August 13. 1746. X " Navarre, a une demie lieue d'Evreux, bati par Monseigneur le " Due de Bouillon, sur les ruines d'un chateau que les Eois de Navarre " avaient fait faire pour la chasse, 1702." (Copied from a MS., Bibliotheque du Koi, Paris.) Delille says, in Les Jardins, " L'ombre du Grand Henri cherit encore Navarre." § See in the Culloden Papers, p. 205., an intercepted letter from the Duke to Charles in Scotland, assuring him in the warmest terms of friendship that he may dispose of all bis estate and blood. 204 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVII. " to have him, even for nothing. Just so my friends would " care very little to have me, if, after such scandalous " usage from the French Court, which all the world is " sensible of, I should not show that I have life in me. " Your Majesty cannot disapprove a son's following the " example of his father. You yourself did the like in the " year Fifteen ; but the circumstances now are indeed " very different, by being much more encouraging. . . . " This letter will not be sent off till I am on shipboard. "... I have sent Stafford to Spain, and appointed Sir " Thomas Geraldine to demand succours in my name to " complete the work, and I have sent letters for the King " and Queen. Let what will happen, the stroke is struck ; " and I have taken a firm resolution to conquer or to die, " and to stand my ground as long as I shall have a man " remaining with me. . . . Whatever happens unfortunate " to me, cannot but be the strongest engagement to the " French Court to pursue your cause ; nay, if I were sure " they were capable of any sensation of this kind, if I did " not succeed, I would perish, as Curtius did, to save my " country and make it happy. . . . Your Majesty may now " see my reason for pressing so much to pawn my jewels, " which I should be glad to have done immediately, for I " neyer intend to come back."* To King Louis, or to the French Ministry, Charles gave no intimation whatever of his intended enterprise, having strong grounds to fear that he might else be forcibly detained. Nevertheless, he secured the assistance of one large French man-of-war, and had even hopes of a second. "It will appear strange to you," writes he to James's Secretary, " how I should get these things with- " out the knowledge of the French Court. I employed " one Eutledge, and one Walsh, who are subjects :" (they were merchants at Nantes ;) " the first has got a grant of " a man-of-war from the French Court to cruise on the " coast of Scotland, and is luckily obliged to go as far " north as I do, so that she will escort me without appear- " ing to do it." -j" The ship of war thus obtained was named the Elizabeth, and carried sixty-seven guns : the vessel for Charles's own conveyance was a brig of eighteen, * Letter, June 12. 1745. X Letter to Mr. Edgar. June 12. 1745. 1745. RENDEZVOUS AT NANTES. 205 ?he Doutelle*, an excellent sailer, fitted out by Walsh to cruise against the British trade. The arms provided by the Prince — about 1500 fusees, 1800 broad-swords, with powder, balls, flints, and twenty small field-pieces — were for the most part embarked in the Elizabeth : the money that he carried with him was less than four thousand Louis d'ors. It must be owned, that the charm of this romantic enterprise seems singularly heightened, when we find from the secret papers I have now disclosed, that it was undertaken not only against the British Govern ment, but without, and in spite of, the French ! The Doutelle lay in the mouth of the Loire, and Nantes was the place appointed to meet at. The better to conceal the design, the gentlemen who were to embark with Charles travelled by various routes to the rendezvous; while they remained there, they lodged in different parts of the town, and if they accidentally met in the streets, they took not the least notice of each other, nor seemed in any way acquainted if there was any person near enough to observe them.-j- All things being prepared, Charles set out from Navarre, and, after being delayed for a few days by contrary winds, embarked on the 2d of July at seven in the evening, from Saint Nazaire, at the mouth of the Loire. At the island of Belleisle they were further detained till the 13th, expecting the Elizabeth, but, on her arrival, proceeded in good earnest on their voyage. It was from Belleisle that the Prince bade a last farewell to his friends in Italy. " I hope in God we shall " soon meet, which I am resolved shall not be but at " home. ... I am, thank God, in perfect good health, but " have been a little sea-sick, and expect to be more so ; " but it does not keep me much abed, for I find the more " I struggle against it the better." % As a disguise, he * It is called Le Du Belier by Charles himself in his letter of Au gust 2. 1745 (see Appendix) ; but all other authorities agree in the name La Doutelle. X Jacobite Memoirs of 1745, p. 2. ; «. valuable work, compiled from the papers of Bishop Forbes, by Sir Henry Steuart of Alanton, and B. Chambers, Esq. 1834. { To Mr. Edgar, July 12. 1745. In the proceedings abroad I always give the date according to the New Style, but in Great Britain according to the Old. The same is to be observed of Prince Charles's own letters. 206 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVTT. wore the habit of a student of the Scots College at Paris, and his rank was not known to the crew ; and to conceal his person still more, he allowed his beard to grow until his arrival in Scotland. On the fourth day after leaving Belleisle the adventurers fell in with a British man-of-war of 58 guns, called the Lion, and commanded by Captain Brett, the same officer who, in Anson's expedition, had stormed Paita. An en gagement ensued between this ship and the Elizabeth, when after a well-matched fight of five or six hours, the vessels parted, each nearly disabled. The Lion found it necessary to put back to England, and the Elizabeth to France. As to the Doutelle, it had kept aloof during the conflict ; Charles had earnestly pressed Mr. Walsh to allow him to engage in it, but Walsh, feeling the magni tude of his charge, exerted his authority, as owner of the vessel, and steadily refused, saying at last, that if the Prince insisted any more he should order him down to the cabin ! * The Doutelle now pursued her voyage alone ; but the return of the Elizabeth lost Charles the greater part of the arms and stores he had so laboriously provided. Two days afterwards the little bark that bore " Cassar " and his fortunes," was chased by another large vessel, but escaped by means of superior sailing, and was rapidly wafted among the Western Isles. f After about a fort night's voyage, it moored near the little islet of Erisca, between Barra and South Uist. As they neared the shore, an eagle that came hovering round the ship, de lighted the adventurers by its favourable augury. " Here," said Lord Tullibardine, turning to his master, "is the " King of Birds come to welcome your Eoyal Highness " to Scotland ! " Charles and his followers then landed and passed the night on shore. They learnt that this cluster of islands belonged to Macdonald of Clanranald, a young chief attached to the Jacobite cause, — that Clan ranald himself had gone to the mainland; but that his * Narrative of Mr. JEneas Macdonald, one of the Prince's com panions. (Jacobite Memoirs, p. 7.) f There is some discrepancy here as to the dates (compare the Jacobite Memoirs, p. 9. with the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 479.); but it is of small importance. The day of Charles's landing in Moi- dart was certainly July 25. 0. S. 1745. ARRIVAL ON THE SCOTTISH COAST. 207 uncle, and principal adviser, Macdonald of Boisdale, was then not far distant in South Uist. A summons from Charles brought Boisdale on board the Doutelle the next morning. But his expressions were not encouraging; He remonstrated with Charles against his enterprise, which he said was rash to the verge of insanity ; and added, that if his nephew followed his advice he would take no part in it. In vain did Charles exert all his powers of persuasion : the old man remained inflexible, and went back to his isle in a boat, while Charles pursued his voyage to the mainland. Arriving at this, Charles entered the bay of Loch- nanuagh in Invernesshire, between Moidart and Arisaig. He immediately sent a messenger to Clanranald, who came to him on board, attended by several of his tribe, especially Macdonald of Kinloch Moidart. To them Charles addressed the same arguments as he had to Bois dale, imploring them to assist their Prince and their countryman, at his utmost need. In reply they urged, like Boisdale, that to take arms without concert or sup port could end in nothing but ruin. Charles persisted, argued, and implored. During the conversation they walked to and fro upon the deck ; while a Highlander stood near them, armed at all points, as was then the cus tom of the country; he was a younger brother of Kinloch Moidart, and had come to the ship without knowing who was on board it; but when he gathered from the dis course that the stranger was the Prince of Wales, and when he heard his chief and his brother refuse to take arms with their rightful sovereign, as they believed him, his colour went1 and came, his eyes sparkled, he shifted his place, and instinctively grasped his sword. Charles observed his agitation, and with great skill availed him self of it. Turning suddenly towards him, he called out : " Will you, at least, not assist me?"— " I will ! I will!" cried Banald. " Though no other man in the Highlands " should draw a sword, I am ready to die for you!" — Charles eagerly expressed his thanks to the warm-hearted young man, saying he only wished that all the High landers were like him. But, in very truth, they were hke him. Catching his enthusiasm, and spurning all further deliberations, the two Macdonalds declared that 208 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP XXV1T. they also would join, and use every exertion to engage their countrymen.* During this scene, the other kinsmen of Clanranald had remained with Charles's attendants in a tent, that had been pitched at the opposite end of the deck. One of these Macdonalds has left a journal, in which Charles's appearance is described : " There entered the tent a tall " youth of a most agreeable aspect, in a plain black coat, " with a plain shirt not very clean, and a cambrick stock " fixed with a plain silver buckle, a fair round wig out of " the buckle, a plain hat with a canvass string, having " one end fixed to one of his coat buttons : he had black " stockings and brass buckles in his shoes. At his " first appearance I found my heart swell to my very " throat. But we were immediately told that this youth " was an English clergyman, who had long been pos- " sessed with a desire to see and converse with High- " landers." f It is remarkable that among these Mac donalds — the foremost to join Charles — was the father of Marshal Macdonald, Duke de Tarento, long afterwards raised to these honours by his merit in the French Eevo- lutionary wars, and not more distinguished for courage and capacity than for integrity and honour. Charles, being now sure of some support, landed a few days afterwards, on the memorable 25th of July, Old Style, in Lochnanuagh, and was conducted to Borodale, a neighbouring farm-house belonging to Clanranald. Seven persons came on shore with him, namely the Marquis of Tulhbardine, who, but for the attainder of 1716, would have been Duke of Athol, and was always called so by the Jacobites — Sir Thomas Sheridan, who had been tutor to Charles — Sir John Macdonald, an -officer in the Spanish service— Kelly, a non-juring clergyman, the same who had taken part in Atterbury's plot — Francis Strickland, an English gentleman — iEneas Macdonald, a banker in Paris, and brother of Kinloch Moidart — and Buchanan, the messenger formerly sent to Eome by Car dinal Tencin. These were afterwards designated as the " Seven Men* of Moidart;" and the subsequent fate of * Home's History, p. 39. f Macdonald's Journal ; Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 480. 1745. LANDING IN SCOTLAND. 209 each has been explored by the Jacobites with mournful curiosity.* The first step of Charles was to send letters to such Highland chiefs as he knew, or hoped to be, his friends, especially to Cameron of Lochiel, Sir Alexander Mac donald, and Mac Leod. Lochiel immediately obeyed the summons ; but he came convinced of the rashness, nay, madness of the enterprise, and determined to urge Charles to desist from it and return to France till a more favour able opportunity. On his way to Borodale he called upon his brother, Cameron of Fassefern, who concurred in his opinion, but advised him rather to impart it to the Prince by letter. " I know you," said Fassefern, " better than " you know yourself. If this Prince once sets his eyes " upon you, he will make you do whatever he pleases." J Lochiel, however, persevered in going on ; he saw Charles, and for a long while stood firm against both argument and entreaty. At length, the young adventurer tried one final appeal to his feelings : — "I am resolved," he exclaimed, '* to put all to the hazard. In a few days " I will erect the Boyal Standard, and proclaim to the " people of Britain, that Charles Stuart is come over to " claim the Crown of his ancestors, or perish in the " attempt. Lochiel, who, my father has often told me, " was our firmest friend, may stay at home, and learn " from the newspapers the fate of his Prince!" At these glowing words, the sturdy determination of the Chief dis solved hke Highland snow before the summer sun. " Not " so," he replied, much affected ; "I will share the fate of " my Prince whatever it be, and so shall every man, over " whom nature or fortune has given me any power.'. Such, observes Mr. Home, was the singular conversation, on the result of which depended peace or war ; for it is a point agreed among the Highlanders, that if Lochiel had persisted in his refusal to take arms, the other chiefs would not have joined the Standard without him, and the spark of rebellion must have instantly expired. The answer of Sir Alexander Macdonald and Mac Leod, removed as these were from the fascination of * See Jacobite Memoirs, p. 3. X Communicated, in 1781, by Fassefern himself to Mr. Home (History, p. 44.) VOL. IH. P 210 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVII. Charles's presence — was far less favourable. These two chiefs — perhaps the most powerful in the Highlands, could each have raised from 1200 to 1500 followers. They were then together in the Isle of Skye, where Clan ranald had gone in person to urge them. But they alleged, as they might with truth, that their former promise of joining Charles was entirely contingent on his bringing over auxiliaries and supphes, and they also pleaded, as an additional motive for delay, that a great number of their men resided in the distant islands. Their object being to wait for events, and to side with the victorious, they pro fessed zeal to both parties, but gave assistance to neither : thus, for instance, they wrote to the Government to com municate Charles's arrival in Scotland; but prudently postponed their news till nine days from his landing.* There were not wanting in Scotland many men to follow such examples : but Lochiel's feeling was that of far the greater number. The Scots have often been re proached with a spirit of sordid gain. The truth is merely — and should it not be matter of praise ? — that by their intelligence, their industry, their superior education, they will always, in whatever country, be singled out for employment, and rise high in the social scale. But when a contest lies between selfish security or advancement on one side, and generous impulse or deep-rooted conviction on the other ; when danger and conscience beckon on ward, and prudence alone calls back; let all History declare whether in any age or in any cause, as followers of Knox or of Montrose, as Cameronians or as Jacobites, the men — ay, and the women — of Scotland, have quailed from any degree of sacrifice or suffering ! The very fact that Charles came helpless, obtained him the help of many. They believed him their rightful Prince ; and the more destitute that Prince, the more they were bound in loyalty to aid him. Foreign forces, which would have diminished the danger, would also have diminished the duty, and placed him in the light of a hostile invader rather than of * See Mac Leod's letter in the Culloden Papers, p. 203. He says in the postscript, " Young Clanranald has been here with us, and has " given us all possible assurances of his prudence ! " In another letter of August 17. Mac Leod adds, " In my opinion it would be a " very wrong step to draw many of the troops to Scotland, as there " can be but httle danger here ! " 1745. THE HIGHLAND CLANS. 211 a native sovereign. Moreover, Charles was now in the very centre of those tribes, which ever since they were trained by Montrose — such is the stamp that great spirits can imprint upon posterity! — had continued firm and devoted adherents of the House of Stuart. Macdonald of Keppoch, Macdonald of Glengarry, and many other gentlemen, sent or came with warm assurances of service, and after a hasty visit, went off again to collect their men ; the 19th of August being fixed for the raising of the Standard and the muster of the forces. Charles, meanwhile, displayed great skill in gaining the affections of the Highlanders around his person : he adopted their national dress, and consulted their national customs, and soon learnt some words of Gaelic, which he used on public occasions*, while all those who conversed with him in English, felt the influence of his fascinating manners. Having disembarked his scanty treasure and arms from the Doutelle, he employed himself in distributing the latter amongst those who seemed best able to serve him. The ship itself he sent back to France with an account of his landing. He paid a farewell visit to Mr. Walsh on board, and gave him a letter to James, at Eome, entreat ing that in reward for his service he should receive the patent of an Irish Earldom, f By the same opportunity he informed his father of his progress: — "I am joined " here by brave people, as I expected : as I have not yet " set up the Standard I cannot tell the number ; " but whatever happens, we shall gain an immortal honour " by doing what we can to deliver our country in re- " storing our Master, or perish sword in hand." J From Borodale, Charles proceeded in a few days by water to Kinloch Moidart, a better house, belonging to the chief of that name, and about seven miles further. There he remained till the raising of his Standard. There also he was joined by Murray of Broughton, who had hastened from his seat in the south, at Charles's summons, having first performed the perilous duty of having the * See Macdonald's Journal, Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 482. f Prince Charles to his father, August 2. 1745. Appendix. I believe that the honour was accordingly conferred, and I was formerly acquainted at Baden with Count Walsh, who was, as I understood, the descendant and representative of this gentleman. J Letter, August 4. 1745. Appendix 212 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVfl. manifestos, for future distribution, printed. He was ap pointed by Charles his Secretary of State, and continued to act as such during the remainder of the expedition. During this time the English Governor at Fort Au gustus, alarmed at the vague reports, but undoubted preparations, that were spreading around him, had de termined to send a reinforcement to the advanced post at Fort William. On the 16th of August, two companies marched for this service, commanded by Captain Scott. The whole distance is thirty miles : for above twenty, the soldiers marched without molestation, when suddenly, in the narrow ravine of Spean Bridge, they found themselves beset by a party of Keppoch's Highlanders. Assailed by a destructive fire from the neighbouring heights, and unable to retaliate upon their invisible enemies, they began a retreat ; but more Highlanders of Lochiel coming up, and their strength and ammunition being alike ex hausted, they were compelled to lay down their arms. Five or six of them had been killed, and about as many wounded : among the latter, Captain Scott himself. All the prisoners were treated with marked humanity, the wounded being carried to Lochiel's own house at Auch- nacarrie ; nay, more, as the Governor of Fort Augustus would not allow his surgeon to go forth and attend Cap tain Scott, the generous Chief sent the Captain to the Fort for that object on receiving his parole. This success, though of no great importance in itself, served in no small degree to animate the Highlanders on the Eaising of the Standard. The -day fixed for that ceremony, as I have already mentioned, was the 19th of August ; the place Glenfinnan, a desolate and sequestered vale, where the river Finnan flows between high and craggy mountains, and falls into an arm of the sea ; it is about fifteen miles from Borodale, and as many from Fort William. Charles having left Kinloch Moidart on the 18th, proceeded to the house of Glenaladale, and early next morning embarked in a boat for the place of muster. On arriving, attended only by one or two companies of Mac- donalds, he expected to find the whole valley alive with assembled clans ; but not one man had come, and Glen finnan lay before him in its wonted solitude and silence. Uncertain, and anxious for his fate, the Prince entered 1745. RAISING OF THE STANDARD. 213 one of the neighbouring hovels, and waited for about two hours. At length the shrill notes of the pibroch were heard in the distance, and Lochiel and his Camerons appeared on the brow of the hill : they were above six hundred in number, but many without weapons ; and they advanced in two lines of three men abreast, between which were the two English companies taken on the 16th, marching as prisoners, and disarmed. On being joined by this noble clan, Charles immediately proceeded to erect the Boyal Standard ; the place chosen being a little knoll in the midst of the vale. The Marquis of Tullibardine, tottering with age and infirmities, and supported by an attendant on each side, was, as highest in rank, appointed to unfurl the banner : it was of red silk, with a white space in the centre, on which, some weeks afterwards, the celebrated motto, " tandem triumphans," was inscribed. At the appearance of this Standard, waving in the moun tain breeze, and hailed as the sure pledge of coming battle, the air was rent with shouts, and darkened with bonnets tossed on high ; it seemed, says an eye-witness, like a cloud.* Tullibardine, after a little pause, read aloud the manifesto of the old Chevalier, and the Commission of Begency granted to Prince Charles. This was followed by a short speech from the Adventurer himself, asserting his title to the Crown, and declaring that he came for the happiness of his people, and had selected this part of the kingdom because he knew he should find a population of brave gentlemen, willing to live and die with him, as he was resolved at their head to conquer or to perish. Among the spectators, but no willing one, was Captain Swetenham, an English officer, taken prisoner a few days before in proceeding to assume the command at Fort William : he was now dismissed by Charles, after very courteous treatment, and with the words, "You may go to your " General ; say what you have seen ; and add that I am " coming to give him battle ! " On the same day, but after the ceremony, arrived Keppoch with three hundred of his clan, and other * Letter in the Culloden Papers, p. 387., derived from Captain Swetenham's description. On the spot where the standard was raised, there now stands a monument with a Latin inscription. See note to Waverley, vol. i. p. 238. ed. 1829. r 3 214 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVII. smaller parties. Some gentlemen of the name of Mac Leod came to offer their services, expressing great indig nation at the defection of their Chief, and proposing to return to Skye, and raise as many men as they could. The little army encamped that night on Glenfillan; O'Sullivan, an Irish officer who had lately joined the Prince, being appointed its Quartermaster-General.* Next morning they began their march, Charles himself proceeding to Lochiel's house of Auchnacarrie, and he was joined by Macdonald of Glencoe with one hundred and fifty men ; the Stuarts of Appin, under Ardshiel, with two hundred, and Glengarry the younger, with about the same ; so that the united forces marching onwards soon amounted to upwards of sixteen hundred men. While these things were passing in the Highlands, the established Government was neither prompt in its news, nor successful in its measures. It was not till the 30th of July, Old Style, that we find Lord Tweeddale, the Scottish Secretary of State in London, informed that the young Pretender had sailed from Nantes.-f This report was im mediately transmitted to Edinburgh ; yet, even so late as the morning of the 8th of August, nearly three weeks after Charles's first appearance on the coast, it was un known to the authorities at that capital. " I consider the " report of the sailing as improbable," writes the Lord President on that day, " because I am confident that " young man cannot with reason expect to be joined by " any considerable force in the Highlands J," and he then proceeds to show how much the Jacobite party was re duced since 1715 : it had indeed died away like a fire for * There seems some uncertainty as to when Mr. O'Sullivan joined the expedition. It is supposed by some persons that he sailed with Charles in the Doutelle, and that Buchanan being considered the Prince's domestic was not included in the number of seven that came on shore. (Jacobite Memoirs, p. 2.) But it is more probable that O'Sullivan afterwards joined Charles on shore — one of several officers who came from France and landed on the east coast of Scot land. (See Culloden Papers, p. 398.) t Lord Tweeddale to Lord Milton, July 30. 1745. Home's History. X Culloden Papers, p. 204. See also p. 360. and 335., and the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 405., on the diminution of the Jacobites since 1715. 1745. PROCEEDINGS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 215 want of fuel, while the strength of prescription (the mightiest after all of any) had gathered round the Eeigning Family. But then this inference suggests itself — if the Scottish Jacobites even thus diminished seemed scarcely a minority in 1745 — what, under wise direction, might they not have been thirty years before ? At this period the persons in Edinburgh most relied on by the Government, were, first, the commander-in-chief, General Sir John Cope ; secondly, the Justice Clerk Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton; and, thirdly, the Lord President, Duncan Forbes. The last has been highly, yet not too highly, extolled as a most learned and upright judge, a patriot statesman, a devoted and unwearied assertor of the Protestant succession. Few men ever loved Scotland more, or served it better. Opposing the Jacobites in their conspiracies or their rebellions, but be friending them in their adversity and their distresses, he knew, unlike his colleagues, how to temper justice with mercy, and at length offended, by his frankness, the Government he had upheld by his exertions.* When, in 1715, the jails of England were crowded with Scottish prisoners, plundered, penniless and helpless, Forbes, who had lately borne arms against them in the field, set on foot a subscription to supply them with the means of making a legal defence ; and when, on the same occasion, the exas perated Government proposed to remove these misguided but unhappy men from the protection of their native laws, to a trial in England, it was Forbes that stood forward to resist, and finally to prevent, this arbitrary measure. His seat lying in the north, (Culloden House, near Inverness,) he had always repaired thither in the intervals of the Court of Session ; he had there cultivated a friendly inter course with the principal Highland gentlemen, and gained a considerable mastery over the minds of many. He was the hnk that bound the false and fickle Lovat to the Government ; it was mainly through him that Mac Leod, Sir Alexander Macdonald, and several other chiefs, were restrained to a prudent neutrahty ; it was he who inspi- * See some remarks on the character of Duncan Forbes in the Quarterly Review, No. xxviii. p. 321., I believe by Sir Walter Scott. P 4 216 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVTJ. rited, guided, and directed the Sutherlands, the Mackays, and the other well affected clans in the north. Even before the news of Charles's landing was fully confirmed, he hastened from Edinburgh to Culloden, ready to perform every service that the exigency might demand. Sir John Cope, on his part, sent orders for drawing together his troops at Stirling. He had two regiments of dragoons (Gardiner's and Hamilton's), but they were the youngest in the service ; and the whole force under his command, exclusive of garrisons, fell short of three thou sand men. There were also several companies of a High land regiment, headed by the Earl of Loudon : these, however, besides the doubts of their fidelity, were not at hand for present action, being for the most part in the north, beyond Inverness. Nevertheless, with such force as he could muster, Cope was eager to march forward to the . mountains, and crush the rising rebellion in its bud. This scheme he proposed in a letter to the Lords Justices in England, and it was warmly approved ; nay, he even re ceived their positive commands to carry it into execution. They also furnished him with a proclamation, issued in the London Gazette several days before, offering a reward of 30,000Z. to any person that should seize and secure the pretended Prince of Wales. Thus instructed by the Government, but at the same time deluded by the Jacobites around him with a multi tude of false advices, Sir John set out from Edinburgh on the 19th of August, the very day that Charles was raising his standard at Glenfillan. Next morning he commenced his march from Stirling, at the head of nearly fifteen hundred foot, but leaving behind the dragoons, who could not have afforded much service amongst the mountains, nor yet obtained sufficient forage. He took with him, however, a vast quantity of baggage, a drove of black cattle, to kill for food, when required, and about a thou sand stand of arms, which he expected to distribute to native volunteers. Not one such appearing to join him, he sent back 700 of the muskets from Crieff His march was directed to Fort Augustus, as a central post, from which he hoped to strike a decisive blow against the rebels ; and as he advanced, being met by Captain Swe- tenham, he obtained the first certain accounts of their 1745. PRINCE CHARLES ON CORRY ARRACK. 217 numbers and appearance. But on arriving at Dalwhinnie, he found the pass of Corry Arrack, that lay between him and Fort Augustus, already in possession of his enemy. Corry Arrack is a huge precipitous mountain, ascended by a part of Marshal Wade's military road, which winds up in seventeen zig-zags or traverses, before it attains the rugged heights. The pass was known to the country people by the name of the Devil's Staircase, and afforded a most excellent position for defence. Charles, discerning its importance, had determined to occupy it as soon as he heard of Cope's approach ; and made a forced march for that object, burning and destroying all incumbrances which could impede his progress, and, that his men might not complain, sacrificing his own personal baggage. Early on the 27th he stood on the north side of Corry Arrack, and hastened to ascend it, expecting an attack that after noon, and exulting in the expectation. It is recorded, that as he put on his new Highland brogues that morning, he exclaimed with dehght, " Before these are unloosed, I " shall be up with Mr. Cope !"* As he walked up he sent forward Macdonald of Lochgarry, and Secretary Murray, expecting that they would see the British troops begin ning their ascent on the opposite side. But when they reached the summit, instead of beholding the numerous windings filled with the ascending files of Sir John Cope's army, they gazed on utter solitude. Not a single man appeared. At length, they observed several Highlanders, whom they supposed some of Lord Loudon's, and the British van-guard ; but who proved to be deserters, bring ing the surprising intelligence that the General had en tirely changed his course, and, avoiding the expected battle, was in full march for Inverness.1)- For this and for his subsequent conduct, Sir John Cope has sometimes been called a coward, and sometimes a traitor. He was neither. He was a plain, dull officer, of indisputable fidelity and courage, who had been previously in action, and behaved respectably under a superior; but endowed with very moderate abilities, and overwhelmed * Mr. T. Eraser to the Lord President, August 29. 1 745. Culloden Papers. X Tales of a Grandfather, vol. ii. p. 270. 218 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVli; by the feeling of his own responsibility as chief.* On this occasion he felt that it was in vain to attack the rebels upon Corry Arrack : to remain at Dalwhinnie seemed in active, to return to Stirling ignominious. What other course then was left but a march to Inverness to join the well-affected clans, with the prospect that the insurgents must be drawn towards the same direction, and would not venture to descend upon the Lowlands while Cope re mained in their rear? But Sir John did not trust to his judgment only ; he adopted that favourite resource of incapable commanders — a Council of War. No officer was found to advocate remaining near Dalwhinnie ; only one urged the alternative of a retreat to Stirling ; all the others, concurring with their General, gave their signs manual to the plan he proposed. Yet, it certainly was by far the worst of the three ; and had the King's troops but kept their ground in front of the rebels, the latter would, probably, either have been checked in their advance, and cooped up in their mountains, or else been obliged to hazard a battle upon equal terms.j The news of Cope's flight (for such it was considered) filled the Highland host with exultation. The greater number wished to follow and give him battle — a less hazardous course, perhaps, than to march onwards, leaving his army unconquered, to cut off their retreat ; but Charles, seeing the superior importance of a descent upon the Low lands, wisely decided for the latter scheme. It was imme diately put into execution. Two days carried him through the rugged mountains of Badenoch ; on the third he be held the pleasant vale of Athol, expanding to his view. The Grants, of Glenmorriston, to the number of one hun dred men, had already come in at Corry Arrack ; and as the Highland army descended to the plain, they were * On Cope's character, see Quarterly Review, No. lxxi. p 177. and also the proceedings on Cope's trial. t " The military men here think that, though it might not have " been fit for his Majesty's service for Sir John Cope to attack the " rebels, yet that he ought to have staid somewhere about Dalwhinnie ; " and, in that case, it would not have been easy for the rebels to have " made such a progress into the south before him. But as the matter " is now over, it is needless to enter into a discussion." (Lord Tweed- dale to the Lord President, September 10. 1745.) 1745. LORD LOVAT. 219 joined, like one of their own rivers, by accessions of strength at the mouths of all the little glens which they passed.* Charles was especially eager to secure Lord Lovat, and sent him the most pressing solicitations through Lochiel, together with his patents as Duke of Fraser, and Lord Lieutenant of the northern counties. But the wily old Chief still kept aloof and unengaged: on the one hand, continuing the strongest professions of his allegiance to his neighbour, the Lord President ; and at the same time writing to Lochiel, " My service to the Prince ; I will aid " you what I can ; but my prayers are all I can give at " present." f Prayers ! from such a saint of course doubly precious ! — By this conduct, Lovat expected to reap profit whichever party prevailed ; by this conduct did he ulti mately bring his head to the scaffold, and his name to lasting disgrace. When will mankind become convinced that the dirtiest path is always the most slippery ! Charles, however, derived some compensation from one of his detachments, which, after an unsuccessful attempt on the barracks of Buthven, carried off as a prisoner, perhaps no unwilling one, Lovat's son-in-law, Macpherson of Cluny, the head of a powerful clan. Cluny had been appointed by the Government Captain of an indepen dent Company, but now, after several conversations with Charles, consented to return and raise his men in the Prince's cause. As an apology for his change, he declared to a friend that " even an angel could not resist such " soothing, close applications!"! Indeed, the fascination of Charles was acknowledged by every one around him. The Highlanders were delighted at his athletic form and untired energy ; like one of Homer's heroes, he overtopped them all in stature §, and they found that he never re quired from them any hardship or exertion that he was not willing to share. Thus, at Dalwhinnie, he slept with * Chambers's History, vol. i. p. 79. X Lord Lovat to the Laird of Lochiel, September, 1745. X See Culloden Papers, p. 412. § One of Sir John Cope's spies from Perth described to him the Chevalier, as "in a fine Highland dress laced with gold, wears a " bonnet laced, wears a broadsword, had a green riband, but did not " see the star ; a well made man, taller than any in his company." (Sir John Cope to the Lord President, September 12. 1745.) 220 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVTL them upon the open moor, sheltered only by his plaid. Every day he marched alongside some one or other of their bands, inquiring into their national legends, or listening to their traditionary songs. At table, he partook only of their country dishes, seeming to prefer them to all others : he wished to be, as he said, " a true Highlander," and his few phrases of Gaelic were used whenever occasion offered. On the other hand, the simple and enthusiastic High landers were prepared to find or to fancy every possible merit in their long expected Prince. Upon the whole, it might be questioned whether any chief has ever, in so short a period, so greatly endeared himself to his fol lowers. On the 30th of August, Charles reached Blair, the seat of the Duke of Athol, who hastily fled at his approach, while Tullibardine resumed possession of his paternal halls, and gave a stately banquet to his young master and his ancient vassals. Charles remained at Blair two days, during which he was joined by several gentlemen of note: Mr. Oliphant of Gask, Mr. Mercer of Aldie, Mr. Murray, brother of the Earl of Dunmore, Lord Strathallan, with his son, and Lord Nairn, the son of the Peer who had been attainted and condemned to death in 1716. Still marching onwards, the vanguard of the insurgents arrived at Perth on the 3d of September, and the Prince made his public entry on horseback, and amidst loud acclama tions, the next day. Unlike his father, he did not pro ceed to the neighbouring palace of Scone, but took up his residence at an antique house in the town, belonging, as Scone, to Lord Stormont. Here he remained a week to collect supplies and to muster his men. Of the 4000 louis-d'ors brought with him, he had remaining on the day he came to Perth but a single one, which he showed to Mr. Kelly, saying that he would soon get more.* Ac cordingly, he sent out parties through Angus and Fife, who, while they proclaimed " King James the Eighth " in the principal towns, enlisted a few men and levied a little public money. From the city of Perth he obtained 5001., and several voluntary offerings reached him from his partisans at Edinburgh. All the strangers, however, * Home's History, p. 75. note. 1745. PRINCE CHARLES AT PERTH. 221 whom Charles found at Perth attending the fair, received his passports, to protect their persons and goods from depredation ; and with several of them he courteously conversed, amongst others with a linen-draper from London, whom he desired to inform his fellow-citizens that he expected to see them at St. James's in the course of two months. Nor was he less busily employed in bringing into some degree of order, the ill-assorted ele ments of his little army : one day he held a public review upon the North Inch, and could not suppress a smile at the awkwardness of some of the new recruits. Every morning he rose early to drill the troops ; and it is re corded that one night, when invited to a great ball by the ladies of Perth, he had no sooner danced one measure than he made his bow and withdrew, alleging the ne cessity of visiting his sentry posts. It is added, that the Perth ladies — thinking, of course, that no business could possibly be so important as their ball — were grie vously surprised and offended at the shortness of his stay. * At this period Charles received two most valuable accessions to his cause, in the Duke of Perth and Lord George Murray. The former brought with him about 200 of his men ; the latter was of great use in raising the tenantry of his brother, the Duke of Athol; and both were created Lieutenant Generals in the Prince's service. James Drummond, titular Duke of Perth, was grandson of the Chancellor of James the Second in Scotland, and had received his education in France.'!" His character was amiable rather than able, of courtly manners, con ciliatory temper, and dauntless bravery, but very young, and unskilled either in politics or war. A warrant had been issued for his apprehension by the Government, as a suspected person, about the time of Charles's landing. Captain Campbell, who was charged with the execution of this warrant, had first, in a spirit very unhke a British officer's, procured for himself an invitation to dine at * Chambers's History, vol. L p. 87. ¦f " The Duchess of Perth carried off her sons to France (in 1720) " as soon as she heard of the Duke their father's death." (Lockhart Papers, vol. il p. 42.) She was a most vehement Roman Catholic. (Tindal's Hist, vol ix. p. 1 65.) 222 history of England. chap. xxvn. Drummond Castle, directing his men to draw as near as they could without raising the alarm, and then, at des sert, told His Grace that he was his prisoner. The Duke received the tidings very coolly, saying there was no help for it ; but in leaving the apartment he made the Captain, as if in courtesy, pass before him, and then suddenly starting back and locking the door, escaped by a private staircase from the house into the wood. He was quickly followed, and might perhaps have been retaken, had he not found a pony and leaped upon its back, without saddle or bridle, and only a halter on its head. By this means he made his way from his pursuers, and -lay con cealed in the neighbouring Highlands until, on the ap proach of Charles, he joined him with as many of his men as he could raise. Lord George Murray was both an older and an abler man. With his brother Tullibardine he had taken part in the rebellion of 1715 ; he had been at the fight of Glenshiel in 1719, and had afterwards served for some years in the Sardinian army. Being then pardoned by the Government, he had since lived quietly on his estate in Scotland, had married, and was the father of a family * : nay, as it is said, he had even solicited a commission in the British army, which was however refused. He was by far the most skilful officer that appeared with the in surgents in the whole course of this rebeUion. His per sonal hardihood and bravery, however conspicuous, might be rivalled by many others ; but none could vie with him in planning a campaign, providing against disasters, or improving victory. Yet so far was he from being a formal tactician or lover of strict rule, that he strongly advised the Prince to trust to the national weapons and mode of fighting of the Highlanders, with some improve ments of discipline, rather than attempt to instruct them in any more scientific manoeuvres. But the merits of Lord George, as a commander, were dashed by no small * Lord George was the ancestor of the present Duke of Athol. He has left a Military Memoir on the marches of the insurgent army (printed in the Jacobite Memoirs, p. 29 — 130.), which is very clear and able, but dwelling a httle too much on his own services. His letter on the battle of Culloden appears in Home's Appendix, p. 359 —370. 1745. counter proclamations. 223 waywardness of temper, an impatience of contradiction, a blunt and supercihous address. A rivahy almost imme diately sprung up between him and the Duke of Perth ; which, as we shall find, afterwards ripened into a quarrel very hurtful to their common cause. In these broils the part of the Duke was always espoused by Secretary Mur ray, an able and active, but selfish and intriguing man, who expected to wield a greater influence over Perth than over the superior genius of Lord George. Sir Thomas Sheridan also, whom Lord George once or twice fiercely rebuked for his ignorance of the British Laws and Constitution, became of course his personal enemy ; and the Prince himself, who was equally ignorant upon those subjects, was often offended at his disrespectful tone. From Perth, Charles despatched a letter to the Earl of Barrymore in London, urging his party to strenuous exer tions.* He also caused to be printed, and circulated as widely as possible, his Father's Proclamations and his own. Besides those put forth at his landing, he had been prevailed upon to issue a reprisal for that of the Estab lished Government, setting a price of 30,000Z. upon his head. For several days Charles stubbornly refused to follow what he termed. " a practice so unusual among " Christian Princes ; " he only yielded, at length, to the necessity of conciliating his officers, and then insisted that the price in his Proclamation should be no more than SOI. Fresh importunities at last induced him to extend it to the same amount as in the Government!; saying, how ever, he was confident no follower of his would ever think of doing any thing to merit such a reward. This gene rosity of Charles was more than once carried to a romantic extreme : thus, as we shall see hereafter, his reluctance to punish some acts or attempts of assassination, even to his own peril, provoked the discontent and murmurs of his army. * Examination of Mr. Murray of Broughton, August 13. 1746. ¦f- See this document in the Collection of Declarations, &c. p. 22. signed Charles P. R. and countersigned John Murray. The con cluding words are : " Should any fatal accident happen from hence, " let the blame lie entirely at the door of those who first set the. infa- " mous example." 224 history of England. ^ chap, xxvir* During their stay at Perth news reached the insurgents, that General Cope, deeply mortified at their descent into the Lowlands, was directing his march from Inverness to Aberdeen, with the intention of embarking his army, and returning with it for the protection of the capital.* On these tidings Charles formed his plans — not like Lord Mar's, to stand at gaze and wait for others to help him — but to forestall his enemy's movement upon Edinburgh, by a movement of his own. Having completed his scanty preparations, he resumed his adventurous march on the 11th of September. It was found no easy matter to draw the Highlanders from their good quarters at Perth ; but the Prince went first with the vanguard, and the rest joined him at Dumblane. " It was in this neighbourhood," observes one of the officers, " that many of our fathers, and " several of us now with the Prince, fought for the same " cause, just thirty years before, at the battle of Sheriff- " muir."f On the 13th they proceeded to the Fords of Frew, about eight miles above Stirling ; since they could not cross the Frith, where several of the King's ships were stationed, nor yet the bridge of Stirling, which is commanded by the cannon of the castle. But at the Fords of Frew, the river being low at this season, they passed without difficulty ; and Gardiner's dragoons, who had been left behind by Cope, retired before them, designing to fall back upon the other regiment which was now lying at Leith. As the insurgents marched on, the sight of their Boyal Standard provoked some cannon shot from Stirling Castle, aimed, it is said, at Charles himself, but without effect; the town however gladly opened its gates, and furnished its provisions. Every thing was paid for, discipline being strictly maintained by the exertions of the officers ; and Lochiel, finding one of his men plunder in spite of his repeated orders, shot him dead upon the spot.J The army was now passing over the plain of Bannock- * This intelligence is first mentioned in a letter of Lord George Murray's in the night of Saturday the 7th September. (Jacobite Memoirs.) t Macdonald's Journal. (Lockhart Papers, voL ii. p. 486.) X Chambers's History, vol i. p. 104 1745. APPROACH TO EDINBURGH. 225 burn : on the next evening, the 14th, they were quartered in the town of Falkirk, or lay in some broom fields near Callender House. Charles himself was entertained at that mansion by its' owner, the Earl of Kilmarnock, who hailed him as his sovereign, and assured him of his future ser vices. According to the information given by the Earl, Gardiner's dragoons had intended to dispute the passage of Linlithgow Bridge next day, and the Prince, hoping to surprise them, sent forward before daybreak a detachment of a thousand Highlanders under Lord George Murray ; but they found that the dragoons had decamped the even ing before, and quietly took possession of the town and its ancient palace. A few hours later they were joined by the Prince in person, and his vanguard pushed forward to Kirkliston, only eight miles from Edinburgh. All the ground thus traversed by the insurgents is fraught with the brightest recollections of Scottish story. On that field of Bannockburn had Liberty and The Bruce pre vailed — that palace of Linlithgow was the birth-place of the ill-fated Mary, and afterwards her dwelling in hours — alas how brief and few ! — of peaceful sovereignty and honourable fame — those battlements of Stirling had guarded the cradle of her infant son — there rose the Torwood where Wallace sought shelter from the English invaders — yonder flowed the Forth, which so often had " bridled the wild Highlandman." Surely even a passing stranger could never gaze on such scenes without emotion — still less any one intent on like deeds of chivalrous re nown — least of all the youthful heir of Eobert Bruce and of the long line of Stuart Kings ! Meanwhile the citizens of the capital, like a stormy sea tossing with successive billows, had been agitated by every alternation, according to the rumours that reached them, of presumptuous confidence or of craven fear. But little concern appeared at the first news of the insurgents. None of the friends of Government doubted their speedy dispersion or defeat ; while the Jacobites (there, as else where in Scotland, a very considerable party) concealed their secret hopes under an affected derision of the enter prise, and of all the measures adopted to quell it. But when the tidings came that Cope had marched to Inver ness, and that Charles was descending from the moun- vol. m. q 226 history of England. chap. xxvn. tains, the well-disposed inhabitants were struck with consternation, much heightened by the succeeding intel ligence, that the Prince had already entered Perth. The Government newspaper indeed, the Edinburgh Evening Courant, continued to speak of the Highlanders in arms with most utter contempt, as "a pitiful ignorant crew, " good for nothing, and incapable of giving any reason " for their proceedings, but talking only of snishtng " (tobacco), King Jamesh, ta Eashant (the Eegent), " plunter, and new progues!"* But this confident language was belied by the activity with which the pre parations for defending the city were now pursued. A few days later, however, the magistrates and the inha bitants reverted to their feelings of security from the arrival of one of Sir John Cope's Captains, directing that transports for his embarkation might be immediately despatched to Aberdeen. These transports accordingly sailed on September the 10th ; and from that time, says an eye-witness, the people of Edinburgh were continually looking up to the vanes and the weathercocks -j-, as con scious that their destiny hung suspended on the winds. But who shall describe their fresh panic, when they learnt that the young Pretender had not only passed the Forth, but that, driving the King's dragoons before him, he was actually within a few miles of their walls ! Against this danger the Castle of Edinburgh stood secure in its inaccessible position, and held a sufficient garrison, commanded by General Guest, an intrepid veteran. The city, on the other hand, was protected only by an antique rampart of varying height, from ten to twenty feet, which was embattled, but with parapets in most places too narrow for mounting cannon, and on the whole but httle stronger than a common garden wall. Some fortifications, indeed, but hasty, slight, and incom plete, were added in this emergency, under the direction of Professor MacLaurin, the celebrated mathematician. | The defenders were still more contemptible than the defences. There was a Town Guard, of which the value * This extract is given in Mr. Chambers's History, vol. i. p. 125. t Home's Hist. p. 63. X See Provost Stewart's Trial, p. 39. &c. 1745. THE TRAINED BANDS. 227 may sufficiently be estimated from their conduct in the Porteous Mob. There were Trained Bands of Militia ; hut these had never been called out since the Eevolution, except for a yearly parade on his Majesty's birthday, and a dinner afterwards. There were also some volunteers, who had offered their services at this crisis ; but their number never exceeded four hundred, and they required to be taught the first elements of military discipline. All these forces were under the authority of the Lord Provost, Archibald Stewart, who was afterwards subjected to a long imprisonment and a harassing trial, for alleged breach of duty at this period. It is probable that his own principles were not free from a secret Jacobite bias ; but nevertheless it was proved on the clearest evidence, and to the satisfaction of the jury, that he had honestly acted for King George, and had failed from want of means, or perhaps of capacity, but not from any traitorous design.* The dragoons of Colonel Gardiner having now retired before the rebels to Corstorphine, within three miles of the city, and resolving to make a stand, sent for the second regiment from Leith ; and it was proposed that they should also be supported by the City Guard, and hy the body of volunteers. To collect the latter, the fire- bell, an ominous signal, began to toll on Sunday, the 15th, in the midst of divine serviee ; the churches were emptied in an instant, and the congregations pouring out into the streets beheld the volunteers arrive under arms, and Hamilton's regiment ride through on its way to Corstor phine. As the dragoons appeared the volunteers hailed them with loud huzzas, in token of their own alacrity, which the dragoons returned with similar shouts and with the clashing of their swords. At these warlike sights and sounds, the female friends and relatives of the volun teers were filled with consternation, and clung around the objects of their tenderness with tears and entreaties to consult their precious safety. Sir Walter Scott truly observes, that there is nothing of which men in general * See the proceedings of this trial, which began March 24. 1747, and which affords much minute and authentic information on the surrender of the city. Stewart was certainly very harshly dealt with by the Government. Q 2 228 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVII. are more easily persuaded than of the extreme value of their own lives ; and a further argument was supplied by a clergyman present, who declared that such valiant met ought not to sally forth, but reserve themselves for the defence of the city walls. The effect of these exhortations was soon apparent. When the regiment of volunteers was directed to move on, the files grew thinner and thinner; man after man dropped off; from hundreds they dwindled to tens, from tens almost to units ; and at last, when their commander, Mr. Drummond, had passed the gates and looked round, he was amazed to find only one or two dozen in his train. One of their number, after wards, in very sublime and suitable language, compared their march to the course of the Bhine, a noble river as it rolls its waves to Holland, but which, being then con tinually drawn off by little canals, becomes only a small rivulet, and is almost lost in the sands before reaching the ocean.* On this occasion, however, the prudence of the soldier citizens was not destined to be shamed by any superiority in the regular troops. The command of the latter was assumed on Sunday night by Brigadier Fowkes, who had been despatched from London, and had just landed at Leith. By this new chief the dragoons and Town Guard were drawn up at the Colt Bridge, a little nearer the city than Corstorphine. There, on the Monday morning, they were, at Prince Charles's order, reconnoitred by a party of mounted gentlemen from the Highland army, who, as they rode up, discharged their pistols in the usual manner of skirmishers. Immediately, the dragoon piquets were seized with an unaccountable panic : that panic was com municated to the main body ; and the officers, after vainly endeavouring to check, were compelled to share their ¦ shameful flight. Within half an hour the inhabitants of Edinburgh were dismayed or rejoiced according as their principles inclined them, to see these dragoons galloping * See Quarterly Review, No. Ixxi. p. 1 73. Another volunteer, a writing master, assumed for his march what has been termed a " pro- " fessional cuirass," namely, two quires of long foolscap paper, which he tied round his valliant bosom ; but still, for fear of accidents, wrote upon them as follows : " This is the body of John MacLure ; " pi'ay give it Christian burial I" 1745. "CANTER OF COLTBRIGG." 229 along in the greatest confusion over the ground where the New Town at present stands. No sense of honour, no respect to orders could arrest them ; they scarcely halted till they came to Preston, where they quartered for the night near the house and grounds of their own •¦hief — the excellent and deeply afflicted Colonel Gardiner- But after dark one of the men going in quest of forage happened to fall into a disused coal-pit full of water, and his outcry for assistance was mistaken by his comrades for an alarm that the Highlanders were coming; upon which they instantly remounted their horses, and resumed their race through the night, never stopping till they reached the shores of Dunbar. The " Canter of Coltbrigg," as this disgraceful flight has been popularly called, might well haye damped much stouter hearts than now remained for the defence of Edinburgh. Even previously, they had been greatly alarmed at a message brought them by one Mr. Alves, who stated that having approached the rebel army by accident, he had there seen the Duke of Perth, to whom he was personally known. " The Duke," continued Mr. Alves, " desired me to inform the citizens of Edinburgh, " that if they opened their gates their town should be " favourably treated ; but that if they attempted resist- " ance, they must expect military execution ; and his " Grace ended by addressing a young man near him with " the title of Eoyal Highness, and desiring to know if " such were not his pleasure, to which the other assented." This message being publicly delivered, (for which piece of imprudence, or of treachery, Mr. Alves was committed to prison,) seemed to produce a general feeling of aver sion to any further measures of defence ; an aversion speedily heightened into panic terror by the rout of the dragoons. In this emergency the Provost called a meet ing of the magistracy that same afternoon, and sent also for the Crown officers to require their advice ; but these, with infinite prudence, had already quitted the city. The magistrates having met, and many unauthorised persons pressing in amidst the general confusion, the question, "Defend, or not defend the town?" was put, and but very few voices declared in favour of the former. But in the height of the debate, or rather of the din, a Q3 230 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CUAP. XXVII. letter addressed to the Provost and Town Council was handed in at the door, and, being opened, appeared sub scribed " Charles P. E." The Provost rose and protested against reading any such letter: it was read, nevertheless, and was found to contain a summons to surrender, with a promise to preserve all the rights and liberties of the city, and the property of every individual. " But," it added, " if any opposition be made to us, we cannot answer for " the consequences, being firmly resolved, at any rate, to " enter the city ; and if any of the inhabitants are found " in arms against us, they must not expect to be treated " as prisoners of war."* This letter, though it increased the cry against resistance, did not lead to any definite resolution ; and it was at length agreed, as a middle course, to send out a deputation to the Prince, entreating a suspension of hostilities, and time for full dehberation. Scarcely had the deputation set forth on their errand, when the citizens were once again inclined towards war like counsels, by the arrival of an express, with news that Cope's transports were already in sight of Dunbar, and that the General would immediately proceed- to land his men, and march for the relief of the city. It appeared, therefore, that a few hours of delay or of defence might be sufficient to save the capital of Scotland ; and various measures for that object were submitted to General Guest, and to the magistrates, — all, however, on examination, rejected as impracticable. About ten o'clock at night the deputation returned : they had found the young Chevaher at Gray's Mill, within two miles of the city, and brought back another letter from him, appealing to his own and to his father's Declarations, as sufficient securit}', and demanding a posi tive reply before two in the morning. Thus pressed for time, the bewildered magistrates could think of no better expedient than to send a second deputation to Gray's Mill, with renewed entreaties for delay. This deputation, however, the Prince refused to admit into his presence ; and they were obliged to return without any answer. During this anxious night Charles slept only two hours, * This letter was produced at Provost Stewart's trial (p. 113.), and is printed in Home's History, p. 92. 1745. THE HIGHLANDERS OCCUPY EDINBURGH. 231 without taking off his clothes. Fully conscious of the value of time at this crisis, and afraid that the negotiation would lead to no result, he resolved to storm or surprise the city at daybreak ; and sent forward Lochiel and Murray of Broughton, with five hundred Camerons, to watch any favourable opportunity. They carried with them a barrel of powder, to blow up one of the gates, if necessary. Arriving, without discovery, close to the Netherbow Port, they lay in ambush near it ; when as it happened, about five in the morning, the hackney coach which had conveyed the second deputation to Gray's Mill drove up to the gate from within, the coachman having completed his business, and wishing to return to his stables in the suburb of Canongate. The sentinels, knowing that the man had been that night engaged in the service of the magistrates, readily opened the gate to , let him go home. But no sooner were the portals dis closed, than the foremost Highlanders rushed in, over powered and secured the watchmen, and seized the guard house. Immediately sending parties round the inner cir cuit to the other gates, they secured these also, without bloodshed or disturbance. It passed as quietly, says a I person present, as one guard relieves another; and when/ the inhabitants of Edinburgh awoke in the morning, they' found that the Highlanders were masters of their city.* At the first break of dawn the Camerons were marched up to the Cross, where they stood (so strictly was disci pline maintained !) from six o'clock till eleven, in perfect order, refusing the whiskey that was offered them, and refraining from all plunder, though in a city taken, as it were, by storm, and surrounded by so many objects of temptation. At noon the old Cross — already so re nowned in the Scottish annals — became the scene of another striking ceremony. The heralds and pursuivants, arrayed in their antique and glittering dresses of office, were compelled to proclaim King James the Eighth, and to read the Boyal Declarations and Commission of Ee- gency, while the bagpipes were not wanting in their music, nor the populace in its acclamations ; and a thou sand fair hands, from the neighbouring windows and bal- * Home's History, p. 96. Q 4 232 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVn. conies, waved white handkerchiefs in honour of the day. One lady, of distinguished beauty, Mrs. Murray of Broughton, sat on horseback beside the Cross, raising a drawn sword in one hand, and with the other distributing the white ribbons that denoted attachment to the House of Stuart. The old days of Scottish chivalry appeared to have returned. At nearly the same hour of the same memorable 17th of September, Charles, till then at the head of his ad vancing troops, set forth to take possession of the palace of his ancestors. To avoid the fire of the Castle, he made a considerable circuit to the south ; he entered the King's Park by a breach which had been made in the wall*, and approached Holyrood House by the Duke's Walk, so termed because it had been the favourite resort of his grandfather, as Duke of York, during his residence in Scotland. His march had begun on foot, but the enthu siastic crowd which pressed around him, eager to kiss his ; hand, or even to touch his clothes, nearly threw him down: he therefore mounted his charger, having on his right the Duke of Perth, on his left Lord Elcho, who had joined him the night before. His noble mien and his graceful horsemanship could not fail to strike even the most indif ferent spectators ; and they were scarcely less pleased at his national dress — a tartan coat, a blue bonnet with a white cockade, and a star of the order of St. Andrew. With fonder partiality, the Jacobites compared his features to those of his ancestor Bobert Bruce, or sought some other resemblance in that picture-gallery at Holyrood, which, according to their boast, contains so many un doubted originals of Kings who lived so many centuries before the invention of painting. On this occasion, indeed, the joy of the Jacobites knew no bound ; and their feel ings, long dissembled or pent in, from compliance with the times, now burst forth in exuberant and overflowing transports. The air resounded with their rapturous ac clamations ; and as Charles rode onwards, his boots were dimmed with their kisses and tears. f As Charles came in front of Holyrood House, the gar- * Lockhart Papers, voL ii. p. 446. f Chambers's History, vol. i. p. 136. 1745. PUBLIC ENTRY OF CHARLES. 233 rison of the Castle, informed of his progress, and eager if possible to arrest it, fired a cannon ball with such direction as to make it descend upon the palace. It did, however, but little injury, striking obliquely a part of James the Fifth's Tower, and falling into the court yard, followed by a quantity of rubbish. The Prince, undismayed at this accident, was about to enter the porch, when a gentleman stepped from the crowd, drew his sword, and raising it aloft marshalled the way up stairs. This was James Hepburn of Keith, who had taken an active part in the rebellion of 1715, and had ever since continued devoted to the Stuart cause. His main motive was abhorrence of the Act of Union ; while even his political enemies, ad miring him as " a model of ancient simplicity, manliness, " and honour," lamented that he should sacrifice himself to a visionary idea of Scottish independence.* In the evening the long-deserted chambers of the palace were enlivened with a splendid ball, and, as on the eve of another great battle — " bright the lamps shone o'er fair " women and brave men," and " a thousand hearts beat happily." f — Charles showed that neither the fatigue of the previous march, nor the anxiety of the coming con flict, could impair his natural vivacity and powers of pleasing ; and the ladies were loud in his praises, many of the younger, perhaps, thinking that the cause of so hand some a Prince and so graceful a dancer could not possibly be wrong. Next morning was devoted to more serious eares. The Standard had lately been joined by several persons of dis tinction, the Earl of Kellie, Lord Balmerino, Sir Stuart Threipland, Sir David Murray, Lockhart the younger of Carnwath, (his grandfather, James's correspondent, had died in 1732,) and several other Lowland gentlemen. From the magazine of Edinburgh Charles obtained about a thousand muskets, which served to arm many of his Highlanders, still leaving, however, several unprovided. He also laid upon the city a requisition for tents, targets, * Home's History, p. 101. f I need scarcely quoted — for who does not know and admire?— the beautiful stanzas on the Duchess of Richmond's ball at Brussels in 1815. Childe Harold, canto iii. 234 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVH. shoes, and canteens. Few of the burghers showed any inclination to enlist in his service ; but on the next day after his entry, Lord Nairn, who had been left in the north to gather reinforcements, came up with five hundred men, consisting of the clan MacLauchlan, with their chief, and other Highlanders from Athol. AU these forces — the new and the old — were passed in review at the camp before the Prince, and he announced his resolution to lead them forward against Sir John Cope, and give him battle — a courageous measure, to which he obtained the consent of all the officers. The leisure left to Charles for repose or preparation at Edinburgh was only one entire day, the 18th : on the night of Thursday, the 19th, he came to the village of Dudding- stone, and the troops lay upon their arms. Calling a council of war, the Prince proposed to march next morn ing, and meet the enemy half-way ; this being agreed to, he next asked the chiefs how they thought their men would behave. The chiefs desired Keppoch to answer for them, since he had served in the French army, and was well acquainted with the difference between High landers and regular troops. Keppoch said, that as the country had been long at peace, few or none of the private men had ever seen a battle, and it was not very easy to say how they would behave ; but he would venture to assure His Eoyal Highness that the gentlemen would be in the midst of the enemy, and that the private men, as they loved the cause and loved their chiefs, would certainly follow them. Charles then declared that he would lead them on himself, and charge in the first ranks. But here a general outcry ensued ; the chiefs exclaimed that they were ruined and undone, for if any accident befel His Boyal Highness, a defeat or a victory must be the same to them ; and on Charles's persisting, they said they would then return home, and make the best terms they could for themselves. The Prince was therefore compelled to yield, declaring, however, that at least he would lead the second line. Early on the morning of the 20th, the Highlanders began their march in a single narrow column, and with joyous anticipations of victory. As Charles put himself at their head, he drew his sword, and said to them, " Gen- 1745. sir joitn cope. 235 "tlemen, I have flung away the scabbard," which was answered by loud cheers. Their cavalry scarcely amounted to fifty, being only some gentlemen and their retainers on horseback ; but their numbers altogether were about 2500.* They had but a single piece of artillery — an iron gun, which was fired as the signal of march, but was use less for any other military purpose. Charles had expressed a wish to leave this encumbrance behind him ; but to his surprise the Highland chiefs interposed, pleading the pre judices of their followers in favour of the " Muskef s " Mother," as they termed any cannon ; and accordingly it followed the march, drawn by a long string of Highland ponies. The dunnte wassails, and the best men in each clan, were excellently armed ; but even after the supply fromEdinburgh, several of the inferior followers could only boast a single weapon — a sword, a dirk, a pistol, or even a scythe-blade set straight upon the handle. Besides the Boyal Standard, each clan displayed its banner inscribed with its gathering words, such as those of Clanranald, dhandeon co herigha (Gainsay who dares), of Mac Gregor, " E'en do and spare not," or of Athol, " Forth " Fortune, and fill the Fetters." In this guise did the men march on, interrupted only by some straggling shots from the Castle, and soon disappearing beyond its reach. I must now advert to Sir John Cope's proceedings; That general was landing his army at Dunbar on the same day that his enemy's entered Edinburgh: his dis embarkation, however, was not completed till the 18th. He had been reinforced at Inverness by 200 of Lord Loudon's men, and was joined at Dunbar by the runaway dragoons, in number 600, so that his whole force was up wards of 2200 men. A very few gentlemen from the Lowlands also came to him as volunteers, but brought no accession of force ; the principal of them, the Earl of Home, being attended only by two servants. Even so late as 1633, the Earl of Home of that day had come to greet Charles the First at the head of 600 well-mounted men, his relations and retainers. The change was, no * See the answers of Mr. Patullo, Muster-master General to the Rebel Army, and Mr. Home's note in his Appendix, p. 331. See also a long and valuable note (by the editor) to Johnstone's Memoirs, p. 29. octavo ed. 236 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVTT. doubt, mainly owing to the decline of feudal power ; but it also, in some degree, denotes the state of popular feeling in Scotland, and the difference between raising men for or against the House of Stuart. The King's troops at Dunbar became likewise the refuge of the Judges and other Crown Officers who had fled from Edinburgh before its capture, but who expected to be soon and triumphantly restored. One of the volun teers — Mr. Home, afterwards the author of Douglas — had remained a little longer in the capital to observe the force and appearance of the rebel army, and now brought Cope an accurate report of it. Sir John's own forces, besides being very nearly equal to the enemy's, were well equipped and in high spirits, the infantry seeming eager to augment, and the dragoons to retrieve, their reputation. Lie had six pieces of artillery — a most effective arm against Highlanders ; and not only the country people, who flocked from all quarters to gaze on the array, but many of the Eoyal officers, were convinced that there would be no battle, but only a pursuit, as soon as their strength was seen and understood by their opponents.* Beginning his march on the 19th, Sir John Cope encamped that night near Haddington, and resumed his advance next morning. He expected that the High landers — if indeed they awaited his approach — would be met along the common highway ; but, on the contrary, after passing the bridge of Musselburgh, they had turned inland to their right, to obtain the advantage of the rising ground ; and they occupied the brow of Carberry Hill, the spot marked in former years by the surrender of the unhappy Mary. The English General, hoping to obtain early intelligence of their movements, had sent forward two of the Edinburgh volunteers ; who, however, proved as incompetent for this as for every other military duty.f * Home's History, p. 107. He adds, "It is doubtfal whether the " people who talked in this manner really thought so ; but such was " the tone of the army, and whoever did not hold the same language " was looked upon as a lukewarm friend." f See a minute account of their adventures, Quarterly Review, No. lxxi. p. 177. It seems that these two doughty warriors could not resist the temptation of some excellent oysters and sherry at a well-remembered public house, and were both taken prisoners by a young lad, an attorney's clerk. 1745. THE TWO ARMIES IN SIGHT. 237 Cope received no report; and thus, on the 20th, after having marched about eight miles, while he continued to look out for the rebels to the west, he suddenly saw them appear on the ridge to the southward. Immediately he changed his front, and drew up his troops in order of battle, his foot in the centre, with a regiment of dragoons and three pieces of artillery on each wing. His right was covered by Colonel Gardiner's park wall and by the vil lage of Preston ; at some distance on his left stood Seton House ; and the sea, with the villages of Preston Pans and Cockenzie, lay upon his rear. When the Boyal troops first perceived the insurgents, they set up a loud shout of defiance, which was promptly answered by the Highland yell. The two armies were less than a mile apart ; the Prince's occupying the ridge beyond the little town of Tranent, with a gentle descent and a deep morass between them and their enemy. It was now about three in the afternoon*, and Charles was desirous to indulge the impatience of his troops by an onset the same day. First, however, to reconnoitre the ground, he sent forward one of his officers, Ker of Gradon, who, mounted upon a little white pony, rode down the hill in front of the enemy with the utmost coolness. Disregarding several shots that were fired at him in the discharge of his duty, he examined the ground with great care and in several directions ; and on coming to one or two walls of dry stone that intersected it, he deliberately alighted, pulled down gaps and led his horse over them. He then returned to the Prince and assured him that the morass was deep and difficult, and could not be passed to attack the English in front without risking the loss of the whole army.-f Charles accordingly desisted from his purpose, to the great dissatisfaction of the common High landers, who supposed that the enemy intended to escape from them as before at Corry Arrack; nor were they appeased until Lord Nairn with 500 men was detached to the westward, so as to prevent Sir John Cope from steal- * Macdonald's Journal (Lockhart Papers, vol. h. p. 489). Mr. Chambers, on less good authority, says noon. X Compare Home's History, p. 111., with the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 448. 238 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVII. ing off towards Edinburgh, had he so designed, unper- ceived and unopposed. Meanwhile the English General, being satisfied with the strength of his position, damped the spirit of his men by remaining thus cautiously on the defensive. In vain did Colonel Gardiner urge upon him the necessity of bolder measures ; the only aggression of the Bang's troops that afternoon was to fire a few cannon shots and dislodge a party of Highlanders from the churchyard at Tranent. The two armies lay that night (it proved dark and cold) upon their ground ; Cope, however, retiring to more com fortable quarters at Cockenzie, but Charles sleeping amidst his soldiers in a field of pease made up into ricks.* But, earlier in that evening, the young Adventurer and his principal followers had met in council, and agreed, at all hazards, to make their attack next morning opposite Tranent, where the morass seemed less impervious ; and for many hours did their minds continue to revolve their hazardous determination. Amongst them was Anderson of Whitburgh, a gentleman well acquainted with the neighbouring country, who, in the middle of the night, suddenly bethought himself of a path that from the heights where they lay wound to their right by the farm of Eingan Head, avoiding in a great measure the morass, and lead ing to the plain below. This important fact he imparted first to Hepburn of Keith, and then to Lord George Murray, who immediately went with him to awaken Charles. The Prince sat up on his bed of pease-straw, and heard with joy the tidings that assured him of speedy battle, more especially when Anderson undertook to act as his guide. He sent for Lochiel and some other chiefs ; and finding their opinion concur with his own, he pre pared at once (for by this time the night was well nigh spent) to execute the scheme. An aide-de-camp having * It was long remembered at Tranent, that late that afternoon Prince Charles, attended by the Duke of Perth and another officer, went into the httle inn of that village to dine. They had some coarse kail, or broth, and then the meat from which it had been made ; but as the landlady had previously concealed her little service of pewter for fear of the Highlanders, they had only two wooden spoons among the three, and one butcher's knife to cut the meat, which they then ate with their fingers. (Chambers's History, vol. i. p. 163.) A curious picture of a Prince on the eve of a victory. 1745. BATTLE OF PRESTON. 239 been sent to recall Lord Nairn and his detachment, the troops got under arms, and began to move forward with equal silence and speed, Anderson leading the way. The path was found lonely and unguarded, and the morass was passed without much difficulty, though even in this selected place several Highlanders sunk knee deep, and the Prince himself stumbled and fell. Soon, however, they reached the firm ground, concealed from the enemy, first by the darkness, and when day began to break, by a frosty mist. On the plain, however, the dragoon outposts heard the sound of their march, and firing their pistols, galloped off to give the alarm ; but as a surprise had formed no part of the insurgents' scheme, they were not discomposed, and only hastened to form themselves in line of battle. There had been some warm discussion as to which clan should obtain the honours of the right : it was claimed by the Macdonalds, and in prudence, but reluctantly, was yielded by the Camerons and Stuarts. Charles put himself at the head of the second line, which was close behind the first, and addressed them in these words : — " Follow me, gentlemen, and by the blessing of " God, I wiU this day make you a free and happy people .'" On the other part, Sir John Cope lost no time in dis posing his troops, his order of battle being nearly the same as when he first saw the enemy on the previous day, except that the men's faces were now turned in the opposite direction, towards the east instead of towards the west. His infantry stood in the centre, Hamilton's dragoons on his left, and Gardiner's, with the artillery before them, on his right next the morass. The mists now rolling away before the rising sun revealed to each army the position of the other. But the Highlanders did not long stand at gaze. First, with uncovered heads, uttering a short prayer, they pulled their bonnets over their brows, and as the pipers blew the signal, they rushed forward, each clan a separate mass, and raising a war-cry that gradually rose into a terrific yell. The first reached was the Eoyal Artillery, which was not served by regular gunners, but by some seamen whom Cope had hastily collected from the fleet. The Camerons and Stuarts, running straight on the muzzles of the cannon, took them by storm, while the scared artillerymen 240 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVII. dispersed in all directions. Colonel Gardiner now com manded a charge upon the advancing enemy, encouraging both by voice and example his dragoons. But these re ceiving a heavy rolling fire from the Highlanders, and seeing them come on with their drawn broad-swords, wavered — gave way — and struck with a panic, galloped off in all directions. On the right, at nearly the same time, and nearly the same manner, did the Macdonalds scatter Hamilton's regiment before them. The English infantry now remained uncovered at both flanks, but yet undismayed, and poured upon the Highland centre a steady and well-directed fire, before which several of their best men fell. Amongst these was James MacGregor, a son of the well-known Bob Boy, who, though struck by five wounds, still continued from the ground to call out and animate his men. But on coming to close quarters, the Highlanders parried with their targets the soldiers' bayonets, and the separate masses of the clans broke through on several points the extended line of the King's army ; by which means the whole of the latter was thrown into confusion, while the inclosures and park wall of Preston impeded their retreat. So rapid was this Highland onset, that in five or six minutes the whole brunt of the battle was over. Never was a victory more complete. There was scarce any cavalry, indeed, to pursue the dragoons ; but not above 170 men of the infantry escaped, all the rest being either killed or taken prisoners. The whole number of slain in the Eoyal army was nearly 400 ; and of these none was more lamented than Colonel Gardiner. When forsaken by his horsemen in battle and left almost alone, he saw a party of the foot who were then fighting bravely close by, but who had no officer to head them : " These " brave fellows," said he, " will be cut to pieces for want " of a commander," and riding up, he cheered them on to the charge ; but, in a few moments, he was cut down by a Highlander with a scythe, and despatched with several wounds, close to his own park wall.* Thus died a gallant * Dr. Doddridge's Remarkable Passages in the Life of Colonel Gardiner, p. 187. Gardiner was carried senseless to the manse of Tranent, where he expired a. few hours afterwards, and was buried close to his children in his own, the village, church. 1745. VICTORY OF TOE HIGHLANDERS. 241 soldier and a worthy man. In his youth he had been drawn to ardent devotion by a miracle, as he believed it ; — while awaiting an assignation with a married woman, he saw, or thought he saw, the Saviour on the Cross, sur rounded on all sides by a glory, and calling him to repentance — a call which he obeyed ever afterwards by a most exemplary life.* The insurgents' loss in this conflict was only thirty killed and seventy wounded. The Highlanders wreaked their whole fury on such dragoon horses as they could reach, believing, in their ignorance of cavalry, that these animals were trained to bite and tear in battle. But as to their vanquished enemies, Charles, who had been scarcely fifty paces behind the vanguard, immediately exerted himself, and, in a little while with success, to command and enforce mercy. In fact, his moderation in his victory, whether proceeding from temper or from policy, has been universally acknowledged.-!- He remained on the field till midday, giving orders for the relief of the wounded of both armies, without any distinction of friend or foe. It is recorded, also, that one of his officers coming up to con gratulate him, and saying, " Sir, there are your enemies at " your feet ;" the Prince, far from exulting, expressed only his compassion for what he termed his father's deluded subjects.J No sooner was the victory decided, than most of the victors disbanded for plunder. The standards and other trophies, and the military chest, containing about 2500/., were brought to the Prince, but all other spoils were re served by the captors for themselves. Unaccustomed to luxuries, the rude mountaineers looked half in scorn and half in wonder on the refinements of civilised life. A quantity of chocolate taken was afterwards cried in the streets of Perth under the name of " Johnnie Cope's " salve ! " One man, who had got a watch, very soon sold it for a trifle, observing, with great glee, that " he was ' glad to be rid of the creature, for she lived no time after * Doddridge. See a note to Waverlcy, revised ed. vol. i. p. 72. •f Home's History, p. 122. X MS. Memoirs of James Maxwell of KirkconnelL See a note to Waverley, revised ed. vol. ii. p. 273. VOL. III. R 242 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVTI. " he caught her " — the machinery having in fact stopped for want of winding up ! Another man exchanged a horse for a horse-pistol ! Uncouth old Highlanders were seen strutting about in the officers' fine clothes ; others appeared hurrying away with a large military saddle upon their hacks ; and a great number immediately set off, without leave or notice, to their mountains on purpose to secure their spoil. Of the dragoons who had fled from the field of battle, a small party made their way to Edinburgh, where they rode up the High Street at full gallop, and with prodigious confusion and uproar. They continued their race up the hill to the Castle as their surest place of refuge ; but the Governor, so far from admitting them, sent them word to hegone, or he would open his guns upon them as cowards who had deserted their colours. Scared at this new peril, they turned their horses, and pursued their flight towards the west. But the greater number having been collected, though not rallied, by Sir John Cope and the Earls of ioudon and Home, were seized with a fresh panic the same morning, and in spite of every exertion of their chiefs, went off again at full speed towards Coldstream. Even at Coldstream they did not feel secure, but after a night's rest sought shelter behind the ramparts of Berwick. There they arrived in the most disgraceful disorder ; and Sir John was received by his brother officer Lord Mark Kerr with the sarcastic compliment, that he believed he was the first general on record who had carried the tidings of his own defeat ! This battle, called of Preston, or sometimes of Preston Pans, by the well-affected party, received the name of Gladsmuir from the insurgents, out of respect, as it would seem, to certain ancient predictions. " On Gladsmuir " shall the battle be," — says a Book of Prophecies printed at Edinburgh in 1615; but Gladsmuir — a large open heath — hes a full mile to the east of the actual scene of conflict. 1745. UNPREPARED STATE OF ENGLAND. 243 CHAPTEE XXVHI. At the news of the growing insurrection, King Georgp had set out from Hanover, and on the 31st of August arrived in London. He found that the Begency in his absence had not neglected any measure of precaution ; even on the mere apprehension of the troubles a warrant (though, as we have seen, in vain) was issued against the Duke of Perth ; and with better success were Sir Hector Maclean and two or three others brought prisoners to England.* A requisition had been sent to the Dutch for the 6000 auxiliaries they were bound to furnish ; a reso lution taken to recall some of the English regiments from Flanders. Marshal Wade had likewise been directed to collect as many troops as he could at Newcastle, and the militia of several counties was called out. But the spirit of the people in no degree responded to the efforts of the government ; they remained cold lookers on, not indeed apparently favouring the rebelhon, but as little disposed to strive against it. A member of the administration, and a man of no desponding temper, Henry Fox, in his con fidential letters at this period, admits and deplores the passive state of public feeling : " England, Wade says, " and I believe, is for the first comer ; and if you can tell " whether the 6000 Dutch and the ten battalions of " English, or 5000 French or Spaniards, will be here first, " you know our fate.-j- .... The French are not come, " God be thanked ! But had 5000 landed in any part of " this island a week ago, I verily believe the entire con- " quest would not have cost them a battle." | On the King's return, moreover, the factions of the Court aggravated the difficulties of the country. His Majesty's whole confidence was centered on the fallen minister Granville, who awaited only some favourable * Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 171. ; f To Sir C. B. Williams, Sept. 5. 1745. X To the same, Sept 19. 1745. Coxe's Lord Walpole of Woltertou. k 2 244 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CnAP. XXYTn. opening to drive the Pelhams from power, and who, from rivahy to them, continued till the battle of Preston to make light of the rebellion. According to Horace Walpole, " Lord Granville and his faction persist in persuading " the King that it is an affair of no consequence ; and " for the Duke of Newcastle, he is glad when the rebels " make any progress, in order to confute Lord Granville's " assertions!"* — It was amidst such feuds and jealousies that the ministry had to make their preparations for retrieving the lost battle, and for meeting the Parliament which was summoned for the 17th of October. On departing from France without permission from its Government, Charles had left a letter of apolojry and solicitation for the King, which was dehvered after he had sailed, and was seconded by the warm entreaties of his friend the Duke de Bouillon.-f Still more effectual were the tidings of his first successes. Louis became well disposed, both in self-interest and generosity, to aid him, and continued to despatch several small supplies of arms and money, some of which were intercepted by the English Tuizers, while others safely reached their destination. 3ut another far more important diversion in his favour was meditated by the Court of France. His young brother, Henry of York, having arrived from Eome, it was designed to put him at the head of the Irish regiments in the French service, and of several others, and enable him to effect a landing in England; and already were preparations for that object in active progress in Dunkirk. Charles, conscious how much his final success would depend upon French succour, had determined to lose no opportunity of pressing it. On his victory at Preston he sent over Mr. Kelly with letters to the Court of Versailles and to his father J; three weeks later Sir James Stewart was despatched. Both these emissaries succeeded in safely * To Sir H Mann, September 20. 1745. He adds seven days later, after the battle, " Lord Granville still buoys up the King's spirits " His Majesty uses his ministers as ill as possible, and discourages " every body that would risk their lives and fortunes with him." t Culloden Papers, p. 206. X See these letters in the Appendix. I am surprised that Mr. Chambers should have been imposed upon by a clumsy forgery, which he inserts in his History, vol. i. p. 188. 1745. PROJECTS AND PREPARATIONS. 245 arriving at Paris ; Kelly, however, narrowly escaping arrest from the British consul at Camp Veer in Zealand. But neither of them throve in his negotiations. Cabals were already at work against the intended expedition; some pretext of delay was always invented, some obstacle always interposed. Even the warmest partisan of the Stuarts, Cardinal Tencin, complained to Kelly of the backwardness of the English Jacobites, and insisted, as a pledge of their sincerity, that, before the armament sailed, Sir John Hinde Cotton should resign his office at Court. In vain did Kelly reply that Cotton could not reasonably be expected to incur that useless risk, since his resignation, at such a crisis, would at once be followed by his arrest and committal to the Tower.* — Thus did the French Government long defer, and finally lose, the fairest op portunity it had ever seen since the Eevolution of establish ing its influence and principles in Britain. Prince Charles's first wish and design upon his victory was to march immediately towards London, at the head of his little army. On the very next morning he de spatched an agent into Northumberland, with instructions to stir up the country and prepare the way for his coming.-j" Had Charles really been able to push onwards with a body of two or three thousand men, there is strong reason to believe, from the state of things I have described in England — the previous apathy — and the recent terror — - the want of troops — and the distraction of councils — that he might have reached the capital with but httle opposition, and succeeded in at least a temporary restora tion. There was no fortified place upon his way beyond the Tweed, except Newcastle, and even at Newcastle his arms had struck the deepest dismay. We learn from Wesley, who was there at the time, " The walls are " mounted with cannon, and all things prepared for " sustaining an assault; but our poor neighbours on either " hand are busy in removing their goods, and most of * Secret examination of Murray of Broughton, August 13. 1746. These and many other curious particulars were suppressed in his public evidence. f This agent's name was Hicksonj he was discovered and arrested at Newcastle. See his instructions in the Appendix, dated Sept. 22. 1745. a 3 246 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVHI. " the best houses in our street are left without either "furniture or inhabitants."* If such was the feeling behind ramparts, what must it have been in open and defenceless towns ? On the other hand, the Prince's Scottish advisers were nearly unanimous against an expedition into England. It was urged, as a reason for at least delaying it, that he might triple or quadruple his army by reinforcements from the Highlands, and obtain the advantage of the French supplies that were beginning to arrive at Montrose, Dundee, and other points of the eastern coast. But the motive, which more than any other weighed with Charles to forego his resolution, was the number of Highlanders who were already hastening towards their mountains in order to secure their plunder ; so that, had he marched tin from the field of battle, he could scarcely perhaps have mustered 1500 men beneath his standard. Accordingly the young Adventurer, having passed the night of his victory at Pinkie House, returned next evening to fix his residence for some time at Holyrood. On the same day his army marched back into Edinburgh with every token of triumph, displaying the prisoners, the spoils, and the standards they had taken, while the multi tude greeted them with repeated acclamations, and the pibrochs struck up the old Cavalier tune, " The King "- shall enjoy his own again." Amidst the exulting licence of this tumultuous entry, many of the Highlanders fired their pieces into the air ; but one of them having been accidentally loaded with ball, it grazed the forehead of Miss Nairn, an enthusiastic Jacobite, who was waving her handkerchief from a neighbouring balcony. She was stunned for some moments, but on coming to herself, her first words were, not of concern at the pain, or of resent ment at the carelessness : " Thank God," she exclaimed, as soon as she could speak, "that the accident has " happened to me, whose principles are known. Had it' " befallen a Whig, they would have said it was done on " purpose !"f r * Wesley's Journal, September 23. 1745. t Note to Waverley, revised ed. vol. ii. p. 202. Miss Nairn sur vived so long as to be an acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott in his younger days. 1745. PRINCE CHARLES AT HOLYROOD. 247 ; The battle of Preston made the Prince master of all Scotland, except some districts beyond Inverness, the Highland forts, and the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. Lu almost every town was the Pretender proclaimed as " King James the Eighth," while the public money was levied for his service. On the city of Glasgow, at once the richest and the least friendly to his cause, an extra ordinary payment of 5000J. was imposed. The late public authorities either fled to England, or skulked in privacy, while the Jacobites, throwing off the mask, took no pains to dissemble their rapturous joy, and loudly vaunted of their young Prince, who, according to their own phrase at the time, " could eat a dry crust, and sleep on pease- " straw, take his dinner in four minutes, and win a battle "in five!"* Meanwhile this idol of their affections was exercising at Holyrood all the attributes of sovereignty, and making every exertion to confirm and heighten the popular feel ing in his favour. He forbade all public rejoicings for his victory, stating as his reason the loss which his father's misguided subjects had sustained. The Banking Companies having retired into the Castle, to the great public inconvenience, he invited them to return by a proclamation, assuring them of full protection; but none obeyed the summons. The clergy of Edinburgh were in like manner exhorted in another proclamation to resume their religious duties : with a timidity, however, for which they were afterwards censured by their own party, they persisted in absenting themselves. One only, MacVicar by name, the minister of the West Church, appeared as usual in his pulpit, and even continued to pray for King- George. Charles was urged to punish this boldness, but wisely refused to disturb him ; and Mr. MacVicar, perhaps in gratitude for the toleration, added to his prayer on the next occasion, " As for the young man that is come " among us to seek an earthly Crown, we beseech thee in " mercy take him to thyself, and give him a Crown of* "glory!" - Forbearance in such a case was easy, but in that of* Edinburgh Castle it involved a heavy sacrifice. Having * Caledonian Mercury, ap. Chambers's Hist. vol. i. p. 204. 248 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVUL drawn a close blockade around the fortress, and being informed that the garrison had only a six weeks' stock of provisions, Charles might reasonably hope that this important stronghold must ere long fall into his hands. General Guest, however, wrote as governor to the magis trates of Edinburgh, that unless the communication were re-opened he would fire upon the city and lay it in ashes. The affrighted townsmen obtained a day's respite in order to lay the letter before Charles at Holyrood. The Prince's answer was likewise given in writing ; he de clared that he was surprised at the barbarity of an officer who could threaten ruin to the inhabitants of Edinburgh for not doing what it was out of their power to do ; that, if even compassion should make him raise the blockade of the castle, the Governor might next with equal reason require him to leave the city with his troops, and resign all the advantages of victory; and that, if any wanton mischief were attempted, he would make full reprisal upon the estates of the officers in the Castle, " and even " upon all who are known to be open abettors of the " German Government." * This answer being transmitted by the citizens, they obtained from the General a suspen sion of his threatened cannonade until the return of an express, which was sent to London for orders. Mean while the Governor expected that nothing should be attempted against his garrison. But this condition not being clearly understood by the common Highlanders, they, a few days afterwards, fired at some people whom they saw carrying provisions up the hill. Upon this General Guest opened his own fire ; the streets were swept with cartridge shot, and several of the inhabitants as well as Highlanders were killed. A new and most earnest appeal was now made to Charles's mercy, and he either found it necessary, or felt it desirable, to yield in his second answer. " As we have threatened, we might "justly proceed to use the powers which God has put in " our hands to chastise those who are instrumental in " the ruin of this capital, by reprisals upon the estates " and fortunes of those who are against us ; but we think * Charles's answer (Sept. 30. 1745) is printed in the Collection of his State Papers, p. 29. 1743. CLEMENCY TO THE PRISONERS. 249 " it no way derogatory to the glory of a Prince to sus- " pend punishment, or alter a resolution, when thereby " the lives of innocent men can be saved. In consequence " of this sentiment the blockade of the Castle is hereby " taken off."* From this time forward, therefore, sup plies were freely allowed to pass into the fortress, its cannonade ceased, but all hopes of its reduction disap peared. In another transaction of this time, however, the Prince's generosity excited no small discontent among his followers. It had been proposed to send one of the prisoners of Preston to London, in order to demand of that Court a cartel for the exchange of prisoners taken, or to be taken, in the war, and to declare that if this were refused, and if the Prince's friends, falling into the enemy's hands, were put to death as rebels, the Prince would be compelled to treat his captives in the same manner. It was evident that a cartel would be of the utmost advantage to Charles's cause, as his well-wishers would be far more ready to declare for him if they had only to fear the chances of war in the field ; and it was argued that a few severe examples would induce the English officers to remonstrate, and the English Govern ment to comply : but to this scheme, however plausible, and however warmly urged, Charles stubbornly refused his assent. " It is below me," he said, " to make empty " threats, and I will never put such as these into execu- ¦*' tion ; I cannot in cold blood take away lives which I " have saved in the heat of action." f According to Charles's orders great clemency was shown to the prisoners of Preston. Within a few days the officers were liberated on parole, and permitted to Eve at large in the town, and scarcely more restraint was imposed upon the common men. But one officer break ing his parole and escaping into the Castle, both officers and privates were sent into temporary custody at, or near, Perth, where, however, it was found both difficult and expensive to confine them. Some few were persuaded to * Charles's Proclamation, Oct. 5. 1745. t MS. Memoirs of Maxwell of Kirkconnell ; from a copy ia pos-? session of Sir Walter Scott. 250 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVTn. enlist in the Prince's army, and the greater number were released on taking an oath not to serve against the House of Stuart for one twelvemonth ; an engagement which is alleged, though not perhaps on adequate authority, to have been broken by many. The first thought of Charles had been to summon a Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh, but the practical dif ficulties of that scheme were so great that he relinquished it. He published a proclamation, however, on the 9th of October, denouncing " the pretended Parliament of the " Elector of Hanover," summoned at Westminster for the 17th, warning the English not to attend, and declaring it high treason for the Scotch. Another longer and more important proclamation, issued by Charles on the 10th, was designed as a pledge of his future conduct, and an incentive to popular support. He had observed that the measure most obnoxious on the north of the Tweed was the act of Union ; it was still clamoured against as a fatal blow to the national independence ; and no saying was more common among the Jacobites, than that they were bound to restore, not merely the King, but the kingdom, of Scotland.* In his proclamation, therefore, Charles takes care to announce that his father would never ratify this " pretended Union ;" but, " with respect to every " law or act of Parliament since the Bevolution, so far as '* in a free and legal Parliament they shall be approved, " he will confirm them." He also touches upon the deli cate subjects of the public funds and the Protestant religion, and repels the various imputations that had been urged against his cause. " We must further declare " the sentiments of our Boyal Father with regard to the " national debt. That it has been contracted under an " unlawful government nobody can disown, no more than " that it is now a most heavy load upon the nation ; yet " in regard that it is for the greatest part due to those " very subjects whom he promises to protect, cherish, " and defend, he is resolved to take the advice of his " Parliament concerning it Our present at- ' " tempt is not undertaken to impose upon any a religion " which they dislike, but to secure them all the enjoyment * See for example the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 301. 1745. THE prince's PROCLAMATION. 251 " of those which are respectively at present established " among them, either in England, Scotland, or Ireland. " And this security for your religion, proper- " ties, and laws, we ratify and confirm in our own name, " before Almighty God, upon the faith of a Christian, " and the honour of a Prince. " Let me now expostulate this weighty matter with " you, my father's subjects Do not the pulpits " and congregations of the clergy, as well as your weekly " papers, ring with the dreadful threats of Popery, " Slavery, Tyranny, and Arbitrary Power, which are " now ready to be imposed upon you by the formidable " powers of France and Spain ? Is not my Boyal father " represented as a bloodthirsty tyrant, breathing out no- " thing but destruction to all those who will not imme- " diately embrace an odious rehgion ? Or have I myself " been better used ? But listen only to the naked truth. " I with my own money hired a vessel, ill-provided with " money, arms, or friends ; I arrived in Scotland attended " by seven persons ; I publish the King my father's " declaration, and proclaim his title with pardon in one " hand, and in the other hberty of conscience, and the " most solemn promises to grant whatever a free Parlia- " ment shall propose for the happiness of the people. I " have, I confess, the greatest reason to adore the good- " ness of Almighty God, who has in so remarkable a " manner protected me and my small army through the " many dangers to which we were at first exposed, and " who has led me in the way to victory, and to the capital " of this ancient kingdom, amidst the acclamations of the " King my father's subjects As to the outcries " formerly raised against the Boyal Family, whatever " miscarriages might have given occasion for them have " been more than atoned for since, and the nation has " now an opportunity of being secured against the like " for the future. That our family has suffered exile " during these fifty-seven years every body knows. Has " the nation during that period of time been the more " happy and flourishing for it ? Have you found reason <* to love and cherish your governors as the fathers of the " people of Great Britain and L-eland ? Has a family, H upon whom a faction unlawfully bestowed the diadem, 252 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVIH. " of a rightful prince, retained a due sense of so great a "trust and favour? Have you found more humanity " and condescension in those who were not born to a " Crown, than in my Boyal forefathers ? Have they, or " do they, consider only the interest of these nations ? " Have you reaped any other benefit from them than an " immense load of debts ? If I am answered in the " affirmative, why has their government been so oftem " railed at, in all your public assemblies ? Why has tha " nation been so long crying out for redress ? " The fears of the nation from the powers of France " and Spain appear still more vain and groundless. My " expedition was undertaken unsupported by either. " But indeed when I see a foreign force brought by my " enemies against me, and when I hear of Dutch, Danes, " Hessians, and Swiss, the Elector of Hanover's allies " being called over to protect his government against the " King's subjects, is it not high time for the Bang my " father to accept also of assistance ? Who has the better " chance to be independent of foreign powers — he who, " with the aid of his own subjects, can wrest the govern- " ment out of the hands of an intruder, or he who cannot, " without assistance from abroad, support his govern- " ment, though estabhshed by all the civil power, and " secured by a strong military force, against the undis- " ciplined part of those he has ruled over for so many " years ? Let him, if he pleases, try the experiment . " let him send off his foreign hirelings, and put all upon " the issue of a battle, and I will trust only to the King " my father's subjects!"* This spirited proclamation was not, we may presume, without effect in drawing more recruits to Charles's standard — the great object to which all his measures were directed. Many volunteers joined him from the Lowlands, and new tribes of Highlanders poured down * Murray of Broughton, in his secret examination (August 13. 1746), says, that this proclamation was drawn up by Sir Thomas Sheridan and Sir James Stewart. No doubt it may have been cor rected as to the language, and must have been as to the spelling ; but the style appears to me very much to resemble that of Charles's letters, allowing for the difference between a studied and a hasty com position. 1745. REINFORCEMENTS OF MEN. 253 from their mountains. Lord Ogilvie, eldest son of the Earl of Airly, brought 600 men, mostly of his own name, from Forfar. Another regiment of 400 from the hills of Aberdeenshire came under Gordon of Glenbucket. In the same country Lord Lewis Gordon, brother of the Duke, declared for Charles, and undertook to raise the vassals of his house. Macpherson of Cluny, having gone from Perth to levy his followers, returned with about 300. Lord Balmerino, a bold, bluff, hard-drinking veteran, of the old Scottish stamp, took up arms again, as he had in 1715. Another still more important accession was gained ' in Lord Pitsligo, a man also in advanced years, of gentle temper, and peculiar wariness and prudence. " I always " observed him," says Dr. King, " ready to defend any " other person who was ill-spoken of in his company. T£ " the person accused were of his acquaintance, my Lord " Pitsligo would always find something good to say of " him as a counterpoise. If he were a stranger and quite " unknown to him, my Lord would urge in his defence " the general corruption of manners, and the frailties and "infirmities of human nature!"* From this cautious temper, which he was known to possess, the gentlemen of his neighbourhood in Banffshire deemed him a safe leader, arid were the more easily persuaded to join him when he espoused the Stuart cause : they formed with their re tainers about 150 cavalry under his command ; besides which, he also brought a small body of foot. With Sir Alexander Macdonald and MacLeod the Stuart cause found less favour. Only three days after the battle Charles had despatched to them a messenger, ex horting them, but in vain, to join his standard. f Lovat likewise, though strongly urged in Charles's letters, con tinued to waver between his hopes and fears. For some time he brooded over a scheme of collecting a new High land army at the Corry Arrack, which should affect neutrality, and side at last with the victorious. But finding this impracticable, and afraid of losing all credit with the Pretender's party, he finally adopted the dastardly middle course, of exposing his son's life to protect his * Anecdotes of his own Time, p. 145. f See his Instructions in Home's Appendix, p. 324. 254 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAF. XXVIII. own. He privately directed that son, the Master of Lovat, to march towards the Prince at the head of seven or eight hundred of his clan, protesting all the while to his neighbour, the Lord President, that the march was made to his infinite sorrow and against his repeated orders. But his previous hesitation had lasted so long, that the Frasers did not arrive at Perth until after the Prince had entered England. And it may be alleged, with great show of truth, that the defection or delay of these three chiefs, MacLeod, Macdonald, and Lovat — who could, had they heartily engaged, have brought a further force of 4000 men — turned the nearly balanced scale against the success of the English expedition, and the triumph of the Jacobite cause. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, Charles's army, within six weeks after his victory, mustered nearly 6000 men. These were encamped at Duddingstone, and sup plied with tents, partly from the requisition upon Edin burgh, and partly from the spoils of Cope. The hardy mountaineers, however, were not easily prevailed upon to sleep otherwise than in the open air, and only yielded at length, as they said, out of respect to the Prince's orders. Charles came daily to visit or review them, and sometimes passed the night in the camp, lying down without taking off his clothes. He formed the cavalry, besides Lord Pitsligo's, into two troops as guards ; the first to be com manded by Lord Elcho, the second by the Earl of Kilmar nock. Great pains were taken in like manner to equip and discipline the infantry ; their rations being punctually supplied, and their pay fixed at sixpence a day for the common men, and a shilling for those of the front ranks in the Highland regiments. But with every care the camp still presented an irregular and uncouth appearance. A spy, who was sent from England about the middle of October, reports as follows : " They consist of an odd " medley of grey beards and no beards, — old men fit to " drop into the grave, and young boys whose swords are " near equal to their weight, and I . really believe more " than their length. Four or five thousand may be very " good determined men ; but the rest are mean, dirty, " viUanous-looking rascals, who seem. more anxious about " plunder than their Prince, and would be better pleased 1745. SUPPLIES OF MONEY. 255 "with four shillings than a Crown."* — Yet we may observe that, in spite of such forbidding looks, their acts •of outrage or depredation to the country-people were at this time extremely few. It was not uncommon, indeed, for them to stop some respectable portly citizen as he passed along, levelling their muskets at him with savage and threatening gestures; but, on being asked by the trembling townsman what they wanted, they usually answered " a baubee," that is, a halfpenny ! Several more serious robberies that had been at first imputed to them were soon clearly traced to some professed thieves — a class abounding the more, since the insurgents had every where opened the public jails, and who now assumed the Highland dress and the white cockade as a convenient disguise for their misdeeds. Against these mock High landers Charles issued a proclamation'!', and succeeded in recovering and restoring a part of the stolen property. Money was scarcely less needful than men to the young Pretender, and this he obtained in three modes — free gifts, forced contributions, and foreign supplies. Several gentlemen, too aged or too timid to take up arms, displayed their zeal for him in purse instead of person ; thus, for example, the old Earl of Wemyss sent 5001. The public revenues and the King's-land rents were levied through out the greater part of Scotland, as by a regular and esta blished government, and all arrears of them called in.| Forced loans, also, were imposed upon some places, as Glasgow; and the factors of the estates forfeited in 1715 were commanded to render their accounts, and pay their balances § ; all under the threat of military execution, with fire and sword. The goods in the custom-houses at * MS. Report quoted in Chambers's Hist. vol. i. p. 214. This spy obtained an audience of the Prince as a pretended partisan, and was asked many questions as to the number of troops and the state of . public feeling in England. X Collection of Declarations, p. 33. It is amusing to find the Jacobite newspaper allege the jails flung open by themselves as a proof of public virtue. " Among the observables of this time, one js " that there is not in the city jail one single prisoner for crime, debt, " or otherwise. The like, perhaps, never could have been said before ! ' — Caledonian Mercury, October 2. 1745. X Proclamation, October 15. 1745. § Circular letter to the Factors, September 30. 1745. 256 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVHI, Leith and other ports having been seized, Charles forth with converted them into money, by selling them back to the smugglers, from whom they had been taken. Less invidiously was his treasury replenished from a French ship, which anchored at Montrose, with 5000Z. on board. Three other ships coming to the same coast brought 1000Z. more; they also conveyed about five thousand stand of arms, a train of six field-pieces, and several French and Irish officers. With these came over, like wise, M. de Boyer, called the Marquis d'EguiUes, and brother of the well-known Marquis d'Argens, who was entrusted with a letter of congratulation to Charles from Louis the Fifteenth. This was the principal business of his mission ; but the Prince, with excellent policy, insisted on calling him " Monseigneur de Boyer,"* and receiving him with studied ceremony, as the accredited ambassador from the King of France to the Prince Begent of Scot land. This belief, together with the promise of a French landing in Charles's favour, tended in no small degree to raise or to sustain the spirits of his partisans. To carry on these and his other measures with an air of royalty, Charles had named a council, consisting of the two Lieutenant-Generals, the Duke of Perth and Lord George Murray ; the Quartermaster-General, O'Sullivan ; the Colonel of the Horse Guards, Lord Elcho ; Secretary Murray, Lords Ogilvie, Nairn, Pitsligo, and Lewis Gordon, Sir Thomas Sheridan, and all the Highland chiefs. This council he appointed to meet him at ten o'clock every morning, in his drawing-room. It was then his custom, first to declare his own opinion, and afterwards to ask that of every other member in their turn. The deliberations- were often protracted and discordant, and embittered by rivalry between the Scotch and Irish officers. According to Lord Elcho, " there was one third of the council whose " principles were, that Kings and Princes can never think " wrong, so in consequence they always confirmed what- " ever the Prince said ; " and he moreover alleges, that " His Boyal Highness could not bear to hear any body " differ in sentiment from him, and took a dislike to every * Caledonian Mercury, October 16. 1745. 1745. LEVEES AND BALLS AT HOLYROOD. 257 " body that did."* We should not forget that Lord Elcho wrote thus in exile, after a violent quarrel and total estrangement between him and the Prince ; yet, on the whole, from his and other testimony, we may clearly con clude, that Charles was too fiery in his temper and too fixed in his opinions. Before the council, Charles always held a levee ; when the council rose, he dined in public with his principal officers, and then rode out with his Life Guards, usually to his camp at Duddingstone. On returning in the even ing, he held a drawing-room for the ladies of his party ;. and not unfrequently closed the day by giving them a>. 1 ball in the old picture-gallery of Holyrood. His affability , and constant wish to please were neither relaxed by his good fortune nor yet clouded by his cares : at table he- often combined a compliment to his followers with a sar casm on his rival, by saying, that, after his restoration,. Scotland should be his Hanover, and Holyrood House hi» Herrenhausen.j- At his camp he talked familiarly even to the meanest Highlanders.^ At his balls he was careful to call alternately for Highland and Lowland tunes, so as to avoid showing an invidious preference to either, — to such minute particulars did his anxiety to please descend ! The fair sex in general, throughout Scotland, became devoted to his cause ; — those who conversed with him, won by his gaiety and gallantry ; those in a remoter sphere, dazzled by his romantic enterprise and situation, and moved by the generous compassion of a woman's heart. The heir of Eobert the Bruce come to claim his birthright, and animated, as they fondly believed, by a kindred spirit ! — the master of a kingdom, yet reigning beneath the cannon of a hostile fortress ! — an exile two months before ! — a conqueror to-day ! — perhaps a mon arch, or perhaps again an outcast and fugitive to-morrow ! Charles, having now collected as large an army as his present means allowed, was eager to employ it in an expedition to England. His Scottish counsellors, on the contrary, argued, that he ought to content himself with * Lord Elcho's MS. Memoirs : a large extract, inserted in tho Tales of a Grandfather, vol. iii. p. 54 — 58. f Chambers's Hist. vol. i. p. 211. X Report of the spy sent from England, October, 1745. VOL. HI. S 258 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVHL the possession of their ancient kingdom ; to think only of defending it against the English armies when they marched against him, but to run no hazard in attempts at further conquest * : a strange and thoughtless advice, evidently founded on traditional feelings, rather than on sober reason! With better judgment the young Prince perceived, that in his circumstances to await attack was to ensure defeat, and that his only hope of retaining Scotland lay in conquering England. It might indeed, with more ground, be objected to his enterprise, that his present force was wholly insufficient for it, and would expose both his cause and his person to imminent peril. Yet still, considering that the English could hardly be incited to an insurrection, nor the French to a descent, without Charles's personal appearance, and that further delay would probably strengthen the established govern ment in a far greater proportion than himself, the course of present danger was undoubtedly the best for final safety and success. At three several councils did Charles accordingly propose to march into England and fight Marshal Wade, whose army, consisting partly of the Dutch auxiliaries and partly of English regiments, was gathered at Newcastle ; but as often was his proposal overruled. At length he declared, in a very peremptory manner, "I " see, Gentlemen, you are determined to stay in Scotland " and defend your country, but T am not less resolved to " try my fate in England, though I should go alone." Thus pressed in honour, the chiefs reluctantly yielded ; limiting their consent, however, to a march a little way across the Border. It was then urged by Lord George Murray, that since they needs must enter England, it should be on the Cumberland rather than on the Nor thumberland side : for, if Marshal Wade advanced towards Carlisle to give them battle, he must harass his troops by a fatiguing march through a difficult country, and the Highlanders would fight to advantage among hills not * See these views vehemently maintained by Chevalier Johnstone ; Memoirs, p. 45. 8vo ed. ; a work that may be consulted for opinions, though not trusted for facts. He adds, " By fomenting the natural " hatred which the Scots have at all times manifested against the " English, the war would have become national ; and this would have " been a most fortunate circumstance for the Prince." ¦1745. MEASURES OF THE GOVERNMENT. 259 unlike their own. If, on the contrary, the Marshal re mained inactive, the Prince would be at liberty to move where he pleased, and more time would be afforded for the French to land, or the English to rise. This scheme, which seems a great improvement on Charles's first idea, was finally resolved upon ; the secret, however, was well kept, it being generally given out and believed that they were to march straight against Wade. To mislead the English as long as possible, the Chevalier adopted another suggestion of Lord George, that the army should proceed in two columns, both to join on a day appointed near Carlisle ; the first, with the baggage and incumbrances, to go by the direct road of Moffat, but the second and" lighter one, under the Prince in person, to pass by Kelso, as if with the design of pushing on into Northumberland. At this period, however, the English Government was no longer, as after Preston, unprepared or defenceless i their regiments had arrived from Flanders, their auxili aries from Holland. Besides Wade's army at Newcastle, which amounted already to near ten thousand men, another under the Duke of Cumberland was forming in the midland counties. The militia had been raised in many districts, and the Duke of Bedford, with thirteen' other noblemen, had undertaken to raise each a new regiment of his own. The House of Commons, moreover, had voted not merely loyal addresses but liberal supplies ; and consented to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. On their part, all the ruling statesmen had begun to open their eyes to the magnitude of the impending danger; and the Chancellor, starting as from a lethargy, remarked, that he had thought lightly of the Highlands, but now saw they made a third of the island in the map.* Every exertion was used to rouse and stimulate the people, not only by a just representation that their religion and liberties were in peril, but also by lower, and probably' more effectual arts. Thus, for example, the butchers were reminded that the Papists eat no meat in Lent f; * Earl of Marchmont's Diary, October 7. 1745. X The placard was as follows : — "To all jolly Butchers : My " bold hearts, the Papists eat no meat on Wednesdays, Fridays, ", Saturdays, nor during Lent. Tour friend, John Steel." — IT. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, October 4. 1745. S 2 260 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVTH. and the Highlanders were held forth as brutal savages, from whom the worst excesses might be feared. I have now lying before me a pamphlet, " by a British Lady." " Let every mother," says the fair authoress, " consider, " if this inundation is not stopped, her prattling boys, the "pledges of her love and the darlings of her heart, may " be torn from her sight, and slavery, the French galleys, "and the Spanish Inquisition be their portion. What " may be the fate of her girls, whom she watches over " with so much tender care, I have already hinted, and "think the subject too horrible, to resume — indeed too " horrible even but to mention : what then must be the "reality?"* It may be doubted, however, whether, with all these exertions and exaggerations, much effect was produced upon the great body of the people. The county of York seems to have been the only one where the gentry and yeomen, headed by their Archbishop, made a public and' zealous appearance. The fourteen promised regiments all vanished in air or dwindled to jobs : — " These most " disinterested Colonels," writes Horace Walpole, " will " name none but their own relations and dependents for " the officers who ,are to have rank."-)- Great lukewarm- ness, to say the least of it, appeared in the ranks of opposition. Lord Bolingbroke told Marchmont, that he thought this was the time when people should endeavour to keep themselves cool ; and that unless there was a third party for the Constitution, there was none worth fighting for! J And at a still later period he says, "I " wait with much resignation to know to what lion's paw "we are to fall." § In like manner, the great Scottish peers of King George's side, from whom much had been expected, promised little and did nothing. Thus, the Duke of Montrose thought it a right opportunity to complain that Argyle had always been preferred before * Epistle from a British Lady to her Countrywomen, 1745, p. 11. At p. 13. she bids them emulate "the courage of the women in the " reign of Romulus ! " j- To Sir H. Mann, November 4. 1745. X Lord Marchmont's Diary, September 24. 1745. § Lord Bolingbroke to Marchmont, December, 1745. Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 348. 1745. CHARLES MARCHES INTO ENGLAND. 261 him: — " My grandfather," added he, "lost his estate at "the head of a party — and I will not lose mine at the "tail of one!"* But, on the other hand, the faction of the Jacobites in England seemed still more inactive and benumbed, taking no apparent measures to rise in arms, and to counteract the immense superiority of regular troops which their Prince must have to overcome. Charles, having now matured and fixed his plans, set out from Holyrood on the last day of October, and at six in the evening. That night he slept at Pinkie-house, as after Preston ; next day his army, dividing into two columns, began its march. The whole force fell short of six thousand men, of whom about five hundred were cavalry : they were well clothed and equipped, and had horses to carry their baggage, and four days' provisions. ] But a march into England was nearly as distasteful to the common Highlanders as to their chiefs, and they began to desert in great numbers on the way. One morning Charles is said to have passed an hour and a half before he could prevail upon any of the men to go forward f : the weather, too, was so unfavourable, that it would have prevented any troops less hardy than the Highlanders from marching. Charles's column halted for two days at Kelso, and sent forward orders to Wooler to prepare their quarters ; thus alarming Wade for himself, and diverting bis at tention from Carlisle, the real object of attack. By a sudden march to the westward and down Liddisdale, they entered Cumberland on the evening of the 8th of No vember. As the clans crossed the Border they drew their swords, and raised a shout in pledge of their future resolution ; but Lochiel, in unsheathing his weapon, hap pened to cut his hand, and the Highlanders, — the same men whom a drawn sword in battle never terrified, — turned pale at the evil omen.§ Next day both columns of the army joining, proceeded together to the investment of Carlisle. Carlisle, the ancient bulwark of England on this fron- * Lord Marchmont's Diary, October 7. 1745. + Chambers's Hist. vol. i. p. 249. J Ibid. p. 255. § Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 455. S3 362 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVIII. tier, was overtopped by an old and massy castle, and hegirt by a mouldering wall. In the castle there was only one company of invalids as garrison, commanded by Colonel Durand ; but the city was held by a considerable hody of Cumberland militia ; and, however unfit to stand a regular siege, might, perhaps, resist an enemy who had no other cannon than a few four-pounders to bring against it. Accordingly, both Colonel Durand and the Mayor took measures for defence, and returned no answer to Prince Charles's summons ; the Mayor merely issued a proclamation to the inhabitants, informing them of the important fact as to his own name and birthplace, that he was not Paterson from Scotland, but Pattieson, ' a true-born Enghshman, determined to hold out the town to the last.* The Prince had already given orders to break ground, when he received intelligence that Marshal Wade was marching from Newcastle to relieve the city. Upon this, relinquishing his operations, he judged it best to advance with the greater part of his forces to Brampton, so as to engage the enemy with the advantage of hilly ground. But at Brampton he ascertained that the news respecting Wade was false ; and he then sent back the Duke of Perth with several regiments to resume the siege. On the 13th, Perth began to raise a battery on the east side of the town, his Grace himself and Tullibar dine working in the trenches without their coats, in order to encourage the men. At the sight of these works, the valiant Mayor, Englishman though he was, felt his courage ooze away : he hung out a white flag, and requested a capitulation for the town. An express was sent, referring the question to the Prince, who re fused to grant any terms unless the castle were included ; and the result was that both town and castle surrendered. The conditions imported, that the garrison and militia might retire where they pleased, delivering up their arms and horses, and engaging not to serve against Charles for, the space of one twelvemonth. The whole siege cost the Highland army only one man killed, and another wounded ; yet it added no small lustre to their arms, and terror to their name. On the 17th, the Chevalier himself * Tales of a Grandfather, vol. iii. p. 79 . 1745. REDUCTION OF CARLISLE. 263 made a triumphal entry into the place. Few, if any, of the inhabitants showed any affection to his cause ; but they all acknowledged with gratitude the generous treat ment of the Duke of Perth. As for Marshal Wade, the march to Kelso had suc ceeded in completely blinding him : he did not move from Newcastle until the day after Carlisle had yielded'; but hearing of that event at Hexham, and finding the mountain roads very difficult from a fall of snow, he thought it proper to return whence he came, leaving the insurgents at full liberty to push forward if they pleased. The advantage which Charles derived from the re duction of Carlisle was balanced by a feud which it produced among his generals. Lord George Murray, envious of the reputation which Perth had won, and of the favour he enjoyed, wrote to the Prince, in no very conciliatory terms, resigning his own commission.* At the same time he secretly set on foot a petition from several other officers, praying the Prince that he would be pleased to dismiss all Boman Catholics from his councils (this was aimed against the Duke of Perth and Sir Thomas Sheridan), and to reinstate Lord George Murray in his command. Charles was disposed to sup port his own friends, and his own faith : but Perthj seeing the evil of discord, generously insisted on waiving his pretensions to command ; and the insurgents thus continued to enjoy the benefit of Murray's far superior' military skill. The news, moreover, received from Scotland was not favourable. On leaving that country, Charles had ap pointed Lord Strathallan commander-in-chief, and di^ rected him to collect as many reinforcements as he could •at Perth. Strathallan had so far succeeded, that by the arrival of the Master of Lovat, of the Earl of Cromarty ¦of Mac Gregor of Glengyle, and of detachments from various other clans, he could muster between two and three thousand men. Lord Lewis Gordon, too, had raised three battalions in Aberdeenshire. But, on the other hand, the friends of Government, under the Earl of Loudon and the Lord President, were gathering in con- * * See this letter in the Jacobite Memoirs, p. 50. - It draws an in vidious distinction between Charles and his father. ...¦. i a 4 264 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV1H. *iderable force at Inverness : to the south, the towns of Glasgow, Paisley, and Dumfries had resumed their alle giance, and levied their militia for the House of Hanover.; and even at Perth and Dundee the populace had insisted on celebrating King George's birthday, and a few shots or blows had been exchanged between them and their Jacobite garrisons. The city of Edinburgh had been re entered by the Crown officers, in solemn procession, on the departure of the Highland army ; and two regiments ¦of cavalry had been sent forward by Marshal Wade to their support. On the whole, the tidings proved how frail and brief was the tenure of the young Pretender's sway. Under these circumstances, Charles sent the Chief of Mac Lauchlan back to Scotland, with orders to Lord Strathallan to march, and join him in England with his whole force, and with the utmost speed : but Strathallan, seizing some of those pretexts that are never wanting for inaction, delayed his movements until a period when they became far less useful and important to his cause. The course for Charles himself to take was the next question to decide. A council being called, some pro posed to remain at Carlisle, and watch events in England ; some others expressed a strong inclination to return at once to their native country ; but, when it came to Lord George Murray's turn to speak, he said, that though he could not ' advise his Boyal Highness to march far into England, without more encouragement from that country than had yet appeared, yet he was persuaded that, if His Boyal Highness resolved to make a trial, his army, though but small, would follow him. Charles immediately said he would venture it, and was sure his friends in Lancashire would join when he came amongst them.* The Marquis d'Eguilles no less confidently declared his immediate ex pectation of a French landing ; and, on these assurances, the whole Council acquiesced. The army began its adventurous expedition on the ¦¦20th of November, separating, for the convenience of "quarters, in two divisions, which kept generally about * Mr. Home's account (p. 143.) is remarkably confirmed, even to the very words, by Lord George's own narrative. — Jacobite Memoirs, p. 49. 1745. PROGRESS THROUGH LANCASHIRE. 265 half a day's march from each other. The first was commanded by Lord George Murray, and the second by the Prince in person. They left a garrison of two hundred men at Carlisle; thus reducing (as was seen at a review) their force to nearly four thousand five hundred, and showing that above a thousand had deserted and gone home since they set out from Edinburgh. The whole army reunited at Penrith, and halted there one day, in the expectation that Wade was advancing to attack them ; but on learning the retreat of that doughty veteran from Hexham, they pursued their progress. Their route lay by Shap, Kendal, and Lancaster, to Preston, where the army again met, and rested on the 27th. There pre vailed a superstition among the Highlanders, founded on the defeat of the Duke of Hamilton in the Civil Wars, and on the surrender of Brigadier Mac Intosh in 1715, that Preston was a fatal barrier, beyond which no Scot tish army could ever advance. From regard to these feelings, Lord George, on the same evening they arrived, marched forward with their vanguard across the Bibble- bridge; thus breaking, as they beheved, the formidable spell that bound them. During these and the following laborious marches, Charles insisted that the aged and infirm Lord Pitsligo should occupy his carriage. Besolving to share the fatigues of his meanest followers, he would not even mount a horse, but walked on foot, at the head of one or other of the clans, clad in the Highland garb, and with his target slung across his shoulder. He did not carry with him even a change of shoes ; and it is recorded of him in Lancashire that, having worn a hole in one of those he wore, he was obliged at the next village to have a thin plate of iron fastened over the sole ; and he ob served, with a smile, to the blacksmith as he paid him, " You are the first, I believe, that ever shod the son of a " king ! " He seldom stopped for dinner ; but, making one hearty meal at night, would throw himself on his couch without undressing, and rise again at four the next morning. Nothing but an iron constitution and a lofty spirit would have borne him day after day through all these toils of a soldier, added to all the cares of a com mander. He enforced the strictest discipline among his 266 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVIH. soldiers ; and his household book, which is still preserved, shows the punctual payment of all his personal expenses.* Yet, in spite of his forbearance, the uncouth moun taineers were in many places viewed with terror and aversion ; it is even said, though on no good authority, that some old ladies imagined that they would devour young children. Here is the story as Chevalier Johnstone tells it : " One evening, as Cameron of Lochiel entered " the lodgings assigned to him, his landlady, an old " woman, threw herself at his feet, and with uplifted " hands and tears in her eyes, supplicated him to take " her hfe, but to spare her two little children. He asked " her if she was in her senses, and told her to explain " herself; when she answered, that every body said the " Highlanders ate children, and made them their common " food. Mr. Cameron having assured her that they " would not injure either her, or her little children, or " any person whatever, she looked at him for some " moments with an air of surprise, and then opened a " press, calling out with a loud voice, ' Come out, children, " ' the gentleman will not eat you ! ' The children imme- " diately left the press where she had concealed them, " and threw themselves at his feet." I In other places, again, the impression was more favourable. At Preston, Charles was received with three hearty cheers, the first he had heard in England ; and a few men consented to join him as recruits. From Preston the army marched to Wigan, and from Wigan to Manchester. On this road throngs of people appeared, eager to see the Prince pass by, and expressing their good wishes for his success ; but when arms were offered them, and they were asked to enlist, they all de clined, saying in excuse that they did not understand fighting ! The signs of popular favour increased and became more substantial when the Prince arrived at Manchester : there the ringing of bells, and the acclama tions of multitudes, marked his entry : an illumination shone forth in the evening ; white cockades were cheer fully assumed ; and a great number of persons came to kiss his hand, and to offer their services. Such favourable * It is printed at length in the Jacobite Memoirs, pp. 145 — 187. . f Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs, p. 101. 8vo. ed. 1745. CHARLES ENTERS MANCHESTER. '267 demonstrations, though they undoubtedly occurred, are suppressed or glossed over in the Secret Letters of in telligence, which were written from Manchester to the Duke of Cumberland, and by him transmitted to the Secretary of State. Yet as a curious and authentic portrait of the Highland march, these letters appear to me deserving of insertion. The first is dated the 28th of November. " Just now are come in two of the Pretender's " men, a Serjeant, a drummer, and a woman with them. " I have seen them. The Serjeant is a Scotchman, the " drummer is a Halifax man, and they are now going to " beat up. These two men and the woman, without any " others, came into the town amidst thousands of spectators. " I doubt not but we shall have more to-night. They " say we are to have the Pretender to-morrow. 'They " are dressed in plaids and bonnets. The Serjeant has a " target!" The letter of next day (November 29) is as follows : — " The two Highlanders who came in yesterday -" and beat up for volunteers for him they called His " Boyal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales, offered five " guineas advance ; many took on ; each received one " shilling, to have the rest when the Prince came. They " do not appear to be such terrible fellows as has been " represented. Many of the foot are diminutive creatures, " but many clever men among them. The guards and " officers are all in a Highland dress, a long sword, and " stuck with pistols ; their horses all sizes and colours. " The bellman went to order all persons charged with " excise, and innkeepers, forthwith to appear, and bring " their last acquittance, and as much ready cash as that " contains, on pain of military execution. It is my " opinion they will make all haste possible through ." Derbyshire, to evade fighting Ligonier. I do not see " that we have any person in town to give intelligence " to the King's forces, as all our men of fashion are fled, " and all officers under the government. A party came " in at ten this morning, and have been examining the " best houses, and fixed upon Mr. Dicconson's for the ¦ " Prince's quarters. Several thousands came in at two " o'clock : they ordered the bells to ring ; and the bellinan "" has been ordering us to illuminate our houses to-nighf, " which must be done. The Chevalier marched by my 268 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVIII. " door in a Highland dress, on foot, at three o'clock^ " surrounded by a Highland guard ; no music but a pair " of bagpipes. Those that came in last night demanded " quarters for 10,000 to-day."* Next day, during which the troops halted, above 200 men were enrolled and embodied with the others who had joined in England ; the whole taking the name of the Manchester regiment, and commanded by Mr. Francis Townley, a Boman Catholic of a very old family in Lan cashire, one of the few volunteers upon the march. Such accessions, however, were far, very far inferior to what the insurgents had expected, or their predecessors had experienced in 1715. At that period Lancashire was nearly all devoted to the Stuart cause ; but it is evident that the lapse of thirty years had quenched the flame of Jacobitism among the common people, and that even in the minds of the gentry it burned only with a dim and wavering light. The disappointment of the Highland chiefs was ag gravated by the news they now received of the formidable numbers and movements of their enemy. From behind, Marshal Wade had begun to advance against them through Yorkshire. In front lay the Duke of Cumberland, with his head quarters at Lichfield, and with a force of scarcely less than 8000 soldiers. A third army, for the immediate protection of London, was forming at Finchley, composed of the Boyal Guards, and of other but newly raised troops, which the King declared that, in case of need, he would command in person. To prevent a French invasion, or even French supplies, Admiral Vernon had been ap pointed to cruise in the Channel ; and Admiral Byng with a smaller squadron blockaded the east coast of Scotland. Large bodies of militia had been raised in several districts ; and close to the rebels, the city of Chester had been secured by the Earl of Cholmondeley, and the town of Liverpool by the zeal of its own inhabitants.-)- As if these discouragements were not sufficient of themselves, it was also learnt that the bridges over the Mersey, and some others in front, had been broken down by order of the * These letters are now in the State Paper Office, Scotland, 1745, vol. lvii. f Tindal's History, vol. ix. p. 204; 1745. PASSAGE OF THE MERSEY. 269' Duke of Cumberland. Charles, with an undaunted spirit,; was still for moving onwards, saying he was certain of more support as he advanced. His principal officers, however, remonstrated with Lord George Murray on their alarming situation, when Lord George advised them to offer no further opposition to the will of his Boyal High, ness until they came to Derby, hoping that by that time they might be joined by the English Jacobites in con siderable numbers ; but promising that, if not, he would undertake, as General, to propose and enforce a retreat. Before leaving Manchester, the Prince gave orders for repairing a small bridge near the town, and issued a pro clamation on the subject, with a sneer at Marshal Wade.* Besuming his march on the 1st of December, Charles, at the head of one division, forded the Mersey near Stockport, with the water up to his middle ; the other di vision, with the baggage and artillery, passed lower down at Cheadle on a kind of rough bridge, made by choking up the channel with the trunks of poplar trees. Both divisions joined that evening at Macclesfield. It is said (the tale is traditional, and I heard it in conversation from the late Lord Keith) that, on the opposite bank of the Mersey, Charles found a few of the Cheshire gentry drawn up ready to welcome him, and amongst them Mrs. Skyring, a lady in extreme old age. As a child, she had been lifted up in her mother's arms to view the happy landing at Dover of Charles the Second. Her father, an old ca valier, had afterwards to undergo, not merely neglect, but ' oppression, from that thankless monarch ; still, however, he and his wife continued devoted to the Boyal cause, and their daughter grew up as devoted as they. After the expulsion of the Stuarts, all her thoughts, her hopes, her prayers, were directed to another Bestoration. Ever afterwards she had with rigid punctuality laid aside one half of her yearly income to remit for the exiled family abroad ; concealing only the name of the giver, which, she said, was of no importance to them, and might give them pain if they remembered the unkind treatment she had formerly received: she had now parted with her jewels, her plate, and every little article of value she pos- * Proclamation, November 30. 1745. See Appendix. 270 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXV 111. sessed ; the price of which, in a purse, she laid at the feet of Prince Charles, while, straining her dim eyes to gaze on his features, and pressing his hand to her shrivelled lips, she exclaimed with affectionate rapture, in the words of Simeon, " Lord ! now lettest thou thy servant depart "in peace!" It is added that she did not survive the shock when, a few days afterwards, she was told of the retreat. Such, even when misdirected in its object, or exaggerated in its force, was the old spirit of loyalty in England ! Such were the characters which history is proud to record, and fiction loves to imitate — that Major Coleby, who, devoting family and fortune to the Boyal cause, joined Charles the Second on his march to Wor cester with his four sons and one hundred and fifty men ; — that Lady Alice, who, when the same monarch, after his defeat, was tracked by bis pursuers to her house, sent forth her son and her servants to make good, at the cost of their lives, one hour's respite for his Majesty's escape ; and who, when she saw her child brought home a prisoner, and mortally wounded, could yet read in his expiring glance the safety of their rescued King ! How greatly have we now improved upon those unphilosophical times ! How far more judicious to value Kings and governments, hke other articles, only according to their cheapness or convenience ! How much safer always to acknowledge the reigning sovereign as the rightful one ! With what scorn must a modern Doctrinaire look down upon an ancient Cavalier — one of those sage deputies, for ex ample, who, in July, 1830, lurked in garrets and cellars while the brave populace was fighting, and who emerged when all was over, equally ready to depose the tyrant, or to hang the rebels, according as victory might have de clared ! — Noble-minded men, who fling their allegiance to the winds, to be wafted to and fro by any gust of fortune, and who never know to-day what principles they shall maintain to-morrow ! Notwithstanding, however, the respect which fidelity to misfortune claims, we must acknowledge that, in 1745, our countrymen would have done well and wisely to prefer a Protestant, a tolerant, an enlightened and enlightening Government, to the dreams, however bright, of the olden time. But in that year the most common feehng through- 1745. THE INSURGENTS TN DERBYSHIRE. 271' out England was indifference. As Charles advanced from Manchester, he found the people very little inclined to favour or assist him, and displaying no sympathy or fel low-feeling with the " wild petticoat men," as they called the kilted Highlanders. On the other hand, they showed an equal unconcern to the interests of the Beigning Family ; and looked coolly on the struggle, as they might upon a game, forgetting that they themselves formed the stake of the players. The poet Gray writes from Cam bridge, " Here we had no more sense of danger than if "it were the battle of Cannae. I heard three sensible " middle-aged men, when the Scotch were said to be at " Stamford, and actually were at Derby, talking of hiring "a chaise to go to Caxton (a place on the high-road) to "see the Pretender and Highlanders as they passed."* From Macclesfield, Lord George Murray, by a dexte rous manoeuvre, succeeded in completely misleading his enemy. He advanced with his column of the army to Congleton, where he dislodged and drove before him the Duke of Kingston and a small party of English horse, pursuing them with his vanguard some way on the road to Newcastle. Thus he impressed the Duke of Cumber land with a full belief that the insurgent troops were on their march in that direction, either to give him battle, or to join their partisans in Wales. Accordingly, the Duke hastily pushed forward with his main body to Stone, ready either to intercept, or to fight them, as circumstances might require. But Lord George, having meanwhile obtained accurate intelligence of the Duke's, numbers and position from Mr. Weir, one of Cumber land's principal spies, whom he captured at Congleton, and whom the Prince saved from hanging ], suddenly turned off to the left, and, by a forced march, gained Ashbourne. There the Prince's column likewise arrived along the direct road. Pursuing their progress next day, they both entered Derby, Lord George in the afternoon, and Prince Charles in the evening of the 4th of De cember ; having thus skilfully gained two or three marches . * Gray to H. Walpole, February 3. 1746. (Lord Orford's Works, vol. v. p. 383.) X Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 418. 272 nisTORY of England. chap, xxvhi. upon the Duke of Cumberland, and interposed between his army and London. Charles took up his quarters at the Earl of Exeter's, >*ow Mr. Mousley's, one of the best houses in the town. He arrived in high spirits, reflecting that he was now within a hundred and thirty miles of the capital*, and that neither Wade's nor Cumberland's forces any longer lay before that object of his hopes. Accord ingly, that evening, at supper, he studiously directed his conversation to his intended progress and expected triumph — whether it would be best for him to enter London on foot or on horseback, in Highland or in English dress. Far different were the thoughts of his followers. Early next morning, he was waited upon by- Lord George Murray, with all the commanders of bat talions and squadrons ; and, a council being formed, they laid before him their earnest and unanimous opinion for an immediate retreat to Scotland. They had marched thus far, they said, on the promise either of an English rising or a French descent ; neither had yet occurred, neither could any longer be safely awaited. They asked if the Prince could produce even a single letter from any Englishman of distinction or of influence, received upon their march, and advising them to persevere in it. What was their own force ? barely 5000 fighting men, a number insufficient to give battle to any one of the three armies by which they were surrounded ; nay, scarcely adequate even to take quiet possession of London, were there no camp at Finchley to protect it. What was their enemy's force ? perhaps not much less than 30,000 men, were it all combined. If even they should elude the Duke of Cumberland's division, and gain a battle against George the Second, under the walls of London, it would not be gained without loss ; and how, with still further dimi nished numbers, could they gather any fruits of victory ? * There seems to be a sort of tradition or rooted belief among the Scots, that the Prince, at Derby, was within 100 miles of London. Sir Walter Scott repeatedly calls the distance 90 miles (as in Tales of a Grandfather, vol. iii. p. 101.), and Mr. Chambers makes it exactly 100. (Hist. vol. i p. 274.) Yet it is, I believe, as certain, as any fact in geography can be, that the actual distance is 127. So much easier is it to repeat than to inquire ! 1745. deliberations at derby. 273 But supposing a defeat, would a single man of their army be able under such circumstances to escape ? Would not the Prince's own person, even if he were not killed in the action, fall into the hands of his blood-thirsty enemies ? Or how, if Wade's and Cumberland's armies should com bine and close in upon them from the rear ? How much wiser, then, to retreat while it was yet time, to support and be supported by their friends in Scotland ! Already, continued Lord George (and he pointed to despatches which had reached the Prince that very morning), we learn that Lord John Drummond has landed at Montrose, with the regiment of Boyal Scots and some piquets of the Irish Brigade, so that the whole force under Lord Strath allan ready to join us from Perth is not less than three or four thousand men.* Charles listened to these arguments with impatience, and replied to them with warmth. He expressed his firm reliance on the justice of his cause, and on the Pro vidence which had hitherto so signally protected him. He owned that there was some danger in advancing, but to retire was equally dangerous, and, besides, disgraceful. As to his personal risk, he would never allow that to weigh with him. " Bather than go back," he cried, " I "would wish to be twenty feet under ground !"¦)¦ He proceeded at some length to argue on the probability that the French would yet land in Kent or Essex, — that his friends could not fail to join him as he advanced, — that defections must be expected, even from the English ranks, —7- that boldness and enterprise would supply the want of numbers, and distract the councils of the enemy. Finding that his arguments made no impression, he resorted to entreaties, imploring his friends not to forsake their Prince at his utmost need ; and at last, as a middle course, he proposed that they should march into Wales, to give their partisans in that country an opportunity of joining.. But the council still continued firm in pressing a retreat to Scotland. Only the Duke of Perth, though retaining * See Lord George Murray's own summary of his advice in this, council. (Jacobite Memoirs, p. 54.) f Memoirs of Captain Daniel, a volunteer who joined in Lanca shire, and attached himself to the Duke of Perth. His MS. has been very obligingly communicated to me by Lady Willoughby d'Eresby. VOL. in. I 274 history of England, chap, xxvhi. his own opinion, was moved by his master's vehemence, and wished to yield to it. Some of the Irish officers were also willing" to go on ; but then, as the Scots invidiously observed, they did not run equal risk, since, being in the French service, they were sure, at the worst, of being honourably treated as prisoners of war, instead of being tried and hanged as traitors. After several hours of stormy debate, Charles broke up the council without having formed any decision, the army halting that day for rest at Derby. Meanwhile the lower officers and soldiers, animated with very different wishes from their chiefs, and eager for the expected conflict, were em ployed, some in taking the sacrament at the different churches*, others thronging the cutlers' shops to renew the edge of their broadswords.-)- During the whole day, the Prince continued to ex postulate with some of his officers singly, in hopes of changing their opinions. Finding them inflexible, he was at length strongly advised by those he most confided in — Sir Thomas Sheridan and Secretary Murray — to yield to the prevailing sentiment, since they were sure the army would never fight well when all the chiefs were against it. Accordingly, at another council, summoned the same evening, Charles sullenly declared his consent to a retreat ; but added that, in future, he would call no more councils, since he was accountable to nobody for his actions, excepting to God and his father, and would therefore no longer either ask or accept their advice. Next day, the 6th of December, the insurgents began their retreat. As they marched in the grey of the morning, the inferior officers and common men believed that they were going forward to fight the Duke of Cum berland, at which they displayed the utmost joy. But when the daybreak allowed them to discern the sur rounding objects, and to discover that they were re tracing their steps, nothing was to be heard throughout the army but expressions of rage and indignation. " If " we had been beaten," says one of their officers, " the " grief could not have been greater." J * Lord George Murray's Narrative. (Jacobite Memoirs, p. 76.) X Chambers's Hist. vol. i. p. 272. X Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs, p. 73. 8vo. ed. •1745. A RETREAT COMMENCED. 275 Thus ended the renowned advance to Derby — ended against the wishes both of the Prince and of the soldiers. It certainly appears to me, on the best judgment I can form, that they were right in their reluctance, and that, had they pursued their progress, they would, in all pro bability, have succeeded in their object. A loyal writer, who was in London at the time, declares that " when the " Highlanders, by a most incredible march, got between " the Duke's army and the metropolis, they struck a ' terror into it scarce to be credited." * An immediate rush was made upon the Bank of England, which it is said only escaped bankruptcy by paying in sixpences, to gain time. The shops in general were shut, public business for the most part was suspended, and the restoration of the Stuarts, desired by some, but disliked by many more, was yet expected by all as no improbable or distant oc currence. The Duke of Newcastle, at his scanty wits' soon-reached end, stood trembling and amazed, and knew not what course to advise or to pursue ; it has even been alleged, (a rumour well agreeing with his usual character, but recorded on no good authority ],) that he shut himself up for one whole day in his apartments, considering whether he had not better declare betimes for the Pre tender. Nay, I find it asserted that King George himself ordered some of his most precious effects to be embarked on board his yachts, and these to remain at the Tower quay, ready to sail at a moment's warning. Certain it is, that this day of universal consternation — the day on which the rebels' approach to Derby was made known — was long remembered under the name of Black Friday.J * Fielding, in the True Patriot. f Chevalier Johnstone's Memoirs, p. 77. 8vo. ed. X See a note to H. Walpole's letters to Mann, vol. ii. p. 98. The day was the 6th of December. I may observe that the Jacobite party was very strong in London, and had at its head one of the City members, Alderman Heathcote, as appears from the Stuart Papers. Thus, a secret letter, transmitted to Rome by Lord Sempill, and dated London, October 21. 1 745, says, " Alderman Heathcote and several " more have been with Sir Watkin Wynn to assure him that they will " rise in tbe City of London immediately upon a landing ; and to beg,, " that arms and ammunition be brought with the troops." And Lord Sempill adds (November 13. 1745), "Mr. Heathcote has-been r " reckoned, especially since the base defection of Pulteney, one chief T 2 276 niSTORY of England. chap, xxvnx Had, then, the Highlanders continued to push forward, must not the increasing terror have palsied all power of resistance ? Would not the little army at Finchley, in ferior in numbers, and with so convenient a place for dis persing as the capital behind it, have melted away at their approach ? Or, had they engaged the Duke's army, who can doubt the issue, if the victory of Falkirk had been gained on English ground ? It is probable also, from the prevalence of Jacobite principles amongst the gentry at this period, that many officers in the Eoyal army were deeply tainted with them, and might have avowed them at the decisive moment. It is certain, at least, that many would have been suspected, and that the mere suspicion would have produced nearly the same effects as the reality — bewilderment, distrust, and vacillation in the chiefs. Even the high personal valour of the King and of the Duke could hardly have borne them safe amidst these growing doubts and dangers, I may add, that, in the opinion even of the Duke of Cumberland's principal of ficers, there were but scanty hopes of arresting the Highlanders (when once at Derby) in their progress to London. The Duke of Bichmond, who commanded the cavalry, writes as follows to Sir Everard Fawkener, from Lichfield, at eight in the morning of the 5th of Decem ber : — "I am just going to march for Coventry to-day, " and Northampton to-morrow, according to His Boyal " Highness's orders, but I have had no other orders of " any kind. I know very well what I am to do if the "enemy comes up to me, but what am I to do if " advised of their approach ? For as to sending out " guards or outposts it will be impossible after two such " days' march, as from here to Northampton : the men " might do it, but the horses absolutely cannot ; and now " they have got over the Trent, there is no pass to defend; " and if they please to cut us off from the main army they " may, and also if they please to give us the slip, and march " to London, I fear they may before even this avant-garde " can come up with them ; and if we should, His Eoyal " Highness knows best what can be expected from such " an inconsiderable corps as ours : however, we will do " leader of the patriot Whigs, not in the City of London only, but in " the nation. He opened himself, above two months ago, to Sir John " Hinde Cotton." 1745. THE JACOBITES IN ENGLAND. 277 " our best, and are readv to obey what orders he will " please to send us." * It appears, moreover, that the camp at Finchley was as yet not formed, but confined to paper plans, that the coasts of Kent and Essex were but feebly guarded by the British cruisers, and that the French ministers were now in the very crisis of decision as to their projected expedition. The preparations for it were completed at Dunkirk ; and had Charles, by any forward movement, seemed to show that he scarcely needed it, it would undoubtedly (such policy is but too common with allies!) have been ordered to sail. Nor were the Jacobites in England altogether as supine as was supposed ; they had already, it seems, taken measures for a rising. A letter of the young Pretender, many months afterwards, mentions incidentally, in refer ring to Mr. Barry, that he " arrived at Derby two days " after I parted. He had been sent by Sir Watkin Wynn " and Lord Barrymore to assure me, in the name of " my friends, that they were ready to join me in what " manner I pleased, either in the capital, or every one to " rise in his own country." ] I believe, then, that had Charles marched onward from Derby he would have gained the British throne ; but I am far from thinking that he would long have held it. Bred up in arbitrary principles, and professing the Eomanist religion, he might soon have been tempted to assail — at the very least he would have alarmed — a people jealous of their freedom, and a Church tenacious of her rights. His own violent though generous temper, and his deficiency in liberal knowledge, would have widened the breach ; some rivalries between his Court and his father's might probably have rent his own party asunder ; and the honours and rewards well earned by his faithful followers might have nevertheless disgusted the rest of the nation. In short, the English would have been led to expect a much better government than King George's, and they would have had a much worse. Their new yoke could neither have been borne without suffer ing nor yet cast off without convulsion ; and it therefore deserves to be esteemed among the most signal mercies * State Paper Office, vol. Ivii. Scotland, 1745. f Prince Charles to his father; Avignon, February 12, 1747. (Stuart Papers.) , 278 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVHI. of Providence, that this long train of dissensions and disasters, this necessity for a new revolution, should have been happily averted by the determination to retreat at Derby. The Highland army pursued their retreat by the same track as they had come, but by no means with the same order. Disappointed and humbled in their own estima tion, and with their bonds of discipline relaxed, they committed numerous acts of outrage, some in vengeance, others for plunder. Thus at a place near Stockport, the inhabitants having shot at a Highland patrole, his com rades in retaliation set fire to the village. The conse quence was, that their stragglers or the sick whom they left behind, were either killed or taken prisoners by the country people. At Manchester, so friendly a few days before, a violent mob opposed their vanguard, and, though dispersed, again hung upon their rear when they marched away. The Prince much offended at this unexpected reception, imposed and exacted a fine of 5000?. upon the town. His own behaviour on the retreat tended still further to dishearten his men ; he took no pains to conceal his grief and resentment, but, on the contrary, affected to show that he was no longer commander of the army. Instead of being, as formerly, earliest in the morning, and foremost in the march, he now lingered at his quarters till eight or nine o'clock, so as to delay the rear-guard, and then, mounting his horse, dejectedly rode on to his column. Charles had designed to halt his army a day at Man chester, but was dissuaded by Lord George Murray, who argued that the men had no occasion for it, and that it was only giving so much time for the enemy to overtake them. Next morning, accordingly, they pursued their rapid retreat. As they were going out of the town of Wigan, some zealot formed a plan for the Prince's assassi nation ; but, mistaking his person, shot at Mr. O'Sullivan. " Search was made for him," says one of their officers, " but in vain : and no great matter for any thing he would " have suffered from us ; for many exercised their malice " merely on account of the known clemency of the Prince, " which, however, they would not have dared to do if he " had permitted a little more severity in punishing them. 1745. SKIRMISH AT CLIFTON, 279' " The army, irritated by such frequent instances of the " enemy's mahce, began to behave with less forbearance, " and now few there were who would go on foot if they " could ride ; and mighty taking, stealing, and pressing " of horses there was amongst us ! Diverting it was tq " see the Highlanders mounted, without either breeches, " saddle, or any thing else but the bare back of the horses " to ride on — and for their bridle only a straw-rope ! In " this manner did we march out of England." * On learning that the rebels were at Derby, the Duke of Cumberland had fallen back from Stone in all haste for the protection of the capital ; and he was already at Meriden Moor, close to Coventry, when he was assured of their retreat. He immediately commenced a pursuit at the head of his cavalry, and of a thousand foot, whom he mounted upon horses supplied by the neighbouring gentry. But with all his despatch he found, on coming to Macclesfield, that the enemy were full two days' march ahead of him. Continuing, however, to press forward, he was joined at Preston by another body of horse, detached and sent across the country from the army of Marshal Wade ; but it was not until the county of Westmoreland that he came up with the insurgents. On the evening of the 17th their main body, headed by Charles, had entered Penrith, but the rear-guard, under the command of Lord George Murray, having been delayed by the breaking down of some baggage waggons, could proceed no further than Shap. Early next morning Lord George resumed his march ; but on coming to the village of Clifton, about three miles from Penrith, he found several parties of cavalry, volunteers of that neighbourhood, drawn up to intercept him. These, however, he dispersed with one charge of Glengarry's men, and made several prisoners ; among the rest, a footman of the Duke of Cumberland, who said that his Eoyal Highness was already close in the rear with 4000 horse. Lord George sent the man to be examined by the Prince, at Penrith ; at the same * MS. Memoirs of Captain Daniel He also bitterly complains of the Prince's clemency on another previous occasion — the barbarous murder of a young English volunteer, by a woman and her son, near Manchester : they were seized and brought to Charles, and they con fessed their crime ; but he would not allow them to be put to death,. x 4 280 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVHI. time requesting orders for his own direction. Charles, with great courtesy, dismissed the servant to his master ; and, for the support of Lord George, despatched two regiments — the Stuarts of Appian, and the Macphersons of Cluny. The sun was just setting when the Duke's advancing forces first appeared in sight of Lord George : and they slowly formed upon Clifton Moor and the high road ; on one side the stone fences of the viUage, on the other the enclosures of Lord Lonsdale's princely domain. It was now nearly dark; but the moon shone out at intervals from among the clouds, and by this light Lord George saw a body of men — dismounted dragoons, or rather infantry, who had resumed their proper mode of warfare — gliding forward to surprise him along the stone fences. He immediately cried Claymore ! and rushed oh, sword in hand, followed by the Macphersons and Stuarts ; and, losing his bonnet in the fray, continued to fight bare- beaded among the foremost. In a few minutes the English were completely repulsed, their commander, Colonel Honeywood, being left severely wounded on the field, and their total number of killed or disabled exceed ing a hundred men, while the insurgents lost but twelve. It was with great difficulty that the Highlanders could be recalled from the pursuit, they exclaiming that it was a shame to see so many of the King's enemies standing fast upon the moor without attacking them. Lord George also was desirous of maintaining his position with further reinforcements ; but receiving thePrince's repeated orders to the contrary, drew off his men to Penrith. So effec tual, however, was the check he had given, that the Duke of Cumberland forebore any further attempts to harass the Highlanders in their retreat. Pursuing this retreat, Charles and his troops arrived early next day, the 19th, at Carlisle. Here they thought it requisite to leave a garrison, so as to secure this key of England for them in a second, and, as they hoped, a speedy invasion of that country ; yet the same object might have been attained by blowing up the works. Be sides a few French and Irish, and some men from a Lowland regiment, who consented to remain, we learn from an officer present, that " Mr. Townley, Colonel of 1745. JL11E INSURGENTS LEAVE CARLISLE. 281 " the English, petitioned the Prince, not only in his own " name, but in the name of all the officers of the Man- " Chester regiment, to be left, though the latter never " assented to or desired it, many of them wishing to un- " dergo the same fate as their Boyal master. However, " on Colonel Townley's coming back, and telling them " that it was the Prince's pleasure that they should re- " main at Carlisle, they all, taking it as coming from the "Prince, most willingly acquiesced."* Yet the result was most fatal to them, and the determination to leave them most unwise. No sooner had Charles departed than they were invested by the Duke of Cumberland. They supposed (and this seems to have been Charles's own opinion, when he left them) that the Duke had no battering artillery at his disposal : some, however, was unexpectedly brought from Whitehaven ; and on the 29th it began to play upon the mouldering walls. The besieged then desired to capitulate, but could obtain no other terms from his Boyal Highness, than that " they " should not be put to the sword, but reserved for his "Majesty's pleasure" — a stipulation which to many of them was only death deferred. On the 20th of December, the Prince's birthday, the Scottish army left Carlisle, and re-entered their own country by fording the Esk. That river was swollen with winter floods and rains to the depth of four feet ; yet nearly all the men crossed safely, wading arm in arm, and supporting each other against the violence of the current. Charles, with his horsemen, rode through a little below the place where the rest of his army passed ; and, while in the midst of the water, saw one or two of the men, who had drifted from the hold of their comrades, and were carried down the stream. With great intre pidity and presence of mind, Charles sprung forward, and caught one poor soldier by the hair, at the same time calling out, in Gaelic, Cobhear ! cobhear ! that is, Help ! help! and supporting him until he could receive as- * MS. Memoirs of Captain Daniel. It is scarcely worth while to notice a calumnious and absurd insinuation of the Chevalier John stone, that Charles left this unfortunate garrison behind, " in a spirit " of vengeance against the English nation," for not more effectually supporting him ! 282 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXVHI. sistance. This proof of his compassion and care for his followers greatly tended, it is said, to enhance his popu larity amongst them. The main body of the insurgents stopped that night at Annan, and the next at Dumfries. This town had always been remarkable for its attachment to the Protestant succession ; and a report having lately reached it of some defeat or disaster to the Highland army, a general re joicing had ensued. When the Highlanders marched in, they found the candles of the illumination still in the windows, and the bonfires unextinguished.* They im posed a fine of 2000Z. upon the place ; and, receiving only 1 1001., carried off the Provost and another magistrate as security for the remainder. From hence they proceeded by different routes to Glasgow, marking their track by numerous acts of plunder and depredation. Charles him self went by way of Hamilton Palace, where he allowed his troops a day of rest, and himself a day of shooting in the Park. His forces were now reduced to about 3600 foot and 500 horse. On the 26th he entered Glasgow, thus completing one of the most extraordinary marches recorded in history. From Edinburgh to Derby, and from Derby back again to Glasgow, they had gone not less than 580 miles in fifty-six daysf, many of these days of halt ; yet one of Charles's personal attendants com plains, that, during this whole time, he was able but once, at Manchester, to throw off his clothes at night.J Glasgow had already given strong proofs of its hostility to Charles, having raised many hundred men against him in his absence. His appearance made no impression in his favour ; nay, one fanatic even snapped a pistol at him, as he rode along the Salt- Market. § A most heavy * MS. Memoirs of Captain Daniel. t Reckoning the distance from Carlisle to Derby through Wigan, 181 miles (twice over) ; from Edinburgh to CarKsle and Brampton, through Kelso, perhaps 110; from Carlisle to Glasgow about the same, — the total will be 582. But this is only an approximation. X See some notes of conversation with Mr. Gib, the Prince's Major Domo, in the Jacobite Memoirs, p. 194. § Chambers's History, vol. i. p. 295. It appears that, as usual, no punishment followed. .1745. HOSTILITY OF GLASGOW. 283 requisition to refit the Highland army was now laid upon the citizens ; for which they afterwards claimed and received a compensation from the established Govern ment. How strange the contrast between Manchester and Glasgow! The most commercial town in England the most friendly — the most commercial town in Scot land the most adverse — to the Stuarts ! 284 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. CHAPTER XXIX. Having refreshed and new clothed his army, by eight days' residence at Glasgow, Charles again set forth, on the 3rd of January, 1746, and marched to Stirhng, where, according to orders he had sent, he was joined by the forces under Lords John Drummond and Strathallan. There came also the detachment of Lord Lewis Gordon, which only a few days before had worsted the Earl of Loudon's levies in a skirmish at Inverury, and driven them back towards Inverness. By these accessions, the total force under Charles's banner was augmented to nearly nine thousand men, being the largest that he ever mustered in the course of these campaigns. With this he now undertook the siege of the Castle of Stirling ; the more readily, since Lord John Drummond had brought both battering guns and engineers from France, and since he was eager to secure a constant and easy com munication between the Highlands and the Lowlands. Stirling Castle, however, stood secure in its craggy height, a good garrison, and an experienced governor, General Blakeney. By this time, also, the army of Marshal Wade had advanced into Scotland, and was re inforced by the Duke of Cumberland's cavalry. The Duke himself had been recalled from Carlisle, and his infantry from Lichfield, to guard the southern coast, and provide against the still apprehended French invasion. But though absent himself, he was requested to name the commander of the army in Scotland in the room of Marshal Wade, whose talents, never of the brightest, had sunk beneath the torpor of age, and whose inactivity had justly been complained of during the last campaign. In his place, the Boyal Duke recommended General Henry Hawley, an officer of some experience, who had served in the battle of Sheriffmuir as a Major of dragoons : but destitute of capacity, and hated, not merely by his 1746. SIEGE OF STIRLING CASTLE, 285 enemies, but by his own soldiers, for a most violent and vindictive temper. Both he and his Eoyal patron were signal exceptions to the rule, that brave men are never cruel. — Once, in Flanders, a deserter being hanged before Hawley's windows, the surgeons begged to have the body for dissection. But Hawley was reluctant to part with the pleasing spectacle ; " at least," said he, " you shall give me the skeleton to hang up in the guard- "room!"* — One of his first measures, on arriving at Edinburgh to take the chief command, was to order two gibbets to be erected, ready for the rebels who he hoped might fall into his hands ; and with a similar view he bid several executioners attend his army on its march. Such ferocity sinks Hawley very far below a man he often scoffed at, — his predecessor at Preston, — and appears altogether alien from the true military character : in one word, Cope was no general ; but Hawley was not even a soldier ! The disposable force of Hawley being augmented by a few Yorkshire volunteers, by a similar body from Glasgow, and by some Argyleshire recruits under Colonel Camp bell, was nearly the same as that of Charles, — between eight and nine thousand men. At the head of these he marched from Edinburgh to raise the siege of Stirling, and, as he confidently boasted, drive the rebels before him. On the other hand, Charles, hearing of his approach, left a few hundred men to continue the blockade of the Castle, and with the remainder advanced to meet the enemy. On the 16th of January he drew up his men on Bannockburn, a field, as he remarked, of happy augury to his arms, and awaited an attack ; but found the English remain wholly inactive at Falkirk. His cavalry, whom he sent out to reconnoitre close to Hawley's camp, brought word that they could see no appearance of movement. Next morn ing he again drew up his army, and again awaited an attack ; but still in vain ; upon which, with characteristic * H. Walpole to Sir H Mann, January 17. 1746. He adds that the soldiers' nickname for Hawley was, "the Lord Chief Justice." His own will, dated March 29. 1749, is most discreditable to him in another respect : it contains this phrase, about his burial ¦ " My car- " case may be put any where. . . . The priest, I conclude, will have " his fee ; let the puppy have it !" 286 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX ardour, he determined that his own troops should move forwards that same day, and become the aggressors in the battle. Hawley, meanwhile, filled with an ignorant contempt of the " Highland rabble," as he termed them, beheved that they would disperse of themselves at the mere news of his approach, and'neglected the most common precau tions for security, such as sending out patroles. On the forenoon of that very day, the 17th, he allowed himself to be detained at Callender House, some distance from his men, by the courtesy and good cheer of the Countess of Kilmarnock, whose husband was in the insurgent army, and who had therefore strong motives for retarding and misleading the hostile chief. Only the second in com mand, General Huske, remained at the camp in front of Falkirk ; he was a good officer, but had no authority to direct any decisive movement. His attention also was diverted by a well concerted stratagem of the Highland army : for while Charles, with his main body, marched round considerably to the south of the English camp (a route he had calculated so as to give his troops the ad vantage of the wind in the battle), he detached Lord John Drummond with all the cavalry towards the other ex tremity of Hawley's hne, and along the straight road from Stirling to Falkirk. This detachment, having in its rear the ancient forest of the Torwood, was directed to display the Boyal Standard and other colours, so as to produce an impression that the whole army was behind, and advancing from that quarter. So successful was this feint, that Ge neral Huske's attention became wholly engrossed by the evolutions of these distant squadrons ; during which time Charles, with his main army, had already passed the river Carron, beyond Dunnipace, and was only separated from the enemy by the Falkirk Muir, a rugged and ridgy upland, now well cultivated, but then covered with heath. It was now between one and two o'clock, and the Enghsh soldiers were preparing to take their dinner, when some country people, hastily running in, brought an account that the Highlanders were near at hand ; and their report was confirmed by two of the officers mounting a tree, and through a telescope discovering the enemy in motion. The drums instantly beat to arms, and a press ing message was despatched to Hawley, at Callender 1746. battle of falktrk. 287 -House, while the troops were formed in line in front of their camp. Frequent, and surely not unfounded mur murs might now be heard amongst the men : — " Where *' is the general ? — what shall be done? — we have no " orders ! " * Startled at these tidings, Hawley soon galloped up, in breathless haste, and without his hat; he immediately ordered his three regiments of dragoons to advance with him, full speed, to the top of Falkirk Muir, so as if pos sible to anticipate the Highlanders ; and the foot he com manded to follow with their bayonets fixed. They pushed forward, with a storm of wind, to which heavy rain was now added, beating full in the faces of the soldiers. For some time it appeared like a race between the dragoons and the Highlanders, which should first attain the summit of the hill. The mountaineers, however, prevailed in that object ; and the English, then halting, drew up on some what lower ground. There was a rugged ravine, that began at the centre, between the two armies, and deepened towards the plain on the right of the King's forces ; and the whole position, thus hastily chosen by Hawley, was far from favourable to the evolutions of regular troops. The English artillery, also, stuck fast in a morass, which formed part of the plain, and it could not be extricated ; but, as the Highlanders had also left theirs behind, neither force had in that respect any advantage above the other. Each of the armies now formed ; the Prince's in two lines ; his right commanded by Lord George Murray, and his left by Lord John Drummond, who as soon as he saw the enemy take the alarm, had desisted from his feint, and rejoined the main body of his countrymen. Charles himself took his station, as at Preston, in the second line, or rather close behind it, on a conspicuous mound, still known by the name of Charlie's Hill, and now overgrown with wood. For the English, their cavalry remained as they had come, in front, and their infantry drew up, like the insurgents, in two lines ; while in the rear of all stood a reserve, consisting of the Argyle militia and the Glasgow regiment. General Hawley commanded in the centre> and Huske on the right ; and the cavalry were under * Home's History, p. 167. 288 history of England. chap. xxix. Colonel Ligonier, who on the death of Gardiner had suc ceeded to his regiment. These arrangements being completed, Hawley sent orders to Ligonier to charge with all the horse on the enemy's right. The insurgents in that station, chiefly the Macdonald clans, seeing the dragoons come on, reserved their own fire, with the utmost steadiness and composure, until the English were within ten yards' distance ; they then, at Lord George's signal, gave a general discharge, so close and well aimed, that a very large number of the hostile horsemen were seen to reel and fall from their saddles, and the survivors were completely broken. Two of the dragoon regiments, the same that had fled at the Coltbridge and at Preston, being now well skilled and ex perienced in that military operation, repeated it on this occasion. The third regiment, Cobham's, stood firmer, but was likewise compelled to yield, after heavy loss. It was now Lord George Murray's endeavour to bring back the Macdonalds into regular line ; but their victorious ardour was not to be controlled ; running forward, and loading their pieces as they ran, they fell upon the flank of Hawley's two columns of foot, which at the same moment were furiously assailed in front ; the Highlanders, after their fire, dropping their muskets, and charging sword in hand. The English, on their part, nearly blinded by the wind and rain, and dispirited by their previous inaction, could not stand firm against this combined assault ; in vain did their General attempt to animate them by his personal courage ; his white head uncovered, and conspicuous in the front ranks of the combatants : the whole centre gave way in confusion, and betook them selves to flight. But on the extreme right of the Boyal army the result had meanwhile been very different. The three regiments there, protected by the rugged bank of the ravine, maintained this natural fortification, and kept aloof the Highlanders from their favourite close onset, sword in hand. Nay more, being reinforced by Cobham's dragoons, who rallied in their rear, they not only checked the pursuit on their flank, but spread confusion into the ranks before them, of the Prince's left, many Highlanders scampering away from the field, under the belief that the day was lost, and spreading these disastrous tidings in 1746. flight of general hawley. 289 their rear. Thus it might be said, that, of the Eoyal army, three fourths had been defeated, and one fourth victorious. Charles seeing, from his commanding station, this state of things, immediately put himself at the head of his second hne, and, advancing against the enemy's right, arrested their momentary triumph. They were now compelled, like their comrades, to withdraw from the field ; but theirs was a retreat, and not like their com rades', a flight : they marched in steady order, their drums beating, and colours displayed ; and protected the mingled mass of other fugitives. Had the Highlanders, nevertheless, pursued at this critical moment, there seems httle doubt that the King's army must have been utterly destroyed. But the night was now setting in, early at this winter season, and the earlier from the violent storm which blew ; and they deemed it imprudent to push forward in the darkness, suspecting, as they did, some stratagem or ambuscade. Lord John Drummond espe cially, who was a general officer in the French service, entertained and expressed that apprehension, when he saw the Scots Eoyal fly : " These men," said he, " be- " haved admirably at Fontenoy — surely this must be a " feint ! " Thus the insurgents remained for a consider able time upon the field, irresolute, disordered, and igno rant of their own success, until some detachments sent forward by Charles brought him the news that the English had already retreated from Falkirk. The Prince then (it was late in the evening, and the rain continued to fall in torrents,) made his entry into the town, and was conducted by torch-light to a lodging which had been prepared for him. Hawley, meanwhile, did not stop that night until Linlithgow, nor the next day until Edinburgh, where his troops arrived in much disorder and dejection. His only consolation was to make use of the gibbets erected for the rebels to punish his own soldiers ; that is such of them as had grossly misbehaved in the action. No less than four were executed in one day. On the field of battle he left about four hundred, dead or dying, with a large proportion of officers, amongst whom were Sir Eobert Munro of Foulis, three Lieutenant Colonels, and nine Captains. The insurgents' loss was estimated by vol. m. v 290 history of England. chap. xxtx. themselves at only forty men* ; but was, probably, triple that number. There were also about one hundred prisoners taken from the Royal army; one of them John Home, afterwards the historian of this conflict. Three standards, and all the artillery, ammunition, and baggage, fell into the hands of the. insurgents, who might exult that an attempt made by Hawley to set fire to his tents before he left them, was baffled by the rain. At Linlithgow, fur ther on in the retreat, the English army succeeded better in their attempts at conflagration : some troops which had been quartered in the Royal Palace, next morning, before their departure, deliberately set it on fire, by raking the live embers from the hearths into the straw pallets, thus reducing the venerable pile to a blackened and desolate ruin, as it still remains, f All that night, stormy though it was,, the unwearied Highlanders employed themselves in plundering the camp, and stripping the dead bodies. This last work they per formed so effectually, that a citizen of Falkirk, who next morning surveyed the slain from a distance, used to say that he could only compare them to a large flock of white sheep at rest on the face of the hill. J The prisoners of the Glasgow regiments were roughly handled, as volun teers and eager partisans, but the others had better treat ment; and the greater number, for safe custody, were sent to the Castle of Doune, all seeming much amazed at their disaster, when a triumph over the " Highland " rabble " had been so confidently promised them. One prisoner (an Irishman perhaps) was even overheard to mutter to his comrades, " By my soul, if Charlie goes on "in this way, Prince Frederick will never be King " George! "§ But this victory brought the Pretender no fruit, but barren laurels ; nay, it may be said without a paradox, that it proved hurtful instead of advantageous to his cause. Among the officers, it raised an angry dissension ; * Collection of Declarations, &c. p. 72. f Chambers's Hist. vol. ii. p. 53., and Scott's Provincial Antiquities, art. Linlithgow. But Grose ascribes the fire to accident. (Anti quities of Scotland, p. 232.) X Chambers's History, vol. ii. p. 17. § MS. Memoirs of Captain Daniel. 1746. FEUDS AMONG THE HIGHLANDERS. 291 each lamenting that the destruction of the enemy had not been completed ; Lord George Murray inveighing against Lord John Drummond, and Lord John retaliating upon Lord George. The common Highlanders, loaded with plunder, went off as usual to their mountains to secure it ; and thus was the army deprived for a time of several hundreds, nay thousands, of its men. An unfortunate accident also, which occurred the day after the battle, tended in no small degree to increase this desertion. One of Clanranald's clansmen was examining a musket, a part of his booty, as he stood at an open window, when the piece went off, and by mischance killed a son of Glen garry who was passing in the street. Charles, foreseeing the ill effects that might ensue, exerted himself to show every respect to the memory of the deceased, attending the funeral himself as chief mourner. The tribe of Glen garry, nevertheless, far from appeased, loudly demanded life for hfe; and Clanranald having reluctantly agreed to surrender his follower, the poor man was immediately led out and shot dead with a volley of bullets, — his own father joining in the fire, that his sufferings might end the sooner. But even this savage act of vengeance was not sufficient to satisfy the offended clan ; and the greater number, yielding to their grief or rage, forsook the Prince's standard, and withdrew to their mountain homes. On the evening after his victory Charles again en camped on Bannockburn, where he employed a press, which he had brought from Glasgow, to print a quarto sheet, containing an account of the battle.* This proved to be the last of his Scottish Proclamations or Gazettes. He now resumed the siege of Stirling Castle, deeming it derogatory to his arms to relinquish any enterprise of danger once begun, and thus leaving his enemies full leisure to recover from their recent defeat. When the tidings of the battle of Falkirk reached the Court of St. James's (it was on the day of a Drawing- Eoom) every countenance, it is said, appeared clouded with doubts and apprehension, except only the King's, whose heart was inaccessible to fear, and Sir John Cope's, * Collections of Declarations, &c. p. 69 — 72. V 2 292 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. who rejoiced to have at last a partner in his misfortune or misconduct.* The Duke of Cumberland, in conver sation with the Earl of Marchmont, " laid the blame of " the affair of Hawley on want of discipline, and said, " were he there he would attack the rebels with the men " that Hawley had left." f This determination was speedily put to the proof; for the fear of a French in vasion having now subsided, and the want of another general in Scotland being manifest, his Boyal Highness was appointed to the chief command in that country, and was earnestly requested to set out immediately. Tra velling night and day, he arrived most unexpectedly at Holyrood House on the morning of the 30th of January, — a day, as usual, of ill augury to the house of Stuart, — and he chose for himself the same apartments, nay even the same bed, in the palace, which had lately been occu pied by Charles. The Boyal Duke destined to wield so decisive an in fluence over the fortunes of his cousin and competitor, was of very nearly the same age, being only four months younger. He had not, however, the same graces of per son, being corpulent and unwieldy to a remarkable de gree, and in his manner rough and displeasing. His character was adorned by considerable virtues ; honesty of purpose, adherence to his promises, attachment to his friends. He was a dutiful son, and a liberal patron ; as a soldier, he was enthusiastically fond of his profession ; he had closely studied its details, and might even be lauded for capacity in an age which, to England at least, was singularly barren of military merit. His unwearied activity and his high personal courage would, however, at any period have justly claimed applause. But, as one of his own friends complains, " his judgment is too much " guided by his passions, which are often violent and un governable." Against his foreign adversaries he dis played no undue asperity, and towards his soldiers he could sometimes show compassion ; thus, for instance, on * See Quarterly Review, No. lxxi. p. 180. An abstracted Scottish Peer, at this Drawing Room, addressed Sir John by the title of General Hawley, to the no small amusement of the company. t Lord Marchmont's Diary, January 23. 1746. X Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 23. 1746. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 293 arriving at Edinburgh he immediately arrested the course of Hawley's savage executions : yet even his own army often murmured at his harshness and rigour ; and as to any rebel, he treated him with as httle mercy as he might a wolf. Never perhaps did any insurgents meet a more ungenerous enemy. From the deeds of blood in Scotland, — committed by his own order in some cases, and con nived at in many more, — his contemporaries branded him with a disgraceful by-word — the butcher ; and the historian who cannot deny the guilt, must repeat and ratify the name. The Duke of Cumberland remained but thirty hours at Edinburgh : on the 31st he set forward with his army to give the insurgents battle; his favourite Hawley still acting under him as one Li eutenant- General ; and the other was the Earl of Albemarle. Officers and soldiers were in high spirits, and confident of victory under their new commander. But on approaching Falkirk his Boyal Highness was informed that the rebels had already com menced their retreat ; the causes of which I shall now proceed to detail. In the siege of Stirling, Charles had employed as his engineer one M. Mirabelle, a vain volatile Frenchman, who had come over with Lord John Drummond. So ignorant was this man of his profession, that the batteries he constructed with great labour were entirely com manded and soon silenced by the fire of the Castle. Still, however, the prince persevered, taking only the advice of his favourite counsellors, Secretary Murray, Sir Thomas Sheridan, and the Quarter-Master General. But the other chief officers, mortified both at their loss of con fidence since the Derby retreat, and at the slow and doubtful progress of the present siege, determined to assert their authority by holding a consultation of their own. The result was a memorial signed by many in fluential names, and sent to the Prince by Lord George Murray, who was no doubt the secret mover of the whole design. This memorial is still preserved* : after lament- * Home's Hist. Append. No. 39. Those who signed it were Lord George Murray, Lochiel, Keppoch, Clanranald, Ardshiel, Lochgarry, Scothouse, and Simon Eraser, Master of Lovat. U 3 294 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. ing the numbers of Highlanders gone home, and the unequal chances of another battle, it proceeds : " We " are therefore humbly of opinion that there is no way to " extricate the army out of the most imminent danger " but by retiring immediately to the Highlands, where " we can be usefully employed the remainder of the " winter by taking and mastering the forts of the North, " and we are morally sure we can keep as many men " together as will answer that end, and hinder the enemy " from following us into the mountains at this season of " the year ; and in spring we doubt not but an army of " 10,000 effective Highlanders can be brought together, " and follow your Boyal Highness wherever you think " proper." This remonstrance, coming from such persons, and armed with all the force of a command, struck the Prince with astonishment and grief. Lord George had been with him but the day before, and shown him a plan he had drawn for the intended battle, which Charles had approved and corrected with his own hand. In the same view, likewise, had the sick and wounded of the army already been sent to the rear at Dumblane. When, therefore, he read the paper disclosing such different designs, he could scarcely believe his eyes : he passion ately exclaimed, " Good God ! have I lived to see this ? " and dashed his head against the wall with so much violence that he staggered. He sent sir Thomas Sheridan to argue with the chiefs against their project; but finding them firm, had no alternative but a sullen acquiescence.* The insurgents accordingly began their retreat on the 1st of February, first spiking their heavy cannon, and blowing up their powder magazine at St. Ninian's. So ill was this last operation contrived, that the explosion destroyed, together with the magazine, the neighbouring church, and lost the lives of several country people ; nor did party spirit fail to impute this accident to deliberate and malignant design. The best proof to the contrary will be found in the fact, that some of the insurgent * John Hay's Account of the Retreat from Falkirk (Home's Ap pendix, p. 355.). 1746. MARCH TO INVERNESS. 295 soldiers themselves, and particularly the man who fired the train, were amongst the killed. Very little, however, of discipline or regularity was observed in the retreat. Charles, with a frowardness and recklessness that seem to have been part of his character, whenever he was thwarted, had either neglected to give the needful orders, or suddenly changed them after they were given, and much confusion and loss of baggage ensued.* The direc tion of the retreat was to Crieff, where the army separated in two divisions ; nor did they reunite for some weeks ; both, however, making their way by different roads towards Inverness. They were pursued, but not over taken, by the Duke of Cumberland, who, fixing his head quarters at Perth, sent out detachments to reduce the neighbouring districts. While such were the events in the North, the Court of St. James's was agitated by a short but singular minis terial revolution. The Eoyal favour had been for some time engrossed by Lord Granville : the Pelham brothers found themselves treated with coldness and reserve, and apprehended that in carrying the supplies this winter they would only be paving the way for their own dismissal at the end of the session. To them, the unquelled rebellion appeared, not as a motive of forbearance, but only as a favourable opportunity for pushing their pretensions. They determined, therefore, to bring the question to an issue, and to concentrate their demands on one point — <- an office for Pitt — to whom they were bound by their promises, and still more by their fears. The king, how ever, guided by Lord Granville, and under Granville by Lord Bath, and. mindful of Pitt's old philippics against Hanover, steadily refused his assent to this arrangement. On the 6th of February, Lord Bath, coming from the Boyal closet, said frankly to Lord Harrington, that he had advised the king to negative Mr. Pitt's appointment and to pursue proper (he meant Hanoverian) measures on the * At a council of war, called near Crieff, there was great com plaint and recrimination amongst the officers, as to the disorder of the retreat. Charles ended their quarrel by saying very handsomely, that he would take all the blame on himself. Lord George Murray's Narrative, Jacobite Memoirs, p. 100. U 4 296 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CnAP. XXIX. Continent. Lord Harrington coldly replied, " They who " dictate in private should be employed in public."* A resignation was now resolved upon by nearly all the mi nisters. In this affair the Pelhams prudently shrunk from the front ranks ; the van therefore was led by Harrington, he being the first on the 10th to give up the seals, and thus drawing on himself the King's especial and lasting resentment. He was followed on the same day by the Duke of Newcastle, on the next by Mr. Pelham. Other self-denying placemen now poured in, with their white staves and gold keys. His Majesty immediately sent the two seals of Secretaries of State to Lord Granville (who was indisposed), that he and Lord Bath might form an administration as they pleased. "Thus far," says Horace Walpole, " all went swimmingly ; they had only " forgotten one little point, which was to secure a ma- " jority in both Houses." f Scarce any man of weight or reputation was found willing to join them. Chief Justice Willes declined to be their Lord Chancellor, and Sir John Barnard to be their Chancellor of the Exchequer. After various offers and repeated refusals, this ministry of forty hours was dissolved, and Lord Bath announced his failure to the King, who bitterly complained of his painful situa tion, and cried shame that a man like Newcastle, who was not fit, said he, for a chamberlain to a petty Court in Ger many, should be forced on him and the nation as Prime Minister. His Majesty had, however, no other choice than to reinstate his former servants, and admit whatever terms they now required. It was agreed to dismiss from place the remaining adherents of Bath and Granville, amongst others the Marquis of Tweeddale, whose office as Secretary for Scotland was ajrain abolished. Pitt became — not indeed Secretary at War, as was asked at first — but Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and soon afterwards, on the death of Winnington, Paymaster of the Forces. The Opposition grew still weaker from their weakness being so signally tested and disclosed, and dwindled for some time to a scarcely perceivable minority. Yet Lord Gran ville's high spirits never forsook him ; he continued to * Coxe's Memoirs of Horace Lord Walpole, p. 295» f To Sir H. Mann, February 14. 1746. 1746. the "rout of moy." 297 laugh and drink as before, owning that the attempt was mad, but that he was quite ready to do it again.* In Scotland the war languished for several weeks. Charles, on approaching Inverness, found it rudely for tified with a ditch and palisade, and held by Lord Lou don's army of about 2000 men. In the first instance, therefore, the Prince halted ten miles from the town, at Moy Castle, the seat of the chief of Mac Intosh. The Chief himself was serving with Lord Loudon, but Lady Mac Intosh remained to raise the clan for the opposite party, and rode in their front as commander, with a man's bonnet on her head, and pistols at her saddle-bow. The neighbourhood of Moy Castle, however, and the security in which Charles was living, incited Lord Loudon to a sudden night-march, in hopes to seize his person. But this well-concerted scheme was baffled by no more than six or seven of the Mac Intoshes, who, meeting the King's troops, dispersed themselves in different parts of the wood, and fired upon the advancing columns, at the same time imitating the war-cries of Lochiel, Keppoch, and other well-known clans, and thus producing an impression that the whole Highland army was at hand. The King's troops, astonished and doubtful from the darkness, hastily turned back to Inverness, where they arrived in so much confusion that their retreat was afterwards known by the name of the Bout of Moy. Next morning, the 17th of February, the Chevalier assembled his men, and on the 18th advanced to Inverness to repay Lord Loudon his unfriendly visit. The Earl, however, did not wait his coming ; he embarked with the Lord President and with his soldiers in boats, and rowed across the Moray Frith to Cromarty. He was afterwards pursued by the Earl of Cromarty and some Highland regiments marching round the head of the inlet, and was compelled to cross the Great Ferry into Sutherland. Here, still followed by Cromarty, his army disbanded. But Lord Cromarty, too confident in his first success, was surprised in his turn, and taken prisoner with his officers at Dunrobin Castle, by a body of the Sutherland mihtia, * H. Walpole to Sir H Mann, February 14. 1746. Duke of New castle to the Earl of Chesterfield, Feb. 18. 1746. Coxe's Pelham. 298 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. This last event, however, did not occur till the day before the battle of Culloden, and had therefore no influence upon the main events of the campaign. Having occupied the town of Inverness, Charles applied himself to the siege of the citadel, which surrendered in a few days. Another of his parties reduced and destroyed Fort Augustus, but was less successful before Fort William, as they could not prevent its communications by the sea. Lord George Murray likewise failed in taking the Castle of Blair, which a doughty veteran, Sir Andrew Agnew, maintained with some regular troops ; and this failure greatly tended to heighten the suspicions, though most unjust ones, which Charles aheady entertained of Lord George's fidelity. A rough draught in Charles's writing, and amongst the Stuart Papers, declares that " when Lord George Murray undertook the attack of the " post of Blair Castle, he took an officer, whom he sent " back without so much as consulting the Prince — a " thing so contrary to all mihtary practice, that no one " that has the least sense can be guilty of it, without " some private reason of his own." Such doubts and jealousies amongst the chiefs hastened and embittered the decline of their cause, and still more severely did they suffer from the failure of money and provisions. They were now cooped up in barren mountains, and debarred from their Lowland resources : and though the supplies of France were frequently despatched, they could seldom at this period reach their destination. Several ships were captured by the British cruisers, others steered back to the French ports: one, the Hazard, having on board 150 soldiers and 10,000Z. in gold, ran ashore on the north coast of Sutherland, and both crew and cargo were taken by the tribe of the Mac Kays. Thus Charles's little treasury was soon reduced to 500 louis-d'ors, and he was compelled to pay his troops in meal, — to the desertion of many, to the discontent and indiscipline of those that remained.* Nor were even these supplies of * " Our army had got no pay in money for some time past, but " meal only, which the men being obliged to sell out and convert into ." money, it went but a short way for their other needs, at which the "poor creatures grumbled exceedingly, and were suspicious thaj; 1746. DUKE OF CUMBERLAND ADVANCES. 29&. meal certain and invariable ; the men were often pinched with hunger, and unavoidably dispersed over the country for subsistence, while, according to the report of an English prisoner, even the best officers were glad when they could procure a few leaves of raw cabbage from the farmers' gardens.* During this time the Duke of Cumberland's army was, on the contrary, well supplied and powerfully reinforced. In February, there landed at Leith Prince Frederick of Hesse Cassel, with 5000 auxiliaries from his country, who had been hired, with consent of Parliament, in the place of the Dutch troops. For these last being the same that had capitulated at Tournay and Dendermond, and been set free under parole not to serve against any soldiers of France, Lord John Drummond had, immediately upon his landing, despatched a message to their commander, stating his own commission in the French service, and his arrival at the head of a French regiment, and requir ing therefore that the Dutch troops should withdraw from the contest, — a summons which they had accord ingly obeyed. The Hessians now served to garrison and secure the south of Scotland for the Duke of Cumber land, thus enabling him to draw together his whole native force against the rebels. After a visit to Edin burgh for a consultation with the Prince of Hesse, he had fixed his head-quarters at Aberdeen, where it was com monly believed that he intended to remain till summer. But they who thought thus, knew not the daring and active energy of that Boyal Chief, j On the 8th ApriL the Duke set forth from Aberdeen, at the head of about 8000 foot and 900 cavalry. His march was directed to Inverness, with the intention to offer his enemy a battle ; and proceeding along the coast, he was attended and supplied by the fleet. At Banff he "we officers had detained it from them." Macdonald's Journal. (Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 508.) * Chambers's Hist. vol. ii. p. 82. X According to H Walpole, " the Duke complains extremely of " the loyal Scotch ; he says he can get no intelligence, and reckons " himself more in an enemy's country than when he was warring with " the French in Flanders." To Sir H. Mann, March 21. 1746. 300 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. seized and hanged two Highland spies, employed, accord ing to their primitive manner, in notching the numbers of his army upon a stick.* There now lay before him the Spey, a deep and rapid mountain stream, where he apprehended some resistance to his passage. Several weeks before, Charles had despatched Lord John Drum mond with a strong party to defend the fords ; and some batteries had accordingly been raised upon the left bank. But as the Duke brought up cannon sufficient to com mand these imperfect works, Lord John justly considered his position as untenable, and fell back to Inverness, while the Eoyal army forded the Spey in three divisions on the 12th, and on the 14th entered Nairn. Beyond this town some skirmishing ensued between the Highland rear and the English van ; but Charles coming up sud denly to support the former with his guards from Inver ness, the latter in their turn retired. Charles and his principal officers lodged that night at Culloden House, the seat of his ablest enemy in Scotland, President Forbes. His troops lay upon the moor, where the heath, as one of the subalterns remarks, " served us both for bedding and fuel, the cold being very severe." f Early on the 15th they were drawn out in battle order, and expected an attack ; but no enemy appearing, Lord Elcho was sent forward with his cavalry to reconnoitre, and brought word that the Duke of Cumberland had halted at Nairn, and that this being his birthday, his troops were passing it in festivity and mirth. The pro vision from their ships was abundant ; the insurgents, on the other hand, were so ill supplied, that only a single biscuit could be served out to each man during the whole of the 15th. In numbers they were scarcely less de ficient : notwithstanding every exertion, some of their best regiments had not been able to rejoin them ; thus Cluny, Lord Cromarty, and the Master of Lovat were absent, so that barely 5000 men could be mustered on the field. Charles's spirit, however, was still undaunted. He had declared, two days before, that he was willing to attack, * Chambers's Hist. vol. ii. p. 82. f MS. Memoirs of Captain Daniel. 1746. NIGHT MARCH TO NAIRN. 301 had he but a thousand men.* He now on Lord Elcho's report, assembled a council of war, with a secret design to compensate for his inferiority of numbers by a night march, so as to surprise the Duke in his camp at Nairn, the distance being about twelve miles. In the council, he found Lord George Murray suggest this very scheme: Charles then rose and embraced him, and acknowledged the project as his own ; upon which, by common consent, orders were immediately given for its execution. | By the Prince's directions, the heath was set on fire, that the light might convey an idea of his troops being still in the same position : the watchword he assigned, was "King James the Eighth." But meanwhile numerous stragglers had left the ranks, repairing to Inverness and other places in quest of food ; and they told the officers sent after them to shoot them if they pleased, rather than com pel them to starve any longer. From this cause some precious hours were lost and many good soldiers missed, and it was not till eight at night that every preparation was completed. Charles then appointed Lord George Mur ray to command the first column, put himself at the head of that which followed, and gave the signal to march. The night was dark, and so far favourable to the pro ject of surprise ; but for the same reason it misled the guides and retarded the progress of the troops. Exhausted with privations, they -could not display their wonted energy ; slowly and painfully did they toil through waste * Letter of Lord George Murray, August 5. 1749, printed in Home's Appendix. f The account of this transaction is derived from a very rough draught or fragment in Charles's writing, preserved amongst the Stuart Papers. It states : " When the enemy was so much approach- " ing, and seeming to be determined to attack us lastly at Inverness, " if we did not them, the Prince called a council of war, when all the " chiefs were assembled and Lord George Murray. The Prince let " every one speak before him. Lord George Murray was the last, and " he proposed to attack that night as the best expedient ; this was just " what the Prince intended, but he kept it in his breast. The Prince " then embraced Lord George Murray, approved it, and owned it " was his project. It was agreed upon ; but then it was question of " the manner. It is to be observed, that the Prince proposed to " ketp Fort Augustus, and to make it serve as a place of rallying in " case of a defeat. But that was unanimously rejected by the chiefs : so it " was blown up." 302 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. or marshy ground, many men dropping altogether from the ranks, and the rear falling considerably behind the van. Under these disadvantages it was two in the morn ing before the head of the first column passed Kilra- vock House, within four miles of the English camp. This was the very hour for which the attack had been designed ; and Lord George pointed out to his officers that it was now no longer possible for them to reach the enemy before the dawn should expose them to his observ ation. Several gentlemen — Hepburn of Keith above aU — still vehemently adhered to the first project, saying that the Highland broad-sword would not be the worse for a little daylight to direct its operations. But not withstanding this flourish, it was plain that all hopes of a surprise had ended, and that the object of the night- march had failed. During the discussion, Mr. O'Sullivan came up with a message from the Prince, that his Boyal Highness would be glad to have the attack made ; but that, as Lord George was in the van, he could best judge whether it could be done in time or not. Thus empow ered, Lord George gave orders for retreat ; Charles af terwards riding up, was convinced by his reasoning of the unavoidable necessity ; and the troops, sadly retracing their steps, took up their original position on Drum- mossie, or Culloden Moor.* Thus, on the morning of April the 1 6th, the Highlanders were harassed and hungry, and without any neighbour^ ing stores of provision ; even for the Prince himself no refreshment beyond a httle bread and whiskey could be found. It was now the wish of Lord George Murray and otherskilful officers that the army thus unfitted for exertion should retire, and take up a position beyond the river Narin, where the ground was high and inaccessible to * Lord George was afterwards accused (most unjustly) of treacher , and of commanding the retreat without orders. There is some dis crepancy, which in my narrative I have attempted to reconcile, between his own account (Letter, August 5. 1749), and an answer to a query sent to Charles in Italy, nearly thirty years later. (Home's Appendix, No. 44.) Lord George's recollection is likejy to be the more correct so shortly after the transaction. But it is singular, and very honourable to both the parties concerned, that Charles's account acquits Lord George still more completely than Lord George does himself, of the alleged crime of acting without orders. 1746. BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 303 cavahy, so that the Duke of Cumberland could not have engaged them but at great disadvantage to himself. Charles on the other hand, like his forefather at Flodden, was imbued with the chivalrous idea, that he ought never to decline a battle on fair ground, nor enable his enemies •afterwards to say, that his victory had not been owing to his valour. Besides, as Lord George Murray complains, " His Boyal Highness had so much confidence in the " bravery of his army, that he was rather too hazardous, " and was for fighting the enemy on all occasions." * It appears moreover that the counsellors on whom he most relied, instead of checking his romantic rashness, rather urged him forward. According to another officer who was present, " when proposals were made to retire over "the river Nairn, which might have been done with " great facility, Sir Thomas Sheridan and others from " France having lost aU patience, and hoping no doubt for " a miracle, in which light most of them had considered " both the victory at Preston and that at Falkirk, insisted "upon a battle, and prevailed, without reflecting that " many were then absent, and those on the spot spent and " discouraged by a forced march during a long dark night " whereas upon the other two occasions the men were in " full vigour and spirits." f The insurgents were now drawn up for battle in two •lines : on the right the Athol brigade, the Camerons, the Stuarts, and some other clans under Lord George Murray ; on the left, the Macdonald regiments, under Lord John Drummond. " But we of the clan Macdonald," says one of their officers, " thought it ominous that we had not " this day the right hand in battle, as formerly at Glads- " muir and at Falkirk, and which our clan maintains we " had enjoyed in all our battles and struggles since tho "battle of Bannockburn."J The right flank on this occasion was covered by some straggling park walls ; to the left began a gentle slope leading down towards Cul loden House. Thus placed, it was about eleven o'clock * See Jacobite Memoirs, p. 122. j- Answers of Mr. Pattullo, Muster-master-General of the Insur gent army. (Home's Appendix, p. 332.) i Macdonald's Journal. (Lockhart Papers, vol ii. p. 510.) 304 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. when the Highland out-posts first observed the horizon darken with the advancing masses of the Duke of Cum berland's army. The Duke on approaching formed his army with great skill in three lines, with cavalry on each wing, and two pieces of cannon between every two regi ments of the first line. To obviate the effect of the Highland target he had instructed his soldiers, that each of them in action should direct his thrust, not at the man directly opposite, but against the one who fronted his right-hand comrade. He now again addressed his troops, saying that he could not suppose that there was any man in the British army reluctant to fight, but if there were any, who either from disinclination to the cause, or from having relations in the rebel army would prefer to retire, he begged them in the name of God to do so, as he would rather face the Highlanders with 1000 determined men at his back, than have 10,000 with a tithe who were lukewarm."* He was answered by loud huzzas and re peated shouts of " Flanders ! Flanders ! " It being nearly one o'clock before his arrangements were completed, it was proposed to His Eoyal Highness that he should allow the men to dine before the battle. " No," he re plied, " they will fight more actively with empty bellies, " and besides, it would be a bad omen. You remember "what a dessert they got to their dinner at Falkirk!" The battle began with a cannonade on both sides, by which (so different was the skill of their artillerymen !) the royal army suffered little, but the insurgent greatly. Of the rival princes, William at once took up his position between the first and second lines ; Charles, before re pairing to his, rode along the ranks to animate the men. His little party soon became a conspicuous mark for the enemy's cannon; several of his guardsmen fell, and a servant, who held a led horse, was killed by his side, the Prince himself being covered by the earth thrown up by the ball. Not discomposed, however, he coolly continued his inspection, and then, as at Falkirk, stationed himself on a little height just behind the second line. Mean while a storm of snow and hail had begun to fall, but * Chambers's Hist. vol. ii. p. 103.; from the note-book of an English officer who was present. 1746. BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 305 unlike that at Falkirk, blowing full in the faces of the Highlanders. At length Lord George Murray, finding his division of the right lose so much more than they inflicted from the cannonade, sent Colonel Ker of Gradon to the Prince requesting permission to attack. This being granted, the right wing and centre, with one loud shout, rushed furiously forward, sword in hand; they were received with a rolling fire, both of cannon and grapeshot, but yet so resistless was their onset that they broke through Monro's and Burrel's regiments in the first line, and captured two pieces of cannon. But the Duke foreseeing the chance of this event, and with a view to provide against it, had carefully strengthened and stationed his second line ; it was drawn up three deep, the front rank kneeling, the second bending forward, the third standing upright. These, reserving their fire till the Highlanders were close upon them, poured in a volley so well sustained and destructive as completely to disorder them. Before they could recover, the Boyal troops improved the advantage, and driving the clan* together till they became one mingled mass, turned them from assailants into fugitives. Some of their best dunnie wassails and the Chief of Mac Lauchlan were killed and trampled down ; the brave Lochiel fell wounded, but was carried from the field by his two henchmen ; and the call of the other chiefs arose unheeded and overborne. In short the whole right and centre of the insurgents were now in irretrievable rout, pursued by superior numbers, and drooping from previous exhaustion. Yet let it not be deemed that even thus their courage failed. Not by their forefathers at Bannockburn — not by themselves at Preston or at Falkirk — not in after years when discipline had raised and refined the valour of their sons — not on the shores of the Nile — not on that other field of victory where their gallant chief, with a pro phetic shroud (it is their own superstition) high upon his breast*, addressed to them only these three words, High- * "When a shroud is perceived about one, it is a sure prognostic of " death, and the time is judged according to the height of it about the " person ; for if it is seen above the middle, death is not to be expected " for the space of a year, but as it ascends higher towards the head, " death is concluded to be at hand, within a few days if not hours, as VOL. HI. X 306 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. LANDERS, REMEMBER Egypt* — not in those hours of triumph and of glory was displayed a more firm and reso lute bravery than now in the defeat at Culloden. The right and centre had done all that human strength or human spirit could do — they had yielded only to neces sity and numbers — and like the captive monarch at Pavia might boast that every thing was lost but their honour. On the left, however, the Macdonalds aggrieved, and as they thought, disgraced by their exclusion from the post of honour, stood moody, motionless, and irresolute to fight. In vain did the Duke of Perth, who was stationed there, tell them that, if they behaved with their usual valour, they would make a right of the left, and he would call himself in future a Macdonald. j- In vain did Keppoch rush forward to the charge with a few of his kinsmen ; the clan (an event almost unexampled in Highland warfare) would not follow: calmly they beheld their chief brought to the ground by several shots from the enemy ; calmly they heard the dying words which he faltered forth, " My God ! have the children of my tribe forsaken me!" Thus they stood while the right and centre of their army was put to the rout, and then falling back in good order they joined the remnant of the second line. But at the same time their rear became exposed to another body of English horse and Argyleshire Highlanders, who breaking gaps through the inclosures on the rebel right, formed again upon the open moor beyond, and must, if reinforced in time, have <:ut off all retreat from the defeated army. Charles, from the height where he stood with one squadron of horse, gazed on the rout of his army and the " daily experience confirms." (Martin's Western Islands, 1716, p. 300., and Scott's Poetical Works, voL vhi. p. 306. ed. 1834.) I know not whether it has ever been noticed, that the Highland word for a seer, Taisheer, is nearly the same as the Turkish : — " Warned by the voice of stern Taheer." * The words of Sir John Moore to the 42d regiment at the battle of Corunna. (Southey's Peninsular War, vol. ii. p. 524. 8vo ed.) ¦f Home's Hist. p. 234. In the Tales of a Grandfather, this saying is erroneously ascribed to Lord George Murray, who commanded on the other wing. (Vol. iii. p. 250.) 1746. LORD ELCHO. 307 ruin of his cause with wonder, nay almost with incredulity, with unavailing, orders and passionate tears. It was then that Lord Elcho spurring up to him proposed that His Boyal Highness should put himself at the head of the yet unbroken left, and charge forward with them to retrieve the fortune of the day. The other officers, however, con curred in thinking that the battle was irretrievably lost, and that a single wing of an army could never prevail against the whole of another army far superior at the first. If, as it appeared to them the only hope lay in rallying, it follows, that to continue the battle without any prospect of gaining it, could only serve to increase the slaughter, and diminish the chance of collecting the sur vivors. To Lord Elcho's proposal, therefore, the Prince returned a doubtful or negative answer, upon whiph Lord Elcho, according to his own account, turned away with a bitter execration, swearing that he would never look upon his face again. It is added that he kept his word, and in his exile used always to leave Paris whenever Charles entered it.* — Some suspicion, however, should attach to the whole of this story, because the latter part is certainly unfounded. The official account now lies before me, of Charles's first pubhc audience at the Court of France after his return, and amongst the foremost of his train on that occasion appears Lord Elcho.f I must further observe that Lord Elcho was a man of most violent temper, and no very constant fidelity. Within two months from the date of this battle, he made overtures for pardon to the British Court, " but," says Horace Walpole, " as he has distinguished himself beyond all the Jacobite command- "ers by brutality, and insults and cruelty to our pri soners, I think he is likely to remain where he is ;"£ and so he did ! There is also some contrary evidence as * See Quarterly Eeview, No. lxxi. p. 213., with a reference to Lord. Elcho's MS. Memoirs. t Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 567. X To Sir. H. Mann, June 20. 1747. See also a note to Waverley, vol. ii. p. 272. I consider Chevalier Johnstone as no authority in any question of fact ; but I observe that, though concurring in Lord Elcho's accusation, he gives an entirely different colour to it, by placing the conversation between Lord Elcho and the Prince, " some " hours after the battle, beside the river Nairn." (Mem. p. 198. 8vo ed.) 308 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. to Charles's behaviour. A Cornet in his squadron of horse who was close by his side, left an attestation when at the point of death, that the Prince had resolved to go down and charge with the remaining Highlanders, but that the Cornet saw O'Sullivan seize his horse by the bridle, and, assisted by Sheridan, force him from the fatal field. It is true that Charles had repeatedly declared at the outset of his enterprise that he was resolved either to pre vail or perish — and that he did neither. Yet we must remember, that not only at Culloden but for some days afterwards there were still hopes of rallying the army and renewing the war. And even waiving those hopes, Charles's conduct in this respect may be favourably com pared with that of a far greater man, at a far more matured period of life. Only four days before the battle of Water loo, it was announced by Napoleon — not like Charles in private letters, but in a public and recorded proclamation — " The moment is come for every Frenchman of cou- " rage, either to conquer or to die ! " * The little remnant of the rebel army with which Charles might have charged, did not long remain compact and united ; being presseed by the Eoyal forces it broke into two divisions. Of these the smaller, comprising all the French auxiliaries, fled towards Inverness, where they lay down their arms to the Duke of Cumberland. The other, preserving some degree of order, but thinned every moment by men hastening singly to their homes, made its way to Euthven in Badenoch. Fourteen of their stands of colours, 2300 firelocks, and all their cannon and baggage fell into the hands of the English. The victors reckoned their own loss in killed and wounded at 310 men; that of the insurgents was about 1000, or a fifth of their army. Quarter was seldom given to the stragglers and fugitives, except to a few considerately reserved for public execu tion. No care or compassion was shown to their wounded ; nay more, on the following day, most of these were put * "Pour tout Francais qui a. du coeur, le moment est arrive de " vaincre ou de perir !" Ordre du Jour, signed Napoleon. June 14. 1815. " Ancient heroes," says the author of Anastasius, ¦' have been " praised for dying without the least necessity, and modern worthies " for living without the smallest hopes ! '* 1746. THE HIGHLAND PRISONERS. 309 to death in cold blood, with a cruelty such as never per-. haps before or since has disgraced a British army. Some were dragged from the thickets or cabins where they had sought refuge, drawn out in line and shot, while others were dispatched by the soldiers with the stocks of their muskets. One farm-building, into which some twenty disabled Highlanders had crawled, was deliberately set on fire the next day, and burnt with them to the ground. The native prisoners were scarcely better treated; and even sufficient water was not vouchsafed to their thirst. "I " myself," says a gentleman of Inverness, " have often "gone by the prison at that melancholy time, when I " heard the prisoners calling out for water in the most "pitiful manner."* — To palliate these severities it was afterwards said in the Boyal army, that an order had been found in Lord George Murray's writing, that the Highlanders if victorious should give no quarter. But this pretended order was never shown or seen ; it is ut terly at variance with the insurgents' conduct in their previous battles ; and was often and most solemnly denied by their prisoners. From the field of Culloden Charles had rode away with Sheridan, O'Sullivan, and other horsemen, to Gortuleg, where Lord Lovat was residing. It was the first and last meeting between them ; but small was the sympathy or consolation which the young prince received from the hoary, and now despairing, intriguer. While Charles exclaimed on the ruin of the cause, Lovat thought only of his own ; he forgot even the common courtesy of a host, and they parted in mutual displeasure. Eesuming his flight, at ten o'clock the same evening, Charles and his little party rode rapidly on to Glengarry's castle of Invergarry, where they arrived two hours before day break of the 17th, so utterly exhausted that they could only throw themselves upon the floor in their clothes. The success of a fisherman, who went out and caught two salmon from the neighbouring brook afforded their only chance of food ; nor was there any other beverage than the same brook supplied. Yet how slight were these * Minutes of conversation between Bishop Forbes and Mr. Francia Stuart, son of Baillic Stuart of Inverness, October 4. 1748. x 3 310 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. hardships compared to those which followed! — There was still some prospect of rallying an army at Euthven, to which about 1200 fugitives from Culloden had repaired, directed by the talent and animated by the spirit, of Lord George Murray. But the want of supplies of all kinds — the terror of the recent battle — the growing dispersion — and the far superior forces of the enemy at hand — ere long dispelled these lingering hopes. Lord George, indeed, was still for persevering at all hazards, but a message was received from Charles, thanking the gentle men present for their zeal, but urging them to do only what each might think best for his own safety, and they accordingly dispersed. And thus was the Bebellion finally extinguished.* The Duke of Cumberland now fixed his head-quarters near Fort Augustus, in the very centre of the insurgent districts. It would have been a task welcome to most generals, and not unbecoming in any, to have tempered justice with mercy, — to reserve the chiefs or principal delinquents for trial and punishment, but to spare, pro tect, and conciliate the people at large. Not such, how ever, was the Duke of Cumberland's opinion of his duty. , Every kind of havoc and outrage was not only permitted, hut, I fear we must add, encouraged. Military licence usurped the place of law, and a fierce and exasperated soldiery were at once judge — jury — executioner. En such transactions it is natural and reasonable to suppose that the Jacobites would exaggerate their own sufferings and the wrongs of their opponents, nor, therefore, should we attach much weight to mere loose and vague com plaints. But where we find specific cases alleged, with names and dates, attested on most respectable authority — by gentlemen of high honour and character — by "bishops and clergymen of the episcopal church — in some cases, even by members of the victorious party — then are we bound not to shrink from the truth, however the truth may be displeasing. From such evidence it appears that the rebels' country was laid waste, the houses * There was some idea of rallying the clans in the May following, but it proved wholly abortive. The correspondence of Lochiel and Cluny on this subject is printed in Home's Appendix, No. 47 — 51. 1746. CRUEL TREATMENT OF THE VANQUISHED. 311 plundered, the cabins burnt, the cattle driven away. The men had fled to the mountains, but such as could be found were frequently shot; nor was mercy always granted even to their helpless families. In many cases the women and children, expelled from their homes and seeking shelter in the clefts of the rocks, miserably perished of cold and hunger; others were reduced to follow the track of the marauders, humbly imploring for the blood and offal of their own cattle which had been slaughtered for the soldiers' food! — Such is the avowal which historical justice demands. But let me turn from further details of these painful and irritating scenes, or of the ribald frolics and revelry with which they were intermingled — races of naked women on horseback for the amusement of the camp at Fort Augustus!* Ge neral Hawley, it is said, was foremost in every cruelty, and much more deeply conscious of, and responsible for, them than his Boyal master. Yet the latter must be con demned in no small degree, even judging only from his own correspondence. He writes to the Duke of New castle before Culloden : — " All in this country are almost " to a man Jacobites, and mild measures will not do. " You will find that the whole of the laws of this ancient " kingdom must be new modelled. Were I to enumerate "the villains and villanies this country abounds in, I "should never have done."! And again, from Fort Augustus: — "I am sorry to leave this country in the " condition it is in ; for all the good that we have done "has been a little blood-letting, which has only weak- " ened the madness but not at all cured it ; and I tremble " for fear that this vile spot may still be the ruin of this " island and of our family." J The licence of the soldiery was not curbed in Scotland till July, when His Eoyal Highness set out for Edinburgh, and from thence to Lon don. Everywhere he was hailed, and not undeservedly, as the pubhc deliverer ; while the thanks of Parlia ment, the vote of 25,000/. a year as a pension to himself * Rev. James Hay of Inverness ; attestation to Bishop Forbes, received, June 30. 1750. t Letter, April 4. 1746. Coxe's Pelham. X Letter, July 17. 1746. Ib. 312 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. and his heirs, and the freedom of numerous companies greeted his return. Some grants and honours might also well have re warded President Forbes, who, more than any other Scotsman of that period, had upheld and saved the King's cause. But his loyal zeal in the hour of danger was forgotten in the equal but less welcome zeal with which, after Culloden, the venerable judge ventured to plead for compassion. It is alleged that, on urging to the Duke the authority of the laws, he was an swered, " What laws ? I will make a brigade give "laws!" and he died soon afterwards, broken in spirit, and impoverished in estate, unable to obtain repayment of those very sums which, when other resources failed in 1745, he had freely advanced for his country's service.* Notwithstanding the eagerness with which, after Cul loden, the rebels were tracked and pursued, and the guard both of land and sea, several of their chiefs succeeded, after various concealments, privations, and dangers, in effecting their escape. Lord George Murray made his way to Holland, where under the name of De Valignie, he resided for the most part until his death in 1760. In another ship from France embarked the Duke of Perth, Sir Thomas Sheridan, and Mr. O'Sullivan ; but the Duke, a young man of delicate frame, expired on his passage, and Sir Thomas Sheridan, going on to Eome, and being severely arraigned by the Pretender for engaging in an expedition with such slight resources, was, it is said, so far affected by the reproof that he fell ill and died.-)- On the other hand the Government officers succeeded in seizing the Earl of Kilmarnock, Lord Balmerino, and Secretary Murray. Lovat was discovered in one of the wildest tracts of Inverness-shire, wrapt in a blanket, and hid in the hollow of an old tree, which grew upon an islet in the centre of a lake.J Lord Strathallan died of a wound at Culloden, and Tullibardine of disease and sorrow, when already immured in the Tower and await ing his trial. * Culloden Papers, Introduction, p. xxxvii., and Quarterly Review.. No. xxviii. p. 329. t Jacobite Memoirs, p. 4. note. X Chambers's History, voL ii. p. 170. 1746. Charles's wanderings. 313 But where was he, the young and princely chief of this ill-fated enterprise — the new Charles of this second Worcester ? His followers dismissed to seek safety as they couldforthemselves — he sometimes alone — sometimes with a single Highlander as his guide and companion — some times begirt with strange faces, of whose fidelity he had no assurance — a price set upon his head — hunted from mountain to island, and from island to mountain — pinched with famine, tossed by storms, and unsheltered from the rains — his strength wasted, but his spirit still unbroken — such was now the object of so many long cherished and lately towering hopes ! In the five months of his weary wanderings — from April to September — almost every day might afford its own tale of hardship, danger, and alarm, and a mere outline must suffice for the general historian. It is much to Charles's honour, that, as one of his chance attendants declares, " he used to say, that the " fatigues and distresses he underwent signified nothing " at all, because he was only a single person, but when " he reflected upon the many brave fellows who suffered " in his cause, that, he behoved to own, did strike him to " the heart, and did sink very deep within him."* But most of all entitled to praise appear the common High landers around him. Though in the course of these five months the secrets of his concealment became entrusted to several hundred persons, most of them poor and lowly, not one of them was ever tempted by the prize of 30,000/. to break faith, and betray the suppliant fugitive ; and when destitute of other help, and nearly, as it seemed, run to bay, he was saved by the generous self-devotion of a woman. In the hope of finding a French ship to convey him, Charles had embarked, only eight days after Culloden, for that remote cluster of isles to which the common name of Long Island is applied. Driven from place to place by contrary winds and storms, and having sometimes no other food than oatmeal and water, he at length gained South Uist, where his wants were in some degree relieved by the elder Clanranald. But his course being tracked or suspected, a large body of militia and regular troops, * Narrative of Captain Malcolm Mac Leod, put in writing, August 17. 1747. (Jacobite Memoirs, p. 476.) 314 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. to the number of 2000 men, landed on the island, and commenced an eager search, while the shores were sur rounded by small vessels of war. Concealment or escape seemed alike impossible, and so they must have proved but for Miss Flora Macdonald ; a name, says Dr. Johnson, which will for ever live in history. This young lady was then on a visit to Clanran aid's family, and was step daughter of a Captain in the hostile militia which occupied the island. Being appealed to in Charles's behalf, she nobly undertook to save him at all hazards to herself. She obtained from her step-father a passport to proceed to Skye, for herself, a man-servant and a maid, who was termed Betty Burke, the part of Betty to be played by the Chevalier. When Lady Clanranald and Flora sought him out, bringing with them a female dress, they found him alone in a little hut upon the shore, employed in roasting the heart of a sheep upon a wooden spit. They could not forbear from shedding tears at his desolate situation, but Charles observed, with a smile, that it would be well perhaps for all Kings if they had to pass through such an ordeal as he was now enduring. On the same evening he took advantage of the passport, embarking in his new attire with Flora and a faithful Highlander, Neil Mac Eachan, who acted as their servant. The dawn of the next day found them far at sea in their open boat, without any land in view ; soon, however, the dark mountains of Skye rose on the horizon. Approach ing that coast at Waternish, they were received with a volley of musketry from the soldiers stationed there, but none of the balls took effect, and the rowers, vigorously plying their oars, bore them away from that scene of danger, and enabled them to disembark on another point. Charles was now in the country of Sir Alexander Macdonald, at first a waverer in the contest, but of late a decided foe. When the prudent chief saw the Jacobite cause decline, he had been induced to levy his clan against it, and was now on the mainland in attendance on the Duke of Cumberland. Yet it was of his wife, Lady Margaret, a daughter of the Earl of Eglinton, that Flora determined to implore assistance, having no other- resource, and knowing from herself the courageous pity of a female heart. Lady Margaret received the news 1746. FLORA MACDONALD. 315 with pain and surprise, but did not disappoint Flora's firm reliance ; her own house was filled with militia officers, but she entrusted Charles, with earnest in junctions for his safety, to the charge of Macdonald of Kingsburgh, the kinsman and factor of her husband. As they walked to Kingsburgh's house, Charles still in woman's disguise, they had several streams to pass, and the Prince held up his petticoats so high as to excite the surprise and laughter of some country people on the road. Being admonished by his attendants he promised to take better care for the future, and accordingly in passing the next stream allowed the skirts to hang down and float upon the water. " Your enemies," said Kingsburgh, " call " you a Pretender, but if you be, I can tell you, you are " the worst of your trade I ever saw ! " Next day, at Portree, Charles took leave of the noble-. minded Flora with warm expressions of his gratitude, and passed over to the Isle of Basay, under the less in convenient disguise of a male servant and the name of Lewis Caw. His preservers soon afterwards paid the penalty of their compassion, both Kingsburgh and Flora Macdonald being arrested and conveyed in custody, the former to Edinburgh, the latter to London. The conduct of Lady Margaret likewise was much inveighed against at Court ; but once, when it provoked some such censure from the Princess of Wales: "And would not you, madam," asked Frederick, with a generous spirit, " would not you " in like circumstances have done the same ? I hope — "I am sure you would!"* It was at the intercession, as it is said, of His Boyal Highness, that Flora was re leased from prison after a twelvemonth's confinement. A collection was made for her among the Jacobite ladies in London, to the amount of nearly 1500/. She then married * Quarterly Review, No. xxviii. p. 330. In the Culloden Papers, p. 291., is an apologetic letter from Sir Alexander. He tells us that " the Pretender accosted Kingsburgh with telling him, that his b'fe was " now in his hands, which he might dispose of; that he was in the " utmost distress, having had no meat or sleep for two days and two " nights, sitting on a rock, beat upon by the rains, and, when they " ceased, ate up by flies, conjured him to show compassion but for one " night, and he should be gone. This moving speech prevailed, and " the visible distress, for he was meagre, ill-coloured, and overrun with " the scab ; so they went to Kingsburgh's house," &c. 316 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. Kingsburgh's son, and many years afterwards went with him to North America, but both returned during the civil war, and died in their native Isle of Skye.* From Easay Charles again made his way to the main land, where he lay for two days cooped up within a line of sentinels, who crossed each other upon their posts, so that he could only crouch among the heather, without daring to light a fire, or to dress his food. From this new danger he at length escaped by creeping at night down a narrow glen, the bed of a winter stream, between two of the stations. Another vicissitude in his wanderings brought him to a mountain cave, where seven robbers had taken their abode ; and with these men he remained for nearly three weeks. Fierce and lawless as they were, they never thought for an instant of earning " the price of blood ;" on the contrary, they most earnestly applied themselves to secure his safety, and supply his wants. Sometimes they used singly and in various disguises to repair to the neighbouring Fort Augustus, and obtain for Charles a newspaper or the current reports of the day. On one occasion they brought back to the Prince, with much ex ultation, the choicest dainty they had ever heard of — a pennyworth of gingerbread ! On leaving these generous outlaws, and after other perils and adventures, Charles effected a junction with his faithful adherents, Cluny and Lochiel, who was lame from his wound. There he found a rude plenty to which he had long been unused. " Now, gentlemen, I live like a " Prince!" cried he on his first arrival, as he eagerly de voured some collops out of a saucepan with a silver spoon.f * Tales of a Grandfather, vol. iii. p. 329., and Chambers' Hist. vol. ii. p. 221. Sbe is described as " a little woman, of a genteel ap- " pearance, and uncommonly mild and well-bred." (Boswell's He brides, p. 214. ed. 1785.) f Cluny's Narrative (Home's Appendix, p. 380.). There is a vague and romantic story about this time of one Mac Kenzie, lately an officer in the insurgent army, who, being beset and killed by some soldiers, cried, in his dying moments, "I am your Prince," — his ob ject being to afford a diversion for Charles's escape. It is added, that his head was cut off and passed for that of Charles, and was taken to Lon don by the Duke of Cumberland in his own carriage, &c. This story is adopted both by Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Chambers ; but on ex amination, I cannot find that it rests on any better authority than that 1746. CHARLES ESCAPES TO FRANCE. 317 For some time they resided in a singular retreat, called the Cage, on the side of Mount Ben alder; it was con cealed by a close thicket, and half- suspended in the air. At this place Charles received intelligence that two French vessels, sent out expressly for his deliverance, under the direction of Colonel Warren of Dillon's regiment and with that officer on board, had anchored in Lochnanuagh. Immediately setting off for that place, but travelling only by night, he embarked on the 20th of September, attended by Lochiel, Colonel Boy Stuart, and about one hundred other persons, who had gathered at the news. It was the very same spot where Charles had landed fourteen months before, but how changed since that time, both his fate and his feelings ! With what different emotions must he have gazed upon those desolate mountains, when stepping from his ship in the ardour of hope and coming victory ; and now, when he saw them fade away in the blue distance, and bade them an everlasting farewell ! Eapidly did his vessel bear him from the Scottish shores ; concealed by a fog, he sailed through the midst of the English fleet ; and he safely landed at the little port of Eoscoff, near Morlaix, on the 29th of September. He went — but not with him departed his remembrance irom the Highlanders. For years and years did his name continue enshrined in their hearts and familiar to their tongues ; their plaintive ditties, resounding with his ex ploits, and inviting his return. Again in these strains, do they declare themselves ready to risk life and fortune for his cause ; and even maternal fondness, — the strongest perhaps of all human feelings, — yields to the passionate devotion to " Prince Charlie." * On the rebellion being finally quelled, the punishment of its principal chiefs and instigators became the earnest desire of the people, and undoubtedly also the bounden of Chevalier Johnstone (Memoirs, p. 207.), and therefore I have no hesitation in rejecting it. * " I ance had sons, but now hae nane, " I bred them toiling sairly ; " And I wad bear them a' again " And lose them a' for Charlie !" (O'er the Water to CImrlie, No. 37. of Mr. Hogg's Second Series.) 318 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. duty of the government. With every sympathy for individual suffering — with every allowance for the fervour of mistaken loyalty, or for the blindness of feudal obedience — still it must be owned, that a rebellion so daring, so long designed, and so nearly successful, called aloud for some avenging and repressive acts of justice. It may however well be questioned whether these acts were not carried further, both in number and in rigour, than necessity would warrant. A very judi cious modern writer, while commenting on the executions in 1716, observes that there seems to have been "greater " and less necessary severity after the rebellion of 1745."* Yet, in general, time effects a happy change in the op posite direction ; and the aggravation in this case must certainly be ascribed to the Duke of Cumberland who, even after his return to London, continued, as we are told, to press "for the utmost severity."! The Scottish prisoners were removed for trial to England, lest their own countrymen should show them partiality or pity. At one time there were no less than 385 crowded together at Carlisle ; of these, however, the common men were per mitted to cast lots, one in twenty to be tried and hanged, the rest to be transported. There was no difficulty in obtaining proofs against individuals who had so openly appeared in arms. Amongst the earliest sufferers were Colonel Townley and eight other officers or privates of the Manchester regiment, who were hanged on Kennington Common near* London. Other executions took place at York, at Brampton, and at Penrith; in all there were nearly eighty. The barbarous ceremony of unbowelling, mangling, and casting the hearts into a fire was not omitted, nor did it fail — such is the vulgar appetite for the horrible ! — to draw forth exulting shouts from the spectators. Differing as the sufferers did in age, in rank, and temper, they yet, with scarcely an exception, agreed in their behaviour on the scaffold ; all dying with firm ness and courage, asserting the justice of their cause, and praying for the exiled family. Amongst these numerous condemnations, the one per- * Hallam's Constit. Hist, vol iii. p. 312. t H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, August 1. 1746. 1746. TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 319 haps of all others most open to exception, was that of Charles Eadcliffe, brother of the Earl of Derwentwater, beheaded in 1716. Charles Badcliffe had then avoided a like fate by breaking from prison ; he had lately been cap tured on board a French vessel bound for Scotland, with supplies for the insurgents ; and he was now, after a long confinement, put to death upon his former sentence, which had slumbered for thirty years. The noblemen who appeared for trial before their Peers in July, 1746, were the Earls of Cromarty and Kilmarnock, and Lord Balmerino. The two Earls pleaded guilty, ex pressing the deepest remorse for their conduct, while Bal- , merino endeavoured to avail himself of a flaw in the indictment, as not having been at Carlisle on the day it set forth ; but this being overruled, he declared, that he would give their Lordships no further trouble. On being brought up to receive sentence, both Cromarty and Kil marnock earnestly sued for mercy. " My own fate," said Cromarty, " is the least part of my sufferings. But, my " Lords, I have involved an affectionate wife with an un- " born infant as parties of my guilt to share its penalties. " I have involved my eldest son, whose youth and regard " for his parents hurried him down the stream of rebellion. " I have involved also eight innocent children, who must " feel their parent's punishment before they know his guilt. " Let the silent eloquence of their grief and tears supply "my want of persuasion!" — Kilmarnock urged, in ex tenuation of his own offence, the excellent principles he had instilled into his heir, " having my eldest son in the " Duke's army fighting for the liberties of his country at " Culloden, where his unhappy father was in arms to "destroy them!" — But no acknowledgment of error, no application for mercy could be wrung from the haughty soul of Balmerino. Lu compassion chiefly to Lady Cro marty, who was far advanced in pregnancy*, a pardon was granted to her husband, but the two others were ordered for execution on Tower Hill on the 18th of August. Kilmarnock met his fate with sufficient steadi ness combined with penitence, owning to the last the * When her child was born after this dreadful suspense, it bore upon its neck the distinct impression of an axe. (Tales of » Grandfather vol. iii. p. 310.) 320 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXIX. heinousness of his rebellion. His companion in mis fortune, on the contrary, as a frank resolute soldier, per severed and gloried in his principles. When at the gate of the Tower and on their way to the scaffold, the officers had ended the words of form with the usual prayer " God save King George ! " Kilmarnock devoutly sighed " Amen ; " but Balmerino stood up and replied in a loud voice, " God save King James ! " And as he laid his head on the block he said : " If I had a thousand lives, I would lay them all "down here in the same cause!"* The last of the " Martyrs," as their own party chose to call them, was Lord Lovat. Not having appeared in arms, nor committed any overt act of treason, this grey-haired hypocrite could not be so readily convicted as the bolder and better men who had walked before him to the scaffold. But a King's evidence was obtained in John Murray of Broughton, lately Prince Charles's Secretary, who now consented to purchase safety for himself by betraying the secrets and hazarding the lives of his former friends.f It was he who revealed to the Government the whole train and tissue of the Jacobite conspiracy since 1740, although, as the law requires two witnesses in charges of treason, it was not possible to proceed further against the Duke of Beaufort, Sir Watkin Wynn, or other English Jacobites ; nor indeed did the Government show any wish for their impeachment. In the case of Lovat, however, his own letters to the Chevalier were produced by Murray, other conclusive documents and some corroborating evidence from his clansmen were also brought forward, and his guilt was thus established in the clearest and most legal manner. His trial, which did not commence until March, 1747, continued during several days. Lovat's own be haviour was a strange compound of meanness, levity, and courage, — sometimes writing to the Duke of Cumberland for mercy, and pleading how he had carried his Boyal Highness in his arms, when a child, about the parks of * H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, August 21. 1746. X Mr. Murray survived many years afterwards, residing chiefly in Scotland. In Lockhart's Life of Scott (vol. i. p. 179.) is related a very curious scene between him and Sir Walter's father, showing the extreme abhorrence with which the unfortunate gentleman was still regarded. 1746 END OF LORD LOVAT. 321 Kensington and Hampton Court — sometimes striving by chicanery to perplex or rebut the proofs against him — ¦ sometimes indulging in ridiculous jests. " I did not think " it possible," says Horace Walpole, " to feel so little as I " did at so melancholy a spectacle, but tyranny and villany " wound up by buffoonery took off all edge of compassion." * When after his sentence he was taken from the Bar, he cried, " Farewell, my Lords, we shall never all again meet " in the same place !"f Like Balmerino and Kilmarnock he was beheaded on Tower Hill ; and he died with great composure and intrepidity, attended by a Eoman Catholic priest, and repeating on the scaffold the noble line of Horace, dulce et decorum est pro patria moei. — But in truth no man was ever less strongly imbued with that sentiment — except perhaps its writer! A few weeks afterwards, there happily passed an Act of Indemnity, granting a pardon to all persons who had committed treason, but clogged with about eighty excep tions. By other legislative measures, passed with little opposition — the Disarming Act — the abolition of Heri table Jurisdictions — and the prohibition of the Highland garb — it was sought to precipitate the fall of feudal power, and to subdue the spirit of the vanquished mountaineers. * To Sir H. Mann, March 20. 1747. f This answer is transferred by Lord Byron, without acknow ledgment, to his Israel Bertuccio. (Doge of Venice, Act 5. scene 1.) VOL. Ill, 322 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. CHAPTEE XXX. The rebellion in Scotland and the consequent recall of the British troops from Flanders, left that country an easy conquest to the French. Marshal de Saxe, unex pectedly renewing his operations in the midst of winter, invested Brussels ; on the 20th of February that impor tant capital surrendered, and its large garrison became prisoners of war. Antwerp, Mons, and Charleroi fol lowed in their turn. Even Namur, which had so long withstood the arms of King William, capitulated on the 19th of September, after a siege of only six days. Mean while the command of the allied army had been assumed by Prince Charles of Lorraine, and he had gradually received both British and Hanoverian reinforcements : but, on the 11th of October, he was repulsed in an en gagement at Eoucoux, near Liege ; and, at the close of the campaign, the French were in possession of nearly the whole of the Austrian Netherlands. But their successes on the Scheldt and Meuse were halanced by reverses on the Po. The Austrians, freed from their Prussian enemy by the peace of Dresden, had sent large reinforcements over the Alps ; they recovered Parma, Guastalla, and Milan, and completely defeated the French and Spaniards at a battle near Placentia on the 17th of June. Pursuing their victory, they entered Genoa in September, and urged their preparations for an imme diate invasion of Provence.* Another event unfavourable to the Court of Versailles was the death of Philip the Fifth of Spain, on the 9th of July. His son and successor, Ferdinand the Sixth, felt but a slight interest in the establishment of Don Philip in Italy — the main object of the war in the preceding reign — and he accordingly pursued that war languidly, un willingly, and with diminished forces. Thus France, de serted by Prussia and Bavaria, and faintly supported by * Muratori, Anna!', d'ltal. vol. xii. p. 346. et seq. 1746. EXPEDITION TO BRITTANY. 323 Spain, had no longer any one efficient ally ; and notwith standing her conquests in Flanders, was not disinclined to peace on reasonable terms. Some conferences were opened at Breda, but from the high pretensions of Eng land and of Austria at that time, led to no result. In this summer the British Ministers despatched an expedition to the coast of Brittany, the troops under General St. Clair, the fleet under Admiral Lestock. The object was to surprise Port L'Orient, and destroy the ships and stores of the French East India Company, but the result attained was only the plunder and burning of a few helpless villages. Thus much only might be boasted, that the fleet and troops returned with little loss. " The " truth is," says a contemporary, " Lestock was by. this " time grown too old and infirm for enterprise, and, as is " aUeged, was under the shameful direction of a woman " he carried along with him ; and neither the soldiers " nor the sailors, during the whole of the expedition, " seem to have been under any kind of discipline." * At home the tranquillity of the Cabinet was slightly ruffled by the resignation of Lord Harrington. That Minister — so lately the King's favourite — had incurred His Majesty's most serious displeasure by his courage in heading the seceders of February, 1746. In the same proportion — for common minds have only a certain stock of friendship or of enmity, which is never increased or diminished, but only transferred from one person to another — had His Majesty's feelings relented towards Pitt and Chesterfield : to the former he began to show signs of esteem — of the latter he no longer opposed the admission into office. Thus, when Harrington, mortified at the King's antipathy, and feebly supported by the Duke of Newcastle, for whose sake he had exposed him self, gave up the Seals on the 29th of October, they were immediately entrusted to Chesterfield, while Chesterfield's appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was transferred to Harrington.* * Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 271. X I must observe, in justice to Newcastle, that though not suffi ciently firm in supporting his friend in the Cabinet, he insisted on obtaining for him the Lord Lieutenancy, which the King was un willing to grant. See Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 343. Y 2 324 history of England. chap. xxx. Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, one of the most shining characters of his age, was born in 1694. His father — a man of morose and gloomy temper — appears from his earliest years to have con ceived a coldness, nay aversion to him.* But the parental place was in a great measure supplied by his grand mother, the Marchioness of Halifax, who with great ac complishments combined an overflowing benevolence. At the age of eighteen young Stanhope was sent to complete his studies at Cambridge. According to his own account, many years afterwards, " at the University I was an " absolute pedant. When I talked my best I quoted " Horace ; when I aimed at being facetious, I quoted " Martial ; and when I had a mind to be a fine gentle- " man, I talked Ovid. I was convinced that none but " the ancients had common sense, that the classics con- " tained every thing that was either necessary, useful, " or ornamental, to men ; and I was not even without " thoughts of wearing the toga virilis of the Bomans, " instead of the vulgar and illiberal dress of the moderns."! Yet there is reason to suspect that this was not the real fact with himself, but only an encouraging example held forth to his son to show him how pedantry may be suc cessfully surmounted. Certain it is, that the few letters preserved of Chesterfield, during his nonage, display wit, acuteness, and knowledge of the world. Thus, from Paris, in 1715, he writes satirically: "I shall not give 41 you my opinion of the French, because I am very often " taken for one of them ; and several have paid me the -" highest compliment they think it in their power to be- " stow ; which is, ' Sir, you are just like ourselves ! ' I " shall only tell you that I am insolent ; I talk a great " deal ; I am very loud and peremptory ; I sing and dance " as I walk along ; and, above all, I spend an immense " sum in hair-powder, feathers, and white gloves ! " J His ¦correspondent, on this occasion, was M. Jouneau, a tedious old gentleman, of whose acquaintance he was evidently * See a letter, dated 1703, in Atterbury's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 24. X Letter to his son, June 24. 1751. X Chesterfield's Works, vol. iii. p. 17. 8vo ed. 1779. 1747. lord chesterfield. 325 weary ; but it is, I fear, in some degree characteristic of Chesterfield, that this, the very last letter he ever wrote to that person, contains the following expressions : — " You reproach me, and not without cause, for not having " written to you since I came to Paris. I confess my " fault ; I repent of it, and you will be convinced of the " sincerity of my repentance by the number of letters " with which I shall in future overwhelm you. You will " cry out for quarter, but in vain ; I shall punish you for " not having known your first happiness ! " Chesterfield had entered the House of Commons even before the legal age*; but allured by pleasures^ into which he plunged with no common eagerness, he shrunk from the arduous labours of a statesman. It was not till the death of his father, in 1726, that he began in earnest to tread the thorny paths of ambition. Nature had endowed him with a brilliant and ready wit, which was sometimes the delight, sometimes the scourge, but always the wonder, of his companions ; and which shone alike in his most laboured writings, and his least premeditated sallies. His own care had formed manners, till proverbial for their excellence, and, in his own time, the model for the world of fashion ; while attaining the highest degree of courtly polish, they had neither relaxed into insipidity, nor stiffened into superciliousness ; but were animated and enlivened by a never-failing anxiety to please. As is acknowledged by himself — " Call it vanity, if you will " — and possibly it was so ; but my great object was to " make every man I met like me, and every woman love " me. I often succeeded, but why ? By taking great " pains." f But these more superficial graces and accom plishments were, it speedily appeared, supported by what alone can support them in public life ; a large and solid fund of reading. " Nobody," says he to his son, " ever " lent themselves more than I did, when I was young, to " the pleasures and dissipation of good company ; I even " did it too much. But then I can assure you, that I " always found time for serious studies ; and when I " could find it no other, way, I took it out of my sleep ; " for I resolved always to rise early in the morning, * See vol. i. p. 132. f To ms son» Julv 21. 1752. T 3 326 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. " however late I went to bed at night ; and this resolu- " tion I have kept so sacred that, unless when I have been " confined to my bed by illness, I have not, for more than " forty years, ever been in bed at nine o'clock in the " morning, but commonly up before eight." * — " But," he adds, " throw away none of your time upon those " trivial futile books published by idle or necessitous " authors for the amusement of idle and ignorant readers : " such sort of books swarm and buzz about one every " day ; flap them away ; they have no sting : certum " pete finem ; have some one object for your leisure " moments, and pursue that object invariably till you " have attained it." ] — With Chesterfield that main object was oratory. " So long ago as when I was at Cam- " bridge, whenever I read pieces of eloquence (and, in- " deed, they were my chief study), whether ancient or " modern, I used to write down the shining passages, and " then translate them as well and as elegantly as ever " I could ; if Latin or French, into English ; if English, " into French. This, which I practised for some years, " not only improved and formed my style, but imprinted " in my mind and memory the best thoughts of the best " authors. The trouble was little, but the advantage I " have experienced was great." J Whether from such studies, or from natural genius, Chesterfield's speeches became more highly admired and extolled than any others of the day. Horace Walpole had heard his own father ; had heard Pitt ; had heard Pulteney ; had heard Wynd ham ; had heard Carteret; yet he declares, in 1743, that the finest speech he ever listened to was one from Chesterfield. § The outset of Chesterfield in pubhc employments was his first embassy to Holland, in which he displayed great skill and attained universal reputation. Diplomacy was indeed peculiarly suited to his tastes and talents : he was equally remarkable for a quick insight into the temper of others, and for a constant command of his own : with foreign languages and history he had long been familiar : * Letter, December 13. 1748. f Ibid. May 31. 1752. X Letter, February 1. 1754. § To Sh- H. Mann, December 15. 1743. 1747. lord chesterfield. 327 and public business, though at first strange and unwel come, soon became easy, nay delightful, to him. He writes to Lady. Suffolk from the Hague: — "As you " know, I used to be accused in England, and I doubt " pretty justly, of having a need of such a proportion of " talk in a day : that is now changed into a need for " such a proportion of writing in a day." * Chesterfield's second embassy to Holland, in 1744, con firmed and renewed the praises he had acquired by the first. So high did his reputation stand at this period, that Sir Watkin Wynn, though neither his partisan nor personal friend, once in the House of Commons reversed in his favour Clarendon's character of Hampden ; saying, that " Lord Chesterfield had a head to contrive, a tongue " to persuade, and a hand to execute, any worthy ac- " tion." -f At home his career, though never, as I think, inspired by a high and pervading patriotism, deserves the praise of humane, and liberal, and far-sighted pohcy. Thus after the rebellion, while all his colleagues thought only of measures of repression — the dungeon or the scaf fold — disarming acts and abolition acts — we find that Chesterfield " was for schools and villages to civilise the " Highlands." % But, undoubtedly, the most brilliant and useful part of Chesterfield's career was his Lord Lieutenancy of Lre- land. It was he who first, since the Be volution, made that office a post of active exertion. Only a few years before, the Duke of Shrewsbury had given as a reason for accepting it, that it was a place where a man had business enough to hinder him from falling asleep, and not enough to keep him awake ! § Chesterfield, on the contrary, left nothing undone, nor for others to do. Being once asked how he was able to go through so many affairs, he answered, "Because I never put off' " till to-morrow what I can do to-day." || Chesterfield was also the first to introduce at Dublin — long as it. had reigned in London — the principle of impartial justice. » To Lady Suffolk, August 13. 1728. Suffolk Letters, 1824. t See Pari. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 1054. X Diary of Lord Marchmont, August 31. 1747. § Marchmont Papers, voL i. p. 91. || Maty's Life, p. 255. From the Bishop of Waterford. x 4 328 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. It is no doubt much easier to rule Ireland on one exclu sive principle or on another. It is very easy, as was formerly the case, to choose the great Protestant families for " Managers ; " to see only through their eyes, and to hear only through their ears : it is very easy, according to the modern fashion, to become the tool and champion of Boman Catholic agitators ; but to hold the balance even between both; to protect the Establishment, yet never wound religious liberty ; to repress the lawless ness, yet not chill the affections of that turbulent but warm-hearted people ; to be the arbiter, not the slave of parties ; this is the true object worthy that a statesman should strive for, and fit only for the ablest to attain. " I came determined," writes Chesterfield, many years afterwards, " to proscribe no set of persons whatever ; " and determined to be governed by none. Had the " Papists made any attempt to put themselves above the " law, I should have taken good care to have quelled " them again. It was said, that my lenity to the Papists " had wrought no alteration either in their religious or " their political sentiments. I did not expect that it " would : but surely that was no reason for cruelty to- " wards them." * Yet Chesterfield did not harshly cen sure, even where he strongly disapproved ; but often conveyed a keen reproof beneath a good-humoured jest. Thus, being informed by some exasperated zealots that his coachman was a Boman Catholic and went every Sunday to Mass : " Does he, indeed ! " replied the Lord Lieutenant, " I will take good care that he shall never " drive me there ! " When he first arrived at Dublin in the summer of' 1745, a dangerous rebellion was bursting forth in the sister kingdom, and threatened to extend itself to a country where so many millions held the faith of the young Pretender. With a weak and wavering, or a fierce and headlong Lord Lieutenant, — with a Grafton or a Strafford — there might soon have been another Papist army at the Boyne. But so able were the mea sures of Chesterfield ; so clearly did he impress upon the * Letter of Lord Chesterfield, preserved in the archives of Dublin. Castle, and quoted by Lord Mulgrave in the debate in the House of Lords, November 27. 1837. 1747. LORD CHESTERFIELD. - 329 public mind that his moderation was not weakness, nor his clemency cowardice ; but that, to quote his own ex pression, " his hand should be as heavy as Cromwell's " upon them if they once forced him to raise it;" — so well did he know how to scare the timid, while conci liating the generous, that this alarming period passed over with a degree of tranquillity such as Ireland has not often displayed even in orderly and settled times. This just and wise — wise because just — administration has not failed to reward him with its meed of fame ; his authority has, I find, been appealed to even by those who, as I conceive, depart most widely from his maxims ; and his name, I am assured, lives in the honoured re membrance of the Irish people, as, perhaps, next to Or mond, the best and worthiest in their long Viceregal line. The biographer of Chesterfield, after portraying his character, in whatever points it can be praised, con cludes, — " These were his excellences ; let those who " surpass him speak of his defects." * I shall not follow that example of prudent reserve. The defects of Ches terfield were neither slight nor few ; and the more his contemporaries excused them, — lost as they were in the lustre of his fame, — the less should they be passed over by_ posterity. A want of generosity; dissimulation car ried beyond justifiable bounds ; a passion for deep play ; and a contempt for abstract science, whenever of no practical or immediate use ; may, I think, not unjustly be ranked amongst his errors. But, at the root of all, lay a looseness of religious principle. For without im puting to him any participation in the unbehef which his friend Bolingbroke professed, it is yet certain that points of faith had struck no deep root into his mind, and exer cised no steady control upon his conduct. The maxims laid down in his familiar correspondence, even when right themselves, seldom rest on higher motives than ex pediency, reputation, or personal advantage. His own glory, — the false flame that flits over these low grounds, — however brilliant and dazzling from afar, will be found to lack both the genuine glow of patriotism, and the kindhng warmth of private friendship. The country * Maty's Life, p. 357. 330 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. is to be served, not because it is our country, but inas much as our own welfare and reputation are involved in it : our friends are to be cherished, not as our inchnation prompts, or their merits deserve, but according as they appear useful and conducive to the objects we pursue. Prodesse quam conspici was both the motto and the maxim of Somers ; the very reverse, I fear, might some times be apphed to Chesterfield. During the administration of the new Secretary of State, his great oratorical abilities were seldom tried. The two Houses had now — dwindled, shall I say, or risen — into very pacific and business-like assemblies. Even the iU success of the war could not stir the quiet temper of the people ; nor did the dissolution of Parlia ment, in the summer of 1747, add anything to the strength of the Opposition. In most of the ensuing contests the friends of the Ministry prevailed. It was with great difficulty that Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, could rally a remnant of the Jacobites ; or that a small band of followers was retained by the Prince of Wales, aided by the councils of Bolingbroke and Dod ington.* There was no want of vehemence, at least, in his Boyal Highness. " These Ministers," says he, " have " sullied the Crown, and are very near to ruin aU. Pray " God they have not a strong majority ; or adieu to my " children, the constitution, and everything that is dear "tome."f In this year, the progress of the war was marked by two naval victories of England ; one by Admiral Anson, near Cape Finisterre ; another by Admiral Hawke, off Belleisle : in each six French ships of the line were taken. But on land the campaigns proved inefficient in Italy, unprosperous in Flanders. So early as November, 1746, an Austrian army, under Marshal Brown, had invaded Provence, and bombarded Antibes ; when they were startled at the news of a popular rising in their rear. The * Dodington — a true Lord Glistonbury, according to Miss Edge- worth's admirable sketch — was eager only for a peerage. That object of his whole life was not attained till 1761, the year before he died. t To Sir Thomas Bootle, June, 1747. Coxe's Pelham, Appendix, vol. i. 1747. revolution in Holland. 331 Genoese, it appeared, had, by a sudden effort, flung off the German yoke, and restored their Eepublic to inde pendence. Under these circumstances, the Austrians, in Provence, soon finding their communications intercepted, and themselves harassed by the French force of Marshal de Belleisle, hastened to recross the Var, and applied themselves to a long and desultory, but fruitless block ade, of the insurgent city. The French, in their turn, attempted another invasion of Italy, but were checked in an action at the Pass of Exiles, in July, 1747 ; when the Chevalier, brother of the Marshal de Belleisle, and nearly four thousand veteran soldiers, were among the slain. On the side of the Netherlands, the Duke of Cumber land had been again entrusted with the command, and took the field in February ; but found, as usual, the Dutch and Austrians grievously deficient in their stipu lated quotas. With an ill-combined and murmuring army, his early movements served rather to harass his own troops than to injure or even alarm the enemy's. The Court of Versailles rehed for success, not merely on their arms, but on the timid and wavering, the despised and despicable, government of the Dutch. Aheady had great advantages accrued to the French from their constant reluctance to engage directly and frankly in the war ; and now it was hoped to terrify them into a separate negotiation. With this view, Louis the Fifteenth issued a formal manifesto on the 17th March, suspending the con ferences of Breda; and the French Minister at the Hague Was instructed to announce that, as the Dutch had for merly sent twenty thousand of their troops over the fron tier of Lille, without declaring war; so the King of France would now send an equal force into their terri tories, not as declaring war, but to counteract the ill effects of the assistance which they had afforded to the Queen of Hungary. On the same day, the army of Mar shal de Saxe was put in motion, and the vanguard of twenty thousand men, headed by Count Lowendahl, burst into Dutch Flanders, and reduced the frontier fortresses, Sluys, Sas van Ghent, and Hulst. The danger of 1672 now appeared renewed to Holland; but with precisely the same effect. As in 1672, it stirred and roused, instead of intimidating, that brave people. 332 history of England. chap. xxx. Far from yielding as the enemy expected, they raised a cry of treachery against their timid magistrates, as the friends and abettors of France, and turned for help to their neverfailing deliverers in peril, the House of Orange. As in 1672, the head of that House was proclaimed Stadtholder by almost universal acclamation. The revo lution commenced in Zealand ; but rapidly spreading from province to province, was achieved and completed within a few days. Even at the Hague, the magistrates, surrounded by an immense and raging multitude, and timid for themselves as they had been for the state, could only purchase their own safety by waving the Orange standard, a symbol of their recognition, from the palace windows.* Prince William of Nassau was acknowledged as Stadtholder, Captain General, and Lord High Admi ral, with the same extended powers which had been en- oyed by his kinsman and name-sake, William the Third, and which had lain dormant since his death. Nay, more, he was enabled, some time afterwards, to guard against a similar lapse in future, by a law rendering these dignities hereditary to his children ; and thus changing the consti tution to a limited monarchy in fact, though not, as yet, in name. The fall of the old decrepit government, and the acces sion of a young and popular prince, son-in-law of the King of England, seemed a happy omen for the vigorous prosecution of the war. There did, indeed, ensue no small accession of administrative energy, and of military means. Unfortunately, however, when the Prince of Orange took the field at the head of the Dutch army, he was found ignorant of tactics, and jealous of his more practised, but not less overbearing brother, the Duke of Cumberland. According to Mr. Pelham, " Our two young " heroes agree but little. Our own is open, frank, reso- -' lute, and perhaps hasty ; the other assuming, pedantic, " ratiocinating, and tenacious. ... In what a situation " then are we ! We must pray for the best, for direct it " we cannot We have nothing to do, but to make " up the present quarrels, get a httle breathing time ; * Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xxiii. 1747. battle of lauffeld. 333 " and then, perhaps, some people may come to their " senses, or some senses may come to them." * It was this disunion in the allied army that caused it a check on the 2d of July, at the village of Lauffeld, in front of Maestricht. The Dutch, in the centre, gave way and fled ; the Austrians, on the right, under Marshal Bathiany, would not move from their fortified position ; so that the entire brunt of the battle fell upon the British, on the left. Assailed by the whole French army, which was animated by the presence of Louis, and directed by the genius of De Saxe, the Duke of Cumberland could not long maintain his ground : he effected his retreat, however, in good order, leading the troops to a new and strong position behind the Meuse. They lost four stand ards ; but, notwithstanding their repulse, they captured six. The number of killed and wounded, on both sides, was great, and nearly equal. Marshal de Saxe after wards owned, that his victory had cost him no less than 8000 foot and 1000 horse.f " The great misfortune of " our position," writes the Duke of Cumberland, " was, " that our right wing was so strongly posted, that they " could neither be attacked nor make a diversion ; for I " am assured that Marshal Bathiany would have done all " in his power to sustain me, or attack the enemy." f • Both commanders showed high personal gallantry in the foremost ranks ; the Marshal being once nearly taken prisoner, and the Duke also once mixed with a squadron of French horse. The English horse suffered severely from their own ardour ; they broke at first whatever stood before them ; but hurrying on too far, were out flanked by columns of foot, when their body was with great slaughter repulsed, and their chief, Sir John Ligo nier, taken. The King of France gave a favourable re ception to that officer, who had been his subject by birth, but alienated from his country by the fanatic persecution of the Protestants. " Would it not be better," said Louis, * To Mr. Walpole, August 14. 1747. •f Sir Everard Fawkener, Military Secretary to Sir Thomas Robinson, July 16. 1747. X Despatch to the Earl of Chesterfield, July 3. 1747. 334 history of England. chap. xxx. " to think seriously of peace, instead of beholding the de- " struction of so many brave troops ? " * Pursuing his success, the French commander detached Count LbwendahL who, at the head of 30,000 men, rapidly traversed Brabant, and unexpectedly invested Berg-op-Zoom. This fortress, the key of Holland on that side, and the master-piece of the celebrated Cohorn, was, besides its strong works and its numerous garrison, con nected with an intrenched camp which 12,000 troops de fended. Although the trenches were opened in the middle of July, it was not till the beginning of Septem ber that breaches, and those only slight ones, were effected in the walls ; but the governor, Baron Cronstrom, a veteran of fourscore, unfortunately relied so much on the strength of the place as to neglect the usual precautions for security ; and thus Berg-op-Zoom was taken by sur prise on the 15th of September, with very slight resist ance from the garrison. This disaster closed the cam paign, the French reserving the siege of Maestricht for the opening of the next, and taking up quarters in their new conquests ; while the English and Dutch occupied the neighbourhood of Breda. It is difficult to describe what melancholy apprehensions then prevailed in the British councils. Mr. Pelham writes to the Duke of Cumberland : — "we are told every day to exert, to arm, " and to augment. The advice, Sir, is certainly good ; " but are we not almost brought to the necessity of " answering, as King William said to the man who ad- " vised him to change hands, — ' Tell Wyndham to " ' change hands,' who had but one ? Is not our case, Sir, " near to that ? Have we not gone almost as far as we are " able ? Are there many more troops to be had ? The * Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xxvi. Voltaire charitably hints that Ligonier might have been put to death by way of reprisal. " Des " Ecossais, officiers au service de France, avaient peri par le dernier " supplice en Angleterre dans l'infortune du Prince Charles Edouard." — It is said that Ligonier, when surrounded in the battle, endeavoured for some time to pass for one of the enemy's officers, and even led the French troops with great alertness to an attack, in the hope of effect ing his escape; but, unfortunately, the order of the Bath being observed under his coat, he was recognised and secured. See Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 360, 1747. negotiations for peace. 335 " Eussians the King has ordered (to the number of " 30,000) to be taken into our pay, if they will come. " To the Danes intimations are given also ; but is there " the least reason to think IBs Majesty will be successful " in that generous attempt ? And last of all, in case he " should succeed, what will they cost ? And how shall " we get the money ? " * Happily, however, the French were not less inclined for peace, and availed themselves of Ligonier's captivity as an opening towards it. After a few vague remarks from Louis, De Saxe had several confidential discourses with Sir John. The Marshal said that the King, his master, did not love war ; — that he, the Marshal, as little desired to continue it; — that the whole French nation ' hated him ; — that were he to meet with one misfortune, the King himself could not protect him; — that he had aheady all the honour he wished for, and all the rewards for his services that he could ask, or the King grant ; — that, in this situation, broken as he was also in his health, he could not but feel eager for a peace, — and that he knew his master did likewise. He, at last, proceeded to tell Ligonier, that the King of France desired he would return to the Duke of Cumberland, and assure His Boyal Highness, in his name, of his wish to put an end to the war ; — that he thought this object would be best attained by themselves at the head of their respective armies ; that he knew the honour of the Duke too well to imagine he would engage in any thing without his Allies ; — but that, as the two armies would soon withdraw to winter- quarters, there would be time for His Eoyal Highness to receive the opinion of those Allies ; — and that he doubted not but they would have the wisdom to trust their in terests to His Eoyal Highness's hands. " As to the King " of France," De Saxe added, " he looks to nothing for " himself ; he is willing to restore all Flanders as it now " is, except Fumes, which he expects to keep if you insist " on the total demohtion of Dunkirk ; but if you will let " that harbour remain as it is, he will then desire nothing " but the restitution of Cape Breton." Even this resti- * Letter, September 8. 1747, 0. S., written on the news of the taking of Berg-op-Zoom. 336 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. tution was only proposed as an exchange for Madras, which the French had lately succeeded in wresting from the English. " Genoa," continued the French Marshal, " ought to be restored, if taken, to the Eepublic, and the " Duke of Modena reinstated in his own dominions ; and " Spain must, for the honour of France, be included and " considered." All other details were skilfully passed over as easy of adjustment.* These unexpected overtures produced much pleasure, but some perplexity, in England. The Duke of Cum berland, who transmitted them, was eager to retain in his own hands the honour of negotiation, and the King showed no less anxiety to gratify his favourite son ; while, on the other hand, the Ministers trembled at his well-known violence of temper, and total inexperience in diplomatic affairs. It was apprehended that the secret object of France might perhaps be only to sow jealousies amongst the Allies, or to inveigle the hasty Duke into the signature of rash and ill-judged preliminaries. At length the Ministers consented to entrust the nominal negotiation to His Boyal Highness ; but prevailed upon the King that the Earl of Sandwich, already employed as plenipotentiary in the Breda conferences, should be sent to head-quarters as the assistant (the Court phrase for director) of the Duke. Sandwich accordingly hastened over to Holland, and had a secret interview at Liege with the Marquis de Puisieulx, the French Minister of foreign affairs. Nothing was decided between them as to the terms of a peace, but it was agreed to take the negotiation from military hands, and refer it to a Con gress to be held at Aix la Chapelle. It soon appeared, however, that the wishes of the Allies for peace were not sincere or not lasting. The Empress Queen, irritated at the conduct of the French, in com mencing and urging the war, was not willing to close it without some signal triumph, or solid advantage, over them. The Prince of Orange and Duke of Cumberland, much as they differed on other points, agreed in a thirst of military fame, and a consequent desire of further mili tary operations. George the Second was anxious, at this * Mr. Pelham to Mr. Walpole, July 30. 1747. 1747. DISSATISFACTION OF CHESTERFIELD. 337 period, to conciliate the head of the Empire ; and for this, and his other petty German objects, coveted either exorbi tant terms of peace, or an indefinite prolongation of war. Thus, therefore, though the first overtures of France had been readily welcomed, amidst the dejection of military failures and reverses, they were not cordially pursued. The measures to assemble the intended Congress were so slow and dilatory, on the part of the Allies, that the plenipotentiaries could not meet before the ensuing year ; while, on the other hand, their preparations for the next campaign were urged forward with unwonted activity and ardour. It plainly appeared that their secret object. was to delay the negotiation until it might proceed con jointly with the military movements, and until the bril liant successes, which they foolishly anticipated, should". enable them to dictate whatever terms they pleased. In the British Cabinet, the prudence of Mr. Pelham,, which induced him to sigh for peace, was always counter acted, and, in general, overpowered, by another more selfish prudence, that watched and trembled at the first symptoms of Eoyal displeasure. The Duke of Newcastle, eager at all hazards to retrieve his own favour with the King, and incapable of any more long-sighted views, be came a decided partisan and promoter of the war, and most frequently drew his reluctant brother in his train. To the Pelhams nearly all the other Ministers — selected, in general, for their subservience — tamely bowed; but not so the Earl of Chesterfield. From the first moment of his admission into the Cabinet, he had made peace the main object of his care ; he now urged the pressing necessity, and the excellent opening, for it, with an eagerness that began to alienate his sovereign, and to embroil him with his colleagues. It was with great difficulty that, when Parliament met in October, the dis cordant Ministers could concur in any expressions for the Eoyal Speech. Lord Marchmont, who was then in London, and familiar with many of the leading statesmen, relates in his Diary, — " Lord Chesterfield told me there " was as yet no Speech ; that they had put it to the " Chancellor, who had desired to know what he was to " say ; that he saw he could not please them all three, " the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Chesterfield, and Mr. vol. m. z 338 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. " Pelham ; and therefore desired hints, which as yet " were not given him That Mr. Pelham and the " Duke now conversed only through Mr. Stone, being " apt to fall into a passion when they conversed together ; " that they would surely break, if Mr. Pelham did not " think it would be the ruin of them both ; that Mr. " Pelham's only concern was, that he might not be per- " sonally attacked in the House of Commons ; and that, " provided he was not made the object there, he was easy. " For this end, Pitt, and the Lyttletons, and Grenvilles, " must have every thing they asked ; and now held half " the places in the King's gift ; and then the old set, who " hated these, came and asked when there would be no " more Lyttletons, and Grenvilles to be pleased, that they " might have room for something ! Lord Chesterfield " added, that Mr. Pelham had the same opinion of the " Duke that we had ; and that the King had a most " mortal hatred to him, worse than to any man in his " dominions." * The project -of Chesterfield, in entering the Cabinet, had been to govern George the Second through Lady Yarmouth, as he once had hoped through Lady Suffolk.^ Over the one lady, as formerly over the other, his in sinuating manners gained him an entire control ; but, in neither case, did the King allow pohtical power to -the mistress. The assiduities of Chesterfield, therefore, served rather to rouse the watchful jealousy of Newcastle than to secure his own ascendant. Ln his great pubhc object, the peace, he could make no progress. In his more personal requests, he found himself no less thwarted ~by his colleagues, who had formed, as he says, a settled resolution, that no person should be promoted through * Lord Marchmont's Diary, October 27. 1747. t " Lord Chesterfield, who was as much for peace as Lord " Harrington, aimed at superior, if not supreme power, with the " King. In the means he succeeded fully, having gained Lady " Yarmouth's good-will, and had all the help she can give, most cor- " dially. In the end he failed entirely ; having, brought His Majesty " to no more than civility, familiarity, and, perhaps, liking to his " conversation." Mr. Fox to Sir C. H. Williams, February 17. 1748. Though no friend to Chesterfield, Fox goes on to admit that " his " Lordship's province was most offensively encroached upon " by Newcastle and Sandwich. 1748. Chesterfield resigns the seals. 339 his influence. This last question he brought to an issue, in the case of his cousin Colonel George Stanhope, youngest son of the late Prime Minister, an officer of merit, who had distinguished himself both at Dettingen and at Culloden. For him Chesterfield solicited a regi ment ; but, though His Majesty gave away five in suc cession, the name of Stanhope was 'always omitted.* Under these circumstances, " what must the world think," said he, " but that I continue in for the sake of 5000/. a " year ?"f and, in January, 1748, he formed the resolution to resign. As he writes to his confidential friend at the Hague : — " Could I do any good I would sacrifice some' " more quiet to it ; but, convinced as I am that I can do " none, I will indulge my ease, and preserve my character. " I have gone through pleasures while my constitution " and my spirits would allow me. Business succeeded " them ; and I have now gone through every part of it, " without liking it at all the better for being acquainted " with it. Like many other things, it is most admired " by those who know it the least I have been " behind the scenes both of pleasure and of business ; I " have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which " exhibit and move all the gaudy machines ; and I have " seen and smelt the tallow-candles which illuminate the " whole decoration, to the astonishment and admiration " of the ignorant multitude Far from engaging in " opposition, as resigning Ministers too commonly do, L '• shall, to the utmost of my power, support the King and " his Government ; which I can do with more advantage " to them and more honour to myself when I do not re- " ceive 5000/. a year for doing it My horse, my " books, and my friends will divide my time pretty " equally ; I shall not keep less company, but only better, " for I shall choose it." % The first step of Chesterfield towards resignation was to draw up an able memorial, setting forth the dangers of the war, and the necessity of taking serious measures * Lord Marchmont's Diary, October 27. 1747; and February 5. 1748. H. Fox to Sir C. H. Williams, February 17. 1748. f Lord Marchmont's Diary, December 24. 1747. X Lord Chesterfield to Mr. Dayrolles, January 26., February 9\, February 23. 1748. z 2 340 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. to close it ; and finding that he could engage but one of his colleagues to concur in these opinions, he, on the 6th of February, waited upon his Boyal Master, and gave up the Seals. The King expressed, in strong terms, value for his services, and regret at his departure ; hoped that he would not engage in opposition ; and offered to grant him a signal mark of his satisfaction by the title of Duke.* This, however, Lord Chesterfield respectfully declined. He withdrew for the remainder of his years to private, or at least unofficial, life ; but still taking, when his health allowed, a prominent part in the House of Lords. Lu 1751, he had the honour to propose and carry a long required improvement, — the Eeformation of the Calendar, — assisted by two most able mathematicians in the House and out of it, the Earl of Macclesfield and Mr. Bradley. The error of the old Calendar was gross, increasing, and avowed; yet so strongly upheld by popular prejudice, that many statesmen shrunk from its correction. Chesterfield tells us that, when he gave the Duke of Newcastle, as Secretary of State, previous notice of his design, His Grace " was alarmed at so bold an un- " dertaking, and entreated me not to stir matters, that " had been long quiet ; adding, that he did not love new- " fangled things ! I did not, however, yield to the " cogency of these arguments, but brought in the Bill, " and it passed unanimously." f It was also the en deavour of Chesterfield, by writing in some periodical papers of the day, to prepare the minds of the people for the change ; yet their resentment was both deep and lasting. When, in 1754, Lord Macclesfield's eldest son stood a great contested election in Oxfordshire, one of the most vehement cries raised against him was, " Give us " back the eleven days wo have been robbed of ! " And even several years later, when Mr. Bradley, worn down by his labours in the cause of science, was sinking under mortal disease, many of the common people ascribed his sufferings to a judgment from Heaven, for having taken part in that " impious undertaking ! " f The pursuits of Chesterfield, in his retirement, were * Maty's Life, p. 303. f Lord Chesterfield's Characters. X See Bradley's Works and Correspondence, p. lxxxi. ed. 1832. 1748. CHESTERFTELD IN RETIREMENT. 341 not, however, all praiseworthy, or even harmless. While in office, either in Lreland or England, he had scrupu lously forborne from touching a card ; but the passion remained ; and, on the very evening of his resignation, he went to White's, and resumed his former habits of deep play. * It may, perhaps, be doubted, notwithstanding the phi losophy with which Chesterfield affected to speak of office and ambition, whether he would have permanently perse vered in his renouncement of them ; but, in 1752, he was attacked with an ailment equally baneful to the honours of pubhc, and to the enjoyments of private, life — the loss of hearing. Amidst his mortification at this infirmity he could still allude to it with his usual lively flow of wit. " In spite of my strong hereditary right to deafness, how " willingly would I part with it to any Minister, to whom " hearing is often disagreeable ; or to any fine woman, " to whom it is often dangerous I have tried a " thousand infallible remedies, but all without success ! " But I comfort myself with the reflection that I " did not lose the power, till after I had very near lost " the desire, of hearing !"f — But he clearly understood his altered situation. " Betirement was my choice seven " years ago ; it has now become my necessary refuge. " Public life and I are parted for ever."| And accord ingly, in 1757, he wisely forbore from profiting by a most brilliant avenue to power, which opened before him, as the mediator between contending parties. § Chesterfield had no children by his marriage ; but an illegitimate son, born in 1732, had, even in his busiest moments, engaged no small portion of his thoughts and time. The education of that boy — his proficiency in classic, and still more in worldly, knowledge — and his consequent success in pubhc life — was always Chester field's favourite, and grew, at last, his only, object. But his anxious admonitions and exertions were by no means * Maty's Life, p. 307. X Letters to Mr. Dayrolles, April 17., May 19., June 30. 1752. The deafness of Chesterfield forms the groundwork for one of Voltaire's prose tales, Les Oreilles du Comte de Chesterfield. 1 To Mr. Dayrolles, May 2. 1755. S See Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 110. z 3 342 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. crowned with success. Philip Stanhope became a man of deep learning and sound sense ; but utterly wanting iu what his father so highly prized — the graces. His ad vancement in the world was owing far more to his father's influence than to his own abilities ; ' he failed as a Parlia mentary speaker ; and had risen no higher in diplomacy than Envoy to Dresden, when he died, in 1768. From this period, the old age of Chesterfield, until his own death, in 1773, was desolate and cheerless. He adopted his youthful godson and next heir to the Earldom ; whom he found, however, uncongenial in temper, and httle inclined to follow his advice. Accordingly, though bequeathing his estates to his successor, he carefully guarded them against waste or dilapidation from horse races, which he had always contemned, or from his own vice — now too late repented of — high play. His Will declares, " In case my said godson, Philip Stanhope, shall, " at any time hereafter, keep, or be concerned in keeping " of, any race-horses, or pack of hounds ; or reside one " night at Newmarket, that infamous seminary of ini- " quity and ill-manners, during the course of the races " there ; or shall resort to the said races ; or shall lose, in " any one day, at any game or bet whatsoever, the sum of " 500/. ; then, in any of the cases aforesaid, it is my ex- " press will that he, my said godson, shall forfeit and pay, " out of my estate, the sum of 5000/., to and for the use " of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster." * This last sentence comprises a lively touch of satire. The Earl had found, or believed that he found, the Chapter of Westminster of that day exorbitant and grasping in their negotiation with him of land for the building of Stanhope Street, in front of Chesterfield House ; and he declared that he now inserted their names in his will, because he felt sure that if the penalty should be incurred, they would not be remiss in claiming it. It had appeared, on the death of Chesterfield's son, that he had secretly married, without his father's consent, or even knowledge : and the widow, upon Chesterfield's own demise, published, for profit, the whole correspond ence of the Earl with her late husband ; a correspondence * Earl of Chesterfield's Will, dated June 4. 1772.' 1748. chesterfield's letters. 343 written in the closest confidence and unreserve, and with out the slightest idea of ever meeting the public eye. It is, however, by these letters that Chesterfield's character, as an author, must stand or fall. Viewed as compositions, they appear almost unrivalled as models for a serious epistolary style ; clear, elegant, and terse, never straining at effect, and yet never hurried into carelessness. While constantly urging the same topics, so great is their variety of argument and illustration, that, in one sense, they ap pear always different, in another sense, always the same. They have, however, incurred strong reprehension on two separate grounds ; first, because some of their maxims are repugnant to good morals ; and, secondly, as insisting too much on manners and graces, instead of more solid acquirements. On the first charge, I have no defence to offer ; but the second is certainly erroneous, and arises only from the idea and expectation of finding a general system of education in letters that were intended solely for the improvement of one man. Young Stanhope was sufficiently inclined to study, and embued with knowledge ; the difficulty lay in his awkward address and indifference to pleasing. It is against these faults, therefore, and these faults only, that Chesterfield points his battery of eloquence. Had he found his son, on the contrary, a graceful but superficial trifler, his letters would, no doubt, have urged, with equal zeal, how vain are all accomplish ments, when not supported by sterling information. In one word, he intended to write for Mr. Philip Stanhope, and not for any other person. And yet, even after this great deduction from general utility, it was still the opinion of a most eminent man, no friend of Chesterfield, and no proficient in the graces — the opinion of Dr. Johnson, " Take out the immorahty, and the book should be put " into the hands of every young gentleman."* I now revert to Chesterfield's retirement from office. It was Newcastle's desire that the vacant post might be filled by Lord Sandwich; but a superior cabal in the Cabinet bestowed it upon the Duke of Bedford, an honourable but hot-headed man ; most ungraceful in his manner and delivery, yet not destitute of powers of rea- * Boswell's Life, 1776, vol. vi. p. 175. ed. 1839. z 4 344 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. soning or of just weight in the House of Lords ; upon the whole, perhaps, mainly recommended by his high rank and princely fortune.* Sandwich, however, who was all this time a close friend of Bedford, succeeded His Grace as the head of the Admiralty, and was hkewise despatched as plenipotentiary to Aix la Chapelle, where the Congress did not open until the 11th of March. At nearly the same season, commenced the campaign. But the war party in England, which had hoped to win brilliant suc cesses, and to dictate triumphant terms, found its reliance on the new Dutch promises altogether deceived. Their stipulated contingents never appeared in the field ; and so far from supplying the sums they had undertaken, they sent to London, at this very moment, to solicit the loan of one million sterling.-f Meanwhile the British resources were already drained and exhausted by our own demands. We learn that " money was never so " scarce in the City, nor the stocks so low, even during " the rebellion, as now ; 12 per cent, is offered for money, " and even that will not do." J To add to these discouragements, the Mareschal de Saxe proved himself as superior in skill, as he was in numbers, to the Duke of Cumberland. Completely deceiving His Eoyal Highness by some false demonstrations against Breda, he suddenly concentrated his forces before Maes tricht, which he invested on the 3d of April. The Aus trians were driven back to Buremond, with the loss of ' their magazines ; the Bussian auxiliaries stiU lingered on their march through Franconia ; and the Dutch and Eng lish combined were far too weak for offensive operations. Under these circumstances, the fall of Maestricht ap peared certain, and the invasion of Holland probable. Thus pressed, and yielding to necessity, the British Ministers determined to close even with far less favour able terms than they might lately have obtained. The * On the character of the Duke of Bedford, as on several points favourably modified since my second edition by a perusal of his sub sequently pubhshed correspondence, see the note dated 1844 in the Appendix to the fourth volume of this History. (1852.) t Duke of Bedford to Mr. Pelham, February 27. 1748. Coxe's Pelham. X Lord Chesterfield to Mr. Dayrolles, March 22. 1748. 1748. PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE. 345 views of Pelham had always been pacific, and he now gathered spirit to enforce them. Newcastle himself, who had promoted the war, not from honest conviction, but rather from jealousy of Chesterfield, having prevailed over his rival, was no longer disinclined to peace. In April, accordingly, his Grace wrote to Lord Sandwich, declaring that the King, unable either to check the pro gress of the French army, or to reconcile the discordant pretensions of his own Allies, had resolved, without the concurrence of the other powers, to accept the conditions which France was disposed to grant. Sandwich was, therefore, instructed to conclude a preliminary treaty, combined with a cessation of arms, especially in the Nether lands ; to communicate the treaty to the plenipotentiaries of the Allies, and endeavour to obtain their concurrence ; but if they refused it, to sign without them.* In these instructions, the Dutch Government, swayed at this period by the British, and by their own sense of danger, fully concurred. Count Bentinck, accordingly, on their part, as Lord Sandwich on the part of England, pursued the negotiation with Count St. Severin, the ple nipotentiary of France ; who, however, feeling his van tage-ground, availed himself of it.-f He also hastened the result by threatening that the slightest delay in the ne gotiation would be a signal for the French to destroy the fortifications of Ypres, Namur, and Berg-op-Zoom, and to commence the invasion of Holland. The Ministers of the other powers peremptorily refused to join ; but late at night of the 30th pf April, New Style, the preliminaries were finally adjusted and signed by the English, Dutch, and French plenipotentiaries. The following were the principal articles : — The renewal of all former treaties, except in such points as were specifically changed. The mutual restitution of all conquests in every part of the world. * Duke of Newcastle to the Earl of Sandwich, April 8. 1748, O.S. t " M. St. Severin, in the whole course of the negotiation, knew " his superiority, and made use of it ; and I am very apprehensive " that some way or other, from the Hague, he must have known the " substance of my instructions." Lord Sandwich to the Duke of Newcastle, May 1. 1748. 346 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX Dunkirk to remain fortified towards the land in its actual condition, and towards the sea on the footing of ancient treaties ; in other words, the works on that side to be demolished. The Duchies of Parma and Guastalla and Placentia to be assigned to the Infant Don Philip ; but, in case he should either die without issue, or succeed to the throne of Naples, Parma and Guastalla to revert to the House of Austria, and Placentia to the King of Sardinia. The Duke of Modena, and the Eepublic of Genoa, to be reinstated in their former territories, comprising the resti tution of Finale. The cessions made to the King of Sardinia, by the treaty of Worms, to be confirmed, with the exception of Pla centia and Finale. The Asiento treaty to be revived for four years, the period of its suspension during the war. The articles in the treaty of 1718, on the guarantee of the Protestant succession, and the exclusion from France of the Pretender and his family, to be confirmed and executed. The Emperor to be acknowledged by France in his Im perial dignity, and the guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanc tion to be renewed.1. The Duchy of Silesia and the county of Glatz to be guaranteed to the King of Prussia. With these preliminaries was also signed an act for the suspension of hostilities. Never, perhaps, did any war, after so many great events, and so large a loss of blood and treasure, end in replacing the nations engaged in it so nearly in the same situation as they held at first. Yet, notwithstanding the exhausted state of the British finances, and the depression wrought by the disasters in the Netherlands, these terms — especially the restitution of Cape Breton — were far from popular in England.* The Ministers, however, might well congratnlate themselves on escaping so easily from the results of their own rashness. When the King found peace unavoidable on less advantageous conditions than he had lately shrunk from, he testily observed, * Tindal's Hist. vol. ix. p. 361. 1748. RESENTMENT AT VIENNA AND TURIN. 347 " Chesterfield told me six months ago, that it would be " so ;" and the Earl himself could not refrain from boast ing how his predictions were fulfilled. " I am heartily " glad," he writes, " that the peace is made. I was for " making it sooner, and consequently better. I foresaw " and foretold our weakness this campaign, and would have " prevented by a timely negotiation, last October, those " evident dangers to which it must necessarily expose us, " and which we have escaped more by our good fortune " than our wisdom. I may add, that my resignation " made this peace, as it opened people's eyes as to the " dangers of the war. The Eepublic is saved by it from " utter ruin, and England from bankruptcy." * At the same time, however, indignation and resent ment prevailed at the Courts of Turin and of Vienna. The King of Sardinia could ill brook the alienation of Placentia and Finale ; and the Empress Queen, in spite of every representation from Sir Thomas Bobinson, not only refused to concur in the preliminaries X, but pub licly protested against them. The whole summer was consumed before these obstacles could be surmounted ; but the negotiations at Aix were still conducted by Lord Sandwich, and he received directions, partly from Mr. Pelham and the Government in London, and partly from the King and the Duke of Newcastle, who had repaired to Hanover. At length, after a tangled web of most wearisome discussions, a definitive treaty was signed in October by all the belligerent powers. This peace con firmed and established the terms of the preliminaries, — but it contained no stipulation on the first cause of the war, the commercial claims of England upon Spain ; and it was clogged with a clause most unwelcome to the British pride — that hostages should be given to France for the restitution of Cape Breton. Two noblemen of distinguished rank, the Earl of Sussex and Lord Cath cart, were accordingly selected for this purpose and sent * To Mr. Dayrolles, May 13. 1748. f Her Majesty's passionate exclamations at the news — "I am " neither a child nor a fool ! . . . Good God ! how have I been " used ! . . . There is your King of Prussia ! . . . . No, no, I will "rather lose my head;" &c. — maybe seen from Eobinson's de spatches in Coxe's House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 353. 348 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. to Paris. At the news of their arrival, Prince Charles, it is said, displayed the highest indignation, and ex claimed with more of patriotism than of prudence, " If " ever I mount the throne of my ancestors, Europe shall " see me use my utmost endeavours to force France in " her turn to send hostages to England ! " * The definitive treaty being thus concluded, it became necessary for France to fulfil its engagement with regard to the expulsion of the young Pretender. On his return from Scotland, Charles had been favourably received by Louis ; a burst of applause had signalised his first ap pearance at the Opera ; and he found that both by King and people his exploits were admired, and his sufferings deplored. For some of his most faithful followers, as Lochiel and Lord Ogilvie, he had obtained commissions in the French service ; and a pension of 40,000 livres yearly had been granted him for the relief of the rest ; but when he applied for military succours — urging that a new expedition should be fitted out and placed at his disposal — he found the Court of Versailles turn a deaf ear to his demands. Once, indeed, it was hinted to him by Cardinal Tencin, that the Ministers might not be dis inclined to meet his views, provided, in case of his suc cess, the kingdom of Ireland should be yielded as a province to the crown of France. But the high spirit of Charles could ill brook this degrading offer. Scarcely had Tencin concluded, when the Prince, starting from his seat and passionately pacing the room, cried out, non MONSIEUR LE CARDINAL! TOUT' OU RIEN ! POINT DE PAR- tage ! The Cardinal, alarmed at his demeanour, has tened to assure him that the idea was entirely his own, conceived from his great affection to the Exiled Family, and not at all proceeding from, or known to, King Louis.f The applications of Charles were not confined to France ; early in 1747, he undertook an adventurous journey to Madrid, and obtained an audience of the King and Queen, but found them so much in awe of the British Court, as to allow him only a few hours' stay.J * Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 578. t Ibid., vol. ii. p. 568. X See a very curious account of this journey by Charles himself in his letter of March 12. 1747. Appendix. 1748. PRINCE CHARLES AGAIN AT PARIS. 349 He next turned his hopes towards Frederick of Prussia. In April 1748 he despatched Sir John Graham to Berlin with instructions, " To propose, in a modest manner, a " marriage with one of them. To declare that I never " intend to marry but a Protestant ; and, if the King re- " fuses an alliance with him, to ask advice whom to take, " as he is known to be the wisest Prince in Europe." * This scheme, however, though promising success for a short time, ended like the rest in failure. Ere long, moreover, domestic discord arose to embitter the coldness or hostility of strangers. Charles's brother having secretly quitted Paris without any previous notice to him, had returned to Eome and resolved to enter Holy Orders. With the concurrence of the old Pretender, and by a negotiation with the Pope, he was suddenly named a Cardinal, on the 3rd of July, 1747, the design being concealed from Charles until a few days before, so as to guard against his expected opposition.! It is difficult to describe with how much consternation the tidings struck the exiled Jacobites ; several did not hesitate to declare it of much worse consequence to them than even the battle of Culloden.lf Charles himself, as he was the most in jured, appeared the most angry ; he broke off all corre spondence whatever with his brother, and his letters to his father from this time forward became brief, cold, and constrained. At the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the French Court, though willing to rehnquish Charles's cause, and to sti pulate his exclusion from their territories, were not wholly unmindful of his interests nor of their promises. They proposed to establish him at Friburg, in Switzer land, with the title of Prince of Wales, a company of guards, and a sufficient pension. Li Charles's circum stances there was certainly no better course to take than * Instructions for Sir John Graham in Charles's writing, and dated April 4. 1748. Stuart Papers. It is remarkable that the Duke of Newcastle writes to the Lord Chancellor, September 21. 1753 : " The King of Prussia is now avowedly the principal, if not " the sole, support of the Pretender and of the Jacobite cause." Coxe's Pelham. f James to Prince Charles, June 13. 1747. See Appendix. X Mr. Hay to Mr. Edgar, July 26. 1747. Stuart Papers. 350 HISTORV OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. to accept these terms. But the lower he sank in fortunes the higher he thought himself bound to rise in spirit. He placed a romantic point of honour in braving the " orders from Hanover," as he called them, and positively refused to depart from Paris. Threats, entreaties, argu ments were tried on him in vain. He withstood even a letter, obtained from his father at Eome, and commanding his departure. He still, perhaps, nourished some secret expectation that King Louis would not venture to use force against a kinsman ; but he found himself deceived. As he went to the Opera on the evening of the 1 1th of December, his coach was stopped by a party of French guards, himself seized, bound hand and foot, and con veyed, with a single attendant, to the state-prison of Yincennes, where he was thrust into a dungeon, seven feet wide and eight long. After this public insult, and a few days' confinement, he was carried to Pont de Beau- voisin, on the frontier of Savoy, and there restored to his wandering and desolate freedom.* The first place to which Charles repaired upon his liberation was the Papal city of Avignon. But in a very few weeks he again set forth, attended only by Colonel Goring, and bearing a fictitious name. From this time forward his proceedings during many years are wrapped in mystery; all his correspondence passed through the hands of Mr. Walters, his banker at Paris : even his warmest partisans were seldom made acquainted with his place of abode; and though he still continued to write to his father at intervals, his letters were never dated. Neither friends nor enemies at that time could obtain any certain information of his movements or de signs. Now, however, it is known that he visited Venice and Germany, that he resided secretly for some time at Paris, that he undertook a mysterious journey to England in 1750, and perhaps another in 1752, or 1753 ; but his principal residence was in the territory of his friend the Duke de Bouillon, where, surrounded by the wide and lonely forest of Ardennes, his active spirit sought in the * Charles wrote a, most minute account of this transaction, in the third person ; it was published as " Lettre d'un officier Francois a son " ami a Londres ; " and the MS. is still amongst the Stuart Papers. 1748. MISS WALK1NSHAW. 351 dangerous chase of boars and wolves an image of the warlike enterprise which was denied him. It was not tih the death of his father in 1766 that he returned to Bome, and became reconciled to his brother. But his character had darkened with his fortunes. A long train of disappointments and humiliations working on a fiery mind, spurred it almost into frenzy, and degraded it. The habit of drinking, which for some years he indulged without restraint, seems to have been first formed during his Highland adventures and escapes ; when a dram of whiskey might sometimes supply the want of food and of rest. Thus was the habit acquired, and, once acquired, it continued after the cause of it had ceased, and even grew amidst the encouragement of his exiled friends. The earhest hint I have found of this vice in Charles, is in a letter of April, 1 747, addressed to Lord Dunbar, but only signed by the initial of the writer.* It alleges that an Lrish Cordelier, named Kelly, has of late been much in the Prince's society and confidence ; that Kelly loves good wine with all the fervour of a monk ; and that, by this means, " His Boyal Highness's character in point of " sobriety has been a little blemished." A century be fore, Lord Clarendon reproaches the banished loyalists with intemperance*, at aU times the fatal resource of poverty and sorrow ; but the Prince, who could not re lieve them by his bounty, should at least have forborne from degrading them by his example. Still more imprudent, perhaps, was his conduct with regard to Miss Walkinshaw. This lady, it is said, first became known to him in Scotland ; he sent for her some years after his return from that country, and soon al lowed her such dominion over him that she became ac quainted with all his schemes, and trusted with his most secret correspondence. As soon as this was known in England, his principal adherents took alarm, believing that she was in the pay of the English Ministers, and observing that her sister was housekeeper of the Dow ager Princess of Wales. So much did they think their own safety endangered, that they despatched Mr. Mac- * Stuart Papers. See Appendix. f Life of the Earl of Clarendon by himself, vol. i. p. 353. ed. 1827. 352 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. Namara, one of their most trusty agents, with instruc tions to lay their apprehensions before the Prince, and to insist that the lady should, for s.ome time at least, be confined to a convent. In answer Charles declared that he had no violent passion for Miss Walkinshaw, and could see her removed from him without concern, but that he would not receive directions in respect to his private conduct from any man alive. Ln vain did Mr. MacNamara try every method of persuasion, and fre quent renewals of his argument. Charles thought it a point of honour, that none should presume on his ad versity to treat him with disrespect, and determined to brave even the ruin of his interest (for such was the alternative held out to him) rather than bate one iota of his dignity. MacNamara at length took leave of him with much resentment, saying, as he passed out, " What " can your family have done, Sir, thus to draw down the " vengeance of Heaven on every branch of it through so " many ages ? " * — Upon his report, most of the remain ing Jacobite leaders, irritated at their Prince's pride, and soon afterwards won over by the splendid successes of Lord Chatham, seized the opportunity to break off all connection with the exiles, and to rally in good earnest round the Eeigning Family. In a former chapter I have described the person and manner of Charles as he appeared in youth ; let me now add a portrait of him in his later years. An English lady, who was at Eome in 1770, observes, " The Pre- " tender is naturally above the middle size, but stoops " excessively ; he appears bloated and red in the face ; " his countenance heavy and sleepy, which is attributed " to his having given into excess of drinking : but when " a young man he must have been esteemed handsome. " His complexion is of the fair tint, his eyes blue, his " hair light brown, and the contour of his face a long " oval ; he is by no means thin, has a noble person, and " a graceful manner. His dress was scarlet laced with " broad gold lace ; he wears the blue riband outside of " his coat, from which depends a cameo, antique, as large " as the palm of my hand ; and he wears the same Garter * Dr. King's Anecdotes, p. 207. 1748. THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY. 353 " and motto as those of the noble Order of St. George in " England. Upon the whole, he has a melancholy, mor- " tified appearance. Two gentlemen constantly attend " him ; they are of Irish extraction, and Boman Catho- " lies you may be sure At Princess Palestrina's he " asked me if I understood the game of taerochi, which " they were about to play at. I answered in the negative ; " upon which, taking the pack in his hands, he desired " to know if I had ever seen such odd cards. I replied, " that they were very odd indeed. He then displaying " them said, here is everything in the world to be found " in these cards — the sun, moon, the stars ; and here, " says he (throwing me a card), is the Pope1; here is the " Devil ; and, added he, there is but one of the trio " wanting, and you know who that should be ! I was so " amazed, so astonished, though he spoke this last in a " laughing, good-humoured manner, that I did not know " which way to look ; and as to a reply, I made none." * Li his youth Charles, as we have seen, had formed the resolution of marrying only a Protestant princess ; how ever, he remained single during the greater part of his career, and when in 1754 he was urged by his father to take a wife, he replied, " The unworthy behaviour of " certain Ministers, the 10th of December, 1748, has put " it out of my power to settle any where without honour " or interest being at stake : and were it even possible for " me to find a place of abode, I think our family have had " sufferings enough, which will always hinder me to marry, " so long as in misfortune, for that would only conduce " to increase misery, or subject any of the family that " should have the spirit of their father to be tied neck and •" heel, rather than yield to a vile Ministry." f Never theless in 1772, at the age of fifty-two, Charles espoused a Eoman Catholic, and a girl of twenty, Princess Louisa of Stolberg.f This union proved as unhappy as it was * Letters from Italy by an Englishwoman (Mrs. Miller), London, 1776, vol. ii. p. 198. This description of Charles's countenance well agrees with the portrait taken in 1776 by Ozias Humphry, of which an engraving is given in the Culloden Papers, p. 227. X Prince Charles to Mr. Edgar, March 24. 1754. Stuart Papers. X Her mother, Princess Stolberg, survived till 1826. I was once introduced to her at Frankfort, and found her in extreme old age, VOL. IH. A A 354 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. XXX. ill assorted. Charles treated his young wife with very little kindness. He appears, in fact, to have contracted a disparaging opinion of her sex in general ; and I have found, in a paper of his writing about that period, " As " for men, I have studied them closely ; and were I to " live till fourscore, I could scarcely know them better " than now : but as for women, I have thought it useless. " they being so much more wicked and impenetrable." * Ungenerous and ungrateful words ! Surely, as he wrote them, the image of Flora Macdonald should have risen in his heart and restrained his hand ! The Count and Countess of Albany (such was the title they bore) lived together during several years at Florence, a harsh husband and a faithless wife ; until at length, in 1780, weary of constraint, she eloped with her lover Alfieri. Thus left alone in his old age, Charles called to his house his daughter by Miss Walkinshaw, and created her Duchess of Albany, through the last exercise of an expiring prerogative. She was born about 1760, and survived her father only one year. Another consolation of his dotage was a silly regard, and a frequent reference, to the prophecies of Nostradamus, several of which I have found among his papers. Still clinging to a visionary hope of his restoration, he used always to keep under his bed a strong box with 12,000 sequins. ready for the expenses of his journey to England, when ever he might suddenly be called thither.f In 1785. Charles returned to Eome with his daughter. His health had long been declining, and his life more than once despaired of ; but in January, 1 788, he was seized with a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the use of one half of the body, and he expired on the 30th of the same month4 His funeral rites were performed by his brother still lively and agreeable. It is singular that a man born eighty-five years after the Chevalier should have seen his mother-in-law. * Stuart Papers, Orig. in French. See Appendix. t Despatch of Sir Horace Mann, November 30. 1779. MS. X The date publicly assigned was the 31st of January ; but I have been informed that he really died on the 30th ; and that his attendants, disliking the omen, as the anniversary of King Charles's execution, notwithstanding the difference of the Old and New Style, concealed his death during the night, and asserted that he had died 1748. THE LAST STUARTS. 355 the Cardinal, at Frascati *, but his coffin was afterwards removed to St. Peter's at Eome. Beneath that unrivalled dome he mouldering the remains of what was once a brave and gallant heart ; and a stately monument, from the chisel of Canova, but at the charge, as I believe, of the House of Hanover, has since arisen to the Memory of James the Third, Charles the Third, and Henry the Ninth, Kings of England — names which an Eng lishman can scarcely read without a smile or a sigh ! Often at the present day does the British traveller turn from the sunny height of the Pincian, or the carnival throngs of the Corso, to gaze in thoughtful silence on that sad mockery of human greatness, and that last re cord of ruined hopes. The tomb before him is of a race justly expelled ; the magnificent temple that enshrines it is of a faith wisely reformed ; yet who at such a moment would harshly remember the errors of either, and might not join in the prayer even of that erring church for the departed exiles : requtescant in pace ! Thus ended a party, often respectable for generous motives, seldom for enlarged views or skilful designs. In their principles the Jacobites were certainly mistaken. They were wrong in shutting their eyes to the justice, necessity, and usefulness of the Eevolution of 1688. They were wrong in struggling against the beneficent sway of the House of Hanover. They were wrong in seeking to impose a Eoman Catholic head upon the Protestant Church of England. But we, on our part, should do well to re member that the Eevolution of 1688 was not sought but forced upon us — that its merit consists partly in the re luctance with which it was embraced— that it was only an exception, though fully justified by the emergency, from the best safeguard of liberty and order, the prin ciple of hereditary right. Can there be a greater proof at nine o'clock the next morning. This was told me by Cardinal Caccia Piatti, at Bome, who had heard it from some of the Prince's household. . * Letter from Bome (Annual Eegister, vol. xxx. p. 255.). AA2 356 history of England. chap. xxx. of the value of that principle, than the firmness which so many hundred thousands, under the name of Jacobites, continued to cling to it for so many years after its infrac tion ? And what wise statesman would willingly neglect or forego an instrument of Government so easily acquired, so cheaply retained, and so powerfully felt ? How soon, on the decay of the Stuart cause, other dis contents and cabals arose, the eloquent Letters of Junius — embalming the petty insects — are alone sufficient to attest. In these no great principles were involved ; but ere long, the battle of parties came to be fought on Ame rican ground ; and, under the second Pitt, the efforts of the Jacobites were succeeded by the fiercer and more deadly struggle of the Jacobins. Indeed, in the whole period, since the Eevolution to the present hour, there has not been a single epoch pure from most angry par tisanship, unless it be the short administration of Chat ham. This unceasing din and turmoil of factions — this eternal war that may often tempt a gentler spirit, like Lord Falkland's, to sigh forth " Peace, peace, peace ! " has also provoked attacks from the most opposite quarters against our admirable system of tempered freedom. The favourer of despotism points to the quiet and tranquillity which are sometimes enjoyed under unlimited Kings. " Endeavour," cries the Bepublican, " to allay the popular " restlessness by conceding a larger measure of popular " control." Between these two extremes there lies a more excellent way. May we never, on the plea that conflagrations often rage amongst us, consent to part with that noble flame of liberty which warms and cherishes the nations, while — a still higher blessing — it enlightens them ! Let us, on the other hand, not be unmindful of the fact, that the wider the sphere of popular dominion, the louder does the cry of faction inevitably grow ; and that the unreasonableness of the demands rises in the same proportion as the power to arrest them fails. The truth is, that so long as ignorance is not allowed to trample down education and intellect — that is, so long as order and property are in any degree preserved, so long it is still possible to make complaints against " the " privileged few." Any thing short of anarchy may be railed at as aristocracy. 1748. THE LAST STUARTS. 357 For ourselves who, turning awhile from the strife and contention of the hour, seek to contemplate the deeds of the mighty dead, let us always endeavour to approach them reverentially and calmly, as judges, not as parti sans. I know not indeed that it is needful, or even de sirable — not at least for men engaged in active life — to divest themselves of all their feelings for the present, while reviewing the transactions of the past. He who does not feel strongly, has no right to act strongly in state affairs ; and why should he who feels strongly, and who wishes to speak sincerely, suppress and glide over in his writings those principles which guide and direct him in his hfe ? But with equal sincerity that those principles are avowed and professed whenever reference happens to occur to them — with the same spirit as that in which the venerable Head of our Law may revert from a debate in the Lords to a trial in the Court of Chancery — let us, when commenting on by-gone days — when the pubhc welfare can no longer call, as we con ceive, for vehement expressions, or be served by decisive measures — earnestly resolve and strive to give every person and every party their due, and no more than their due. Thus alone can we attain the noble aim of History, "Philosophy teaching by examples;" — thus alone can we hope to inform the minds of others, and to chasten and exalt our own; — thus alone, after party plaudits are stilled in death, may we yet aspire to the meed of honourable fame. aa3 APPENDIX. a a4 EXTRACTS EEOM THE STUAET PAPEES. EARL MARISCHAL TO JAMES. Vol de Avero, June 21. 1740. Sir, As I am in the country any news I could send would come a post later than what your Majesty will have from the Duke of Ormond. He has asked leave to retire, and I design to do the same when he does, for since he could do nothing it is very sure I cannot ; neither can I live in Madrid, not being paid, but at a very considerable ex pense, and though your Majesty should be pleased to offer me what might support me, I should think myself obliged to refuse it, when I knew it would be money ill employed, and that you have more necessary uses for it. I propose, when I leave this country, to go live either in Switzer land or in Venice, both cheap places for a retirement. In Venice, I have no need of any unnecessary equipage, and I shall be nearer to pay my court from time to time to your Majesty and to the Princes, if, by misfortune, you should remain yet some time in Bome. If I could be of any real service to your Majesty with you in Bome I should solicit that honour, and I know you would grant my request. If I could be of any service as a negotiator in some other place, I would propose it to your Majesty, but I know I cannot, and that it is an employment for which I am no- iv APPENDIX. 1741. ways fit, unless I could go home to negotiate, which I cannot. And therefore I hope your Majesty will be so good as to allow me to live quietly with a great Plutarch, in the way I wish, until there comes an occasion for real service, when you shall find me always ready. I shall expect this indulgence from your Majesty, not for my ser vices, but for my good will to have served you, if I had had the occasion. The oddness of the proceedings of Nicholas (the King of Spain) makes an odd notion come into my head, that he manages the Court of England in the manifesto he made public. It is the pride of the people made the King make war. Every Protestant subject of Proby (Britain) has been treated with spite except two in Cadiz, and yet Mr. Keene was treated not only with civility at his going, but with kindness. They have shunned to name you, Sir, so much as once ; what they have done might serve, or they might think so, to distress the people, but nothing has been intended against the English Government, which they know was forced into the war, and which, I am per suaded, they count on as ready to forward peace as soon as they dare, and therefore manage that Government still. They think the people who occasioned the war will soon grow tired of it ; and therefore endeavour to distress them by all means, and manage the English Government. The King of Spain refused to the Duke of Ormond an audience ; all which confirms me in this odd notion of mine. What I say of my retiring is meant, when not being paid I cannot stay here : and when I see I can be of no use to your Majesty here. I am, with the most respectful attachment, &c. ME. THOMAS CAETE TO JAMES. Indorsed, Reed. April 17. 1741. The late attempt against Sir Eobert Walpole in the Houses of Lords and Commons in England seems to have been very ill managed and concerted; at least in the 1741 STUART PAPERS. V latter. It was set on foot by the Duke of Argyle and the party of old Whigs, without either concerting measures with the Tories, or acquainting them with the matter ; so that when it was moved in the Commons Sir John Hinde Cotton, and Sir Watkin Williams were forced to go about the House to solicit their friends to stay the debate, which they were vexed should be brought on without their con currence : and all they could say could not keep Will Shippen and 23 others of the Tories from leaving the House in a body. AU Prince Frederick's servants, and party also, except Lyttleton, Pitt, and Grenville, Lord Cobham's nephew, left the House ; so that though they were once above 500 members in the House, when the question came to be put, about four in the morning, there were not above 400 present. Had all Sir Bobert's actual opposers staid, he would not have carried the question by above 50 votes ; but the retiring of so many, encouraged others to stay, and even vote for him, who durst not else have done it. Among those who so voted were Lord Cornbury, Lord Quarendon, the Earl of Lichfield's son, Mr. Bathurst, son of the Lord of that name, and Lord An- dover, son to the Earl of Berkshire : though the fathers of the three last voted against Sir Eobert Walpole in the House of Lords ; which is an odd circumstance enough. Mr. Sandys moved for an Address to remove Sir Bobert from all his posts, &c. ; his speech was a very good one, and his accusation of Sir Bobert was very strong, clear, and methodical. He was seconded by Lord Limerick: and then Wortley Montagu got up, and moved, that Sir Eobert might make his answer to the charge, and with draw. Precedents were demanded, and searched; but none could be found, in the hurry, for the House's order ing a member accused to withdraw whilst his case is de bated : another proof of the affair not being well concerted and considered ; for bodies of men always go by prece dents ; and there are enough in the Journals of an accused member being ordered to withdraw. This weak attempt to ruin Sir Eobert has established him more firmly in the Ministry ; and he was never known to have so great a levee as the next morning : though it is marking him out to the nation ; and Ministers once attacked in such a man ner, though the attack be defeated, seldom keep their vi appendix. 1743. posts long, by reason of the general odium ; and the Duke of Buckingham had a worse fate in 1628. Sir Bobert, however, is as yet absolute master of the administration ; and as the squabbles and animosities between those left in it last year obstructed all business then, he will take care probably to have it so modelled, now that his master is going to Germany, for his purpose, that all the power will be in his own hands. I wish he may make a proper use of it. ME. THOMAS CARTE TO JAMES. Paris, May 4. 1743. Upon my arrival in England last year, I found the ma jority in Parliament, which had been at first in favour of the Opposition, turned to the advantage of the Court, by the defection of some of the chiefs of the old Whigs, who had entered with the late Minister into several stipu lations ; the three principal of which were, to screen him from public justice ; to keep up a standing army ; and to support Hanover at the expense of England : and, in con sideration thereof, one of the offices of Secretary of State, and the two Boards of the Treasury and Admiralty, were to be at the disposal of Mr. Pulteney and his friends. It was necessary to keep this transaction private, because there was such a spirit at that time in Parliament, as well as the nation, (all offers of places, of pensions, and of money, having been rejected by the meanest and most in digent member of the House of Commons,) that, had their measures been known, they would, in all appearances, have been defeated. Thus Sandys, Eushout, and Gibbon were put into the Treasury, at the head of which Lord Wilmington, an old, infirm, quiet, and inactive man, presided, till Mr. Pulteney could take the charge upon him, who, in the mean time, declaimed as much as ever against taking a place himself, and thereby preserved his credit with a great many of his party ; though his play was well enough seen into by the heads of the Tories, and 1743. STUART PAPERS. Vil particularly by Sir John St. Aubin, who was always one of those deputed by this last party to treat with Pulteney, Winchelsea, and other chiefs of the old Whigs, and who gave me this account in the middle of March was twelve month, the first time I waited upon him after my arrival in England. But, to break with them before this was generally known was not thought advisable, so that they found means to carry their point, to screen Sir Eobert from punishment, to procure greater supplies than he would have had assurance enough to ask, to keep up a standing army, and to sacrifice England to Hanover. Notwithstanding all this, your Majesty's cause seems to me to have derived several advantages from that Ses sion. Among these I reckon the utter contempt into which Prince Frederick is fallen by his conduct at that time, so that nobody for the future will have any recourse to him, or dependence upon him ; but, in case of discon tent, will naturally look out for redress from another quarter : and I think the events of that Session may na turally enough keep people from ever expecting redress of their grievances in a Parliamentary way, or from any change of a Ministry, or indeed in any way, but by your Majesty's restoration. Another advantage was, the re moval of Sir Eobert Walpole from all his posts ; for who ever succeeds him will hardly succeed to that entire credit he had with his master, by which he kept him from several steps from which he will scarce be deterred by any other's advice. Another good effect of Sir Eobert Walpole's removal was, the bringing of the new set of Ministers into power, whose measures have done your Majesty so much service. There never was a bolder, more blustering and hot-headed Minister than Carteret ; and the consequence of all the steps which he inspires will be seen into and felt the first moment, whereas his predecessor proceeded with more art, and it was some time after his measures were taken, that the ill consequences thereof were either apprehended or approved. The world sooner forgets an ill action in a man than an imprudent speech ; and in whatever method a man designs to govern, it was certainly no very politic declaration which Carteret made publicly as soon as he got into power, namely, that it was impossible to govern Eng- viii appendix. 1743. land but by corruption ; had he said that it was impossible for such men as himself, or for a Whig Ministry, he had been right. JAMES TO CARDINAL TENCLN. Albano, ce 27 Juin, 1743. Bien n'est plus desirable en general pour moi, qu'un voyage du Prince, mon fils, en France ; mais si vous meditez serieusement une entreprise sur l'Angleterre, ne serait-il pas plus prudent de differer un tel voyage jusqu'k l'execution du grand projet? Car une telle demarche fera un grand eclat, mettra le Gouvernement d'Angleterre sur ses gardes, et l'engagera a mettre tout en ceuvre pour se premunir contre une invasion qu'il regardera alors comme certaine et prochaine. J'ai cru devoir vous faire cette reflexion, mais si en attendant vous me mandez que le Boi de France souhaite que mon fils vient en France je l'enverrai. EAEL MARISCHAL TO Nov. 4. 1743. Je vous envoie une estampe dont on debite grand nombre parmi le peuple en Angleterre. Le Starve done vient de ce qu'on dit que le pain manquait deux jours parmi les Anglais pendant que les Hanoveriens en avaient abondamment. Bon pour Nicole est une histoire qu'on fait d'un Francais a. Hanovre qui ne pouvait pas trouver dans ce pays du pain mangeable, et en ayant fait apporter du meilleur il dit Bon pour Nicole son cheval, a, qui il le donna. Toutes ces choses vraies on fausses font effet sur le peuple. 1745. STUART PAPERS. ix PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER.* {Extract.) Paris, Nov. 30. 1744. The only thing that is good I have to say is, as long as there is life there is hope, that's the proverb S. Lit tleton (Sir Thomas Sheridan) found Wright (Cardinal Tencin) in extreme bad humour at the proceedings of Adam (King Louis), and his fellow lawyers (Ministers). On le serait a moins. Tou may imagine how I must be out of humour at all these proceedings, when, for comfort, I am plagued out of my life with tracasseries from our own people ; who, as it would seem, would rather sacrifice me and my affairs than fail in any private view of their own. Dean (Lord John Drummond) is one of those that has been plaguing me with complaints, but I quieted him in the best manner I could, saying that whatever is said of our own people, though never so well grounded, was cutting our own throats. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. (Extract.) Paris, Jan. 3. 1745. Bj Isham (himself) had not represented that it was im possible for him to part without paying his debts, or some of them, I believe he would have got little or nothing. Now that he has got at least something, he intends to part to his imprisonment f, where I believe he will have full occasion to have the spleen, by seeing no appearance * The MS. letters of Charles, hke several others in this work, display gross ignorance of spelling ; but to retain all these errors in .printing them, could only serve to weary and perplex the reader. t He retired for some weeks to Fitz-James, the former seat of the Duke of Berwick, near Clermont del'Oise. X APPENDIX. 1745. of real business, and being entirely out of the way of company, and diversions that accompany any great town ; but all this Ishani (the Prince) does not regret in the least, as long as he thinks it of service for our great lawsuit : he would put himself in a tub, like Diogenes, if necessary! PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Paris, February 28. 1745. Snt, I have received yours of the 1st and 7th current. As I have been so much hurried between balls and business, I shall refer to my next. It would be a great comfort to me to have real business on my hands, but I see little of that at present, as I shall explain in another. It is some thing surprising to me not to have heard from Lumley (Lord Sempill) this two weeks ; and even he owes me an answer to one of mine of that standing : but I easily con ceive the reason on't, which is, that after making such a noise of his being able to do a great deal, he does nothing, or he does not care to let me in the confidence of his ma nagements, which, I believe, has happened before now to more than he, for I see here every body thinks himself to be the wisest man in the world ! I lay myself at your Majesty's feet, &c. Charles P. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Paris, March 7. 1745. I have read and considered the Duke of Perth's message, which is, in the first place, to buy, if Jenkins (the Prince) can possibly, some broad-swords unmounted, for they do that in their own way. . . . He says, that he knew a place where there was a considerable sum of money that he could lay hold on when he pleased, but 1745. STUART papers. xi that not to be attempted till the happy time of action comes. It is a thing absolutely necessary, though I have little hopes myself of any thing being soon to be done anywhere for the cause, to make our friends think other wise for to keep them in spirits, and not let them be cast down ; for which reason the only thing that was in Howell's (the Prince's) power, Jenkins (the Prince) thought should not be let slip for that end, at any cost whatsoever ; for which I took upon me to borrow forty thousand livres from young Waters, for to be able to dis patch the messenger back, and buying of broad-swords, which is the only comfort the Prince can give them at present ; rather" than to have wanted this sum, Isham (the Prince) would have pawned his shirt. It is but for such uses that the Prince shall ever trouble Trig (the King) with asking for money ; it will never be for plate or fine clothes, but for arms and ammunition, or other things that tend to what I am come about to this country. I there fore wish that Hanmer (the King) would pawn all Isham's (the Prince's) jewels, for on this side the water Howell (the Prince) would wear them with a very sore heart, thinking that there might be made a better use of them, so that, in an urgent necessity, Howell (the Prince) may have a sum which he can make use of for the cause ; for the Prince sees almost every thing at the French Court sticks at the money, as it did in this last enterprise, which was when the Prince insisted for an expedition in Scotland at the same time with England. They answered, they would give me troops, but had not or would not give money or arms ; for which reason the having such a sum at command, would be of great use : but, at the same time, the Court of France must not suspect in the least that I have such a sum ; for perhaps they may give it now, though they would not then. vol. m. B B xii appendix. 1745. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Paris, April 19. 1745. Sm, I have received yours of the 30th March, at my arrival here, where I intend to pass the week, for to see a fire work and a ball masque, given by the Spanish ambassador. I thank your Majesty for being so good as to order the payment of the 40,000 livres, which I took upon me to borrow, and am very sensible at the goodness you have to speak your mind so freely to me, which I am sure is a great relief to me. My want of experience is what I too much know, and would fain get as soon as possible, for to be able to serve you and our country more effectually, and to purpose, which is all that I am put in this world for. I really thought myself very sure of not erring when I took up this money, but finding I mistook, I shall be more rigorous and reserved in doing any thing that is my own thought or opinion for the future. It would be end less for me to write, or for you to read, if I was to enter into the detail of all the little malice and odd doings of Lumley (Lord Sempill), Maloch (Bohaldie), and some others ; it is also very disagreeable to me the writing such things. I shall only say at present, as to these matters, this, to conjure you to be on your guard from Kerry (Bohaldie), and Morrice (Lord Sempill), for really I cannot believe a word they say after the lies they told me, particularly that of the paper, which cannot be more demonstration. I think to discharge my conscience in saying this, being very sure of it. At the same time I recommend to you not in the least to seem to be knowing of this malice, for with their Regiros, if disgusted, they would certainly do a great deal of harm, to which there is no help. Both Morgan (Mr. O'Brien), and Lumley (Lord Sempill), are doing all their endeavours for my making campaign, but I have too much reason to be afraid they won't succeed, which I own will be very mortifying and cruel. It is very extraordinary Maloch's and Lumley's complaining I would not see them, which is not so, for I have on several occasions said to them, 1745. Stuart papers. xiii over and over, that they were always welcome wherever I was ; but it is certain that they both never say to me any thing to the purpose ; I believe, because that they have nothing to say, which makes them both avoid seeing and writing to me as much as possible. You see by this what they are, and that their heads are filled with nothing but mahce and spite. Sir Hector has lost his proie, for which he is not a little angry, as you may believe, against Lord John, which makes me apprehensive it should end in a challenge. I am doing all I can to hinder it, in which I hope to succeed ; at least it won't be want of my pains, which I take in this case to be charity for them both ; though as to Lord John, I can't say what he de serves, after such a proceeding. I lay myself at your Majesty's feet, most humbly asking blessing. Your most dutiful son, Charles P. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Navarre, June 7. 1745. Sir, I have received yours of the 18th May, there being in it also a note in your own hand. I cannot be too sensible at so much goodness you express towards me. T£ your Majesty was in this country I flatter myself you would be surprised to see with your own eyes how I blind several, and impose upon them at the same time they think to do it to me. Lf I was not able to do this, things here would go at a fine rate, considering what malice there is in this world, and very often only for mischief- sake alone, doing hurt at the same time to themselves. I have nothing more to say at present, but to lay myself most humbly at your Majesty's feet, most humbly asking blessing, and remaining Your most dutiful son, Charles P. xiv appendix. 1745. PRINCE CHAELES TO HIS FATHER. Navarre, June 12. 1745. Sir, I belteve your Majesty little expected a courier at this time, and much less from me ; to tell you a thing that will be a great surprise to you. I have been, above six months ago, invited by our friends to go to Scotland, and to carry what money and arms I could conveniently get ; this being, they are fully persuaded, the only way of re storing you to the Crown, and them to their liberties ; that they were well enough informed how scandalously the French Court had treated me, which showed but too plainly how httle they thought of me or my affairs ; that if nothing was done by them in the winter or at farthest in the beginning of the campaign, it would be a full proof the first attempt was not genuine, which they had already good reasons to suspect (the particulars of which would be too long to explain by writing, and I must therefore defer it to our meeting, which I don't doubt will be soon, God willing). From hence they were sure the French Court would never do any thing in earnest, but might come in de mauvaise grace when the affairs would be almost over, and then brag they had done a great thing. In fine, our friends, without saying it directly, have spoke in such a manner that I plainly saw if the winter and spring passed over without some attempt they would rise of themselves in spite of all I could say or do to pre vent it, not doubting but they would succeed if in the least seconded ; and that the most that could happen to them would be to die in the field, which was preferable to living any longer in misery and oppression. To all this I answered, you may believe, not backwardly ; I mean as to my own person, but told them that I esteemed my life no farther than it could be of use to them ; that however I would never approve of any thing that was rash for their sakes ; that they ought not to be suspicious of the cold ness of the French Court since I had reason to be per suaded they would assist me as soon as it was in their power ; and therefore I required them to keep as quiet as possible, and have patience at least for some time until we 1745. STUART PAPERS. XV saw how matters would turn. To which I was answered that it would be very hard to convince my friends of the sincerity of the French Court, being entirely scandalised, if they had so much good intentions as I believed, that I should not be so much as permitted to serve or show myself in any manner of way. I did all I could to soften this usage and make them believe the French Court acted thus as really thinking it the best way to hide their good intentions, but that I would represent strongly that this manner of proceeding would discourage my friends entirely, and make them strike some stroke de desespoir which might succeed, and would not at all be advantageous to the French Court. After representing all this I did not doubt removing this odd way of thinking, and if nothing was to be done for some time I should certainly get leave to make the next campaign, which would be a clear proof of their doing every thing in their power for my advantage and pleasing my friends. I then told them that if these representations did not succeed, I could nof but believe as they did, and if I found for certain there was no hope of getting any resources to begin, but if begun they would be seconded, that in such a case I would approve of their rising ; and that if after due consideration before tney undertook this work they should be still determined rather to die than hve longer in oppression, they might be well assured I would not let them do any thing without my presence, and that I would go even alone to head them, and so conquer or die with them. That rising by themselves might be their ruin ; and as I looked upon myself to be in this world for their good and preservation, that my friends might be assured my resolution was already taken to do so if I could not do better ; but I desired they would let me know as often as possible their dispositions, and of any change that might happen in their present way of thinking. I could not then think it possible the French Court would give me the occasion of making my word good. After such scandalous usage as I have received from the French Court, had I not given my word to do so, or got so many encouragements from time to time as I have had, I should have been obliged, in honour and for my own bb 3 APPENDIX. 1745. reputation, to have flung myself into the arms of my friends, and die with them, rather than live longer in such a miserable way here, or be obhged to return to Eome, which would be just giving up all hopes. I cannot but mention a parable here, which is ; a horse that is to be sold, if spurred does not skip, or show some sign of life, nobody would care to have him even for nothing ; just so my friends would care very little to have me, if, after such usage, which all the world is sensible of, I should not show that I have life in me. Your Majesty cannot disapprove a son's following the example of his father. You yourself did the like in the year 15 ; but the circum stances now are indeed very different, by being much more encouraging, there being a certainty of succeeding with the least help ; the particulars of which would be too long to explain, and even impossible to convince you of by writing, which has been the reason that I have presumed to take upon me the managing aU this, without even letting you suspect there was any such thing a brewing, for fear of my not being able to explain, and show you demonstratively how matters stood — which is not possible to be done by writing, or even without being upon the place and seeing things with your own eyes; and had I failed to convince you, I was then afraid you might have thought what I had a mind to do, to be rash ; and so have absolutely forbid my proceedings ; thinking that to acquire glory I was capable of doing a desperate action. But in that case I can't be sure but I might have followed the example of Manlius, who disobeyed his father's orders on such a like occasion. Your Majesty may remember Writ's (Card. Tencin's) proposal, and how I flew against it, and every thing of the kind as I expressed to you. I did the same to every mortal here, for otherwise I could never have been able to have helped myself or managed this to the best advan tage as I flatter myself to have done. I have tried all possible means and stratagems to get access to the King of France, or his Minister, without the least effect, nor could I even get Littleton (Sir Thomas Sheridan) an audience, who I was sure would say neither more nor less than what I desired, and would faithfully report their answer. As for Wright (the Cardinal), he is 1745. STUART PAPERS. Xvil not much trusted or well looked upon by Adam (the King of France), who is timorous, and has not resolution enough to displace him. Now I have been obliged to steal off, without letting the King of France so much as suspect it, for which I make a proper excuse in my letter to him ; by saying it was a great mortification to me never to have been able to speak and open my heart to him ; that this thing was of such a nature that it could not be communicated by any of the Ministers or by writing, but to himself alone — in whom, after God Al mighty, my resting lies, and that the least help would make my affair infallible. If I had let the French Court know this beforehand, it might have had all these bad effects : — 1st, It is possible they might have stopped me, having a mind to keep measures with the Elector, and then to cover it over, they would have made a merit of it to you, by saying they had hindered me from doing a wild and desperate thing : 2dly, My being invited by my friends would not be believed ; or at least would have made little or no impression on the French Court. Had they been told of it beforehand, they would have thought to have done a great deal by giving a little money and some arms. Now the case is quite different, and I cannot help thinking but I shall at least get the Irish regiments, which will make the work sure. However favourable the dispositions are, I have taken all the necessary precautions by writing to different people to engage the French Court to give me without loss of time the succours I desire, which if they do immediately every hundred will be worth a thousand. I fear nobody's failing me but Lumley (Sempill) and Maloch (Bohaldie), for I can now say for certain they will do all in their power to make people believe I have been led into a rash and desperate project, and by that means, in an indirect way, do all they can to destroy my character, and hinder me from getting such succours as would com plete the work. I have some such example aheady. J£ you remember, Lumley pressed you some years ago to accept an expedition in Scotland alone, that was proposed by the Court of France, but Greville (the King) abso lutely refused it. Of late he, Lumley, is quite different, the reason of which I must now tell you. I have made B B 4 xviii appendix. 1745. several attempts underhand to engage the French Court to make an expedition into Scotland, but always to no purpose. For, in the first place, Mr. Lumley and Maloch have been doing all along every thing in their power to destroy my character and that of those about me, by re presenting me as a child and guided by indiscreet and silly people, and at the same time running down all attempts on Scotland alone, or even otherwise, as idle and useless. The reason of this is very plain. They have writ so many lies, and done so many odd things to our friends in Scotland, that they are very well known to be what they are, which makes them dread above all things my going to that country. I have so well blinded them that they have been always persuaded I swallowed every thing they said and did not know them. I have sent Stafford to Spain, and appointed Sir Thomas Geraldine to demand succours in my name, to complete the work, to whom I sent letters for the King and Queen, written in the most engaging terms, to the same purpose. Let what will happen, the stroke is struck, and I have taken a firm resolution to conquer or to die, and stand my ground as long as I shall have a man remaining with me. I think it of the greatest importance your Majesty should come as soon as possible to Avignon, but take the liberty to advise that you would not ask leave of the French Court ; for if I be not immediately succoured, they will certainly refuse you. And this refusal will be chiefly occasioned by our own people, who will be afraid to have you so near, for their own private views, and so suggest things to the French Court to- prevent you coming until all be decided. I am certain if you were once at Avignon you would never be obhged to remove but in order to our happy meeting on the other side of the sea. Your Majesty may be well assured I shall never be at rest or leave other people so, until I bring about the happy day of our meeting. It is most certain the gene rality of people will judge of this enterprise by the success, which if favourable, I shall get more honour than I de serve. If otherwise, all the blame, will be put on the French Court for having pushed a young prince to show 1745. STUART PAPERS. XIX his mettle, and rather die than live in a state unbecoming himself. Whatever happens unfortunate to me cannot but be the strongest engagement to the French Court to pursue your cause. Now if I were sure they were capable of any sensation of this kind, if I did not succeed, I would perish, as Curtius did, to save my country, and make it happy ; it being an indispensable duty on me, as far as lies in my power. Your Majesty may now see my reason for pressing so much to pawn my jewels, which I should be glad to have done immediately ; for I never intend to come back, and money, next to troops, will be of the greatest help to me. I owe to old Waters about 60;000 livres, and to the young one above 120,000 livres. I and Sir Thomas will write more fully to Edgar about these matters, both as to the sum I carry with me and arms, as also how I go. I write this from Navarre, but it won't be sent off till I am on shipboard. If I can possibly, I will write a note and send it from thence at the same time. I have wrote to Lord Marischal, telling him to come immediately, and giving him a credential to treat with the Minister for succours. To the Duke of Ormond ' I have writ a civil letter, showing a desire of his coming here immediately, but at the same time leaving it to his discretion so to do. I do not recollect any thing more essential to add here, but if I do you may be assured of my not letting any opportunity shp of letting you know it, and how matters go. In the mean time I entreat you not to be in any concern or fear for me, or the affair, for there is in reality all reason to believe and hope that every thing will go to our wish. This I had good grounds to believe, even before the favourable circumstances of the Elector's coming over, the losing of the battle, and the sending of so many more troops abroad, besides its being a stroke entirely unforeseen and not in the least suspected. I had sent for Strickland to come to me as soon as I heard he was to leave Eome, but without telling him for what, and before I knew what your Majesty thought of him, but he did not get the letter until he came to Avig non, and upon the receipt of it he came to Paris, so that I could not possibly avoid carrying him with me. I hope XX APPENDIX. 1745. he may be of use to me where I am going, he having been there already, and your Majesty need not fear my putting too great confidence in him, but shall be on my guard and remark his proceedings. I should think it proper (if your Majesty pleases), to be put at his Holiness's feet, asking his blessing on this occasion ; but what I chiefly ask is, your own, which I hope will procure me that of God Almighty upon my endeavours to serve you, my family, and my country ; which wiU ever be the only view of Your Majesty's most dutiful son, Charles P. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. [Second Letter.] Navarre, June 12. 1745. Sir, I made my devotions on Pentecost day, recommending myself particularly to the Almighty on this occasion to guide and direct me, and to continue to me always the same sentiments, which are, rather to suffer any thing than fail in any of my duties. I write to you this apart, for to entreat your Majesty, in the most earnest manner, to desire Grevill (the King) for God's sake not to give to Howell (himself) what he designed, that is a secret*; for it would be of the greatest hurt to his farm. Let not his engagement with a certain person be any hindrance, for circumstances are changed, by which, if there was any question of that, one can find ways to come off on't. I must repeat this, that Grevill and his family is ruined if he does that thing. Grevill thinks this is an absolute secret ; but he is mistaken, for I have heard it from several people, to whom I flatly denied it, and said I was very sure it was not true, to which every one of these said, God be praised ; for if it were so, both father and son would be undone. Sovereigns upon the throne can do such things ; and even then it is not advisable ; but a * This mysterious passage refers to an offer on the part of James to abdicate his pretended Crown in favour of his eldest son. 1745. STUART PAPERS. XXI private man ruins himself and his family in doing on't, especially one that has great many enemies. I lay my self again most humbly at your Majesty's feet ; and re main your most dutiful son, Charles P. PRINCE CHARLES TO MR. EDGAR. Navarre, June 12. 1745. I here enclose you the King's and Duke's letters ; one for Lord Dunbar, and another for B. Tencin. If the bearer be one Pleve, I know him to be very honest, and a good servant. Macdonald is his master, whom I carry with me ; so the servant deserves to be taken care of. Having writ a long letter to the King, I chose to refer some particulars to be added to yours, which are these : — I owe old Waters about 60,000 livres, part of which went to the payment of my debts last winter, which the French Court did not think fit to complete. Young Waters has advanced me 120,000 hvres, and promised to pay several other things which I have referred to him. It will be absolutely necessary to remit these two sums immediately ; and young Waters desires that his money may be sent by Behoni directly to himself, without letting the old man know he made any such advance ; and what ever other money may be remitted for my use, the best way will be to send it to the young one — for the other, I believe, will be glad to be eased of that trouble. All this money I have employed in my present undertaking, having bought fifteen hundred fusees, eighteen hundred broad-swords mounted, a good quantity of powder, ball, flints, dirks, brandy, &c; and some hundred more of fusees and broad-swords, of which I cannot at present tell the exact number. I have also got twenty small field-pieces, two of which a mule may carry ; and my cassette will be near four thousand louis-d'ors ; all these things will go in the frigate which carries myself. She has twenty odd guns, and is an excellent sailer ; and will be escorted by one, and perhaps two men-of-war, of about seventy guns each. It will appear strange to you how I should get xxii APPENDIX. 1745, these things without the knowledge of the French Court. I employed one Eutledge and one Walsh, who are sub jects. The first got a grant of a man-of-war to cruise on the coast of Scotland, and is, luckily, obliged to go as far north as I do, so that she will escort me without appear ing to do it. Walsh understands his business perfectly well, and is an excellent seaman. He has offered to go with me himself, the vessel being his own that I go on board of. He has also a man-of-war that will likewise go with me, if she can be got ready in time, and a frigate of forty- four guns, which he took lately from the English, and is manning, to be sent out with all expedition. He lives at Nantes ; and I expect a courier every moment from him with an account that all is ready ; and then I must lose no time to get there, and go directly on board. If there be no danger of being stopped or discovered, I shall write from thence. Adieu, friend. I hope it will not be long before you hear comfortable news. Lu the meantime, be assured of my constant friendship. Charles P. P.S. — I send you here also, enclosed, an authentic copy of what is to be printed and dispersed at my land ing. I have forgot also to mention, that I intend to land at or about the Isle of Mull. I enclose you here also five letters, and open, to yourself; all from Sir Thomas. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Navarre, June 20. 1745. Sir, _ I have just received yours of the 24th May. I do not at all doubt but that Canilliac's tongue would, go post at the news of the battle in Flanders, as he will also do for this new victory gained by the King of Prussia. I am, thank God, in perfect good health ; but the time seems very long to me for to make use of it to the purpose. I have nothing in the world new. I suppose Morgan (Mr. O'Brien) and Morrice (Lord Sempill) write distinctly what they have to say. As for the fatter, it is long since I have quite given up believing in the least any thing he 1745. STUART papers. xxiii says, which makes me never mention him. I lay myself at your Majesty's feet, most humbly asking blessing. Your most dutiful son, Charles P. P.S. — As I finished this, I received yours of the 1st, and am heartily sorry for poor General Macdonald's death. I shall not fail to be attentive to what you men tion in your httle note. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. St. Nazaire, at the Mouth of the Loire, July 2. 1745. Sir, The contrary winds that have been blowing hitherto, have deferred my embarking, which will be this after noon, at seven, for to go to the rendezvous of the man-of- war of 67 guns, and 700 men aboard, as also a com pany of sixty volunteers, all gentlemen, whom I shall probably get to land with me, I mean to stay ; which, though few, will make a show, they having a pretty uni form. The number of arms are just as I mentioned in my last of the 12th, that goes with this, except the aug mentation I was in hopes of is of a hundred or two less than I expected, which is no odds. I keep this open, and do not send it until I am fairly set off from Belle Isle — id est the rendezvous — so that I may add a note to it, if being sea-sick does not hinder ; if it does, Sir Thomas will supply in mentioning what more may occur. It is a mortification to me to want so many of your packets which are lying at Paris, because of the daily expect ation of parting. We have nothing to do now but to hope in the Almighty favouring us and recompensing our troubles ; which, as you may see by the nature of the thing, were not small. I hope in God my next will bring comfortable news. In the mean time I remain, laying myself at your Majesty's feet, most humbly asking your blessing. Your most dutiful son, Charles P. xxiv appendix. 1745. PRINCE CHARLES TO MR. EDGAR. St. Nazaire, July 2. 1745. This being the last note I shall wrice this side of the seas, I would not fail to give you adieu i. it, making my compliments to Lord Dunbar, and to as many of my friends as you shall think convenient and proper. I en close herewith letters for the King and the Duke. I hope in God we shall soon meet, which I am resolved shall not be but at home. In the mean time I remain, &c. Charles P. P. S. — Belle Isle a la Bade, the 12th July. After having waited a week here, not without a little anxiety, we have at last got the escort I expected, which is just now arrived, id est, a ship of 68 guns, and 700 men aboard. I am, thank God, in perfect good health, but have been a little sea-sick, and expect to be more so ; but it does not keep me much a-bed, for I find the more I struggle against it the better. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Abord du Vaisseau le Du Bellier, a VAncre dans la Baie de Longhaylort, le 2 Aout, V. S. 1745. Sire, J'ai recu des services si importans de M. Antoine Walsh, qu'il n'y a rien que je ne me croie oblige de faire pour lui en temoigner mon agrement. Ainsi je lui ai promis d'employer tout mon credit aupres de Votre Majeste pour lui obtenir le titre de Comte d'Irlande. 11 est issu d'une fort bonne famille, tres en etat de soutenir la dignite de ce nouveau titre, et n'a pas besoin d'autre chose. C'est la premiere grace que je vous demande depuis mon arrivee dans ce pays. J'espere bien que ce ne sera pas la derniere, mais en tout cas, je vous supphe 1745. STUART PAPERS. de me l'accorder. Je la regarderai comme une obligation particuliere, accordee a votre tres-obeissant fils, Charles P. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Longhaylort, August 4. 0. S. 1745. Sir, I am, thank God, arrived here in perfect good health, but not with little trouble and danger, as you will hear by the bearer, who has been along with me all along, that makes it useless for me to give any accounts and particulars on that head. I am joined here by brave people, as I expected. As I have not yet set up the Standard, I cannot tell the number, but that will be in a few days, as soon as the arms are distributed ; at which we are working with all speed. I have not as yet got the return of the message sent to the Lowlands, but ex pect it very soon. If they all join, or at least all those to whom I have sent commissions, at request, every thing will go on to a wish. Sir Hector's * being taken up, is of no other consequence but of perhaps frightening some few ; for they can make nothing of him, nor of some papers that were found in his room, which he denies having any knowledge of. The commissions, along with the declara tion, are arrived safe, and in a proper hand. The worst that can happen to me, if France does not succour me, is to die at the head of such brave people as I find here, if I should not be able to make my way ; and that I have promised to them, as you know to have been my resolu tion, before parting. The French Court must now neces sarily take off the mask, or have an eternal shame on them ; for at present there is no medium, and we, what ever happens, shall gain an immortal honour by doing what we can to deliver our country, in restoring our master, or perish with sword in hand. Your Majesty may easily conceive the anxiety I am in to hear from you. Having nothing more particular at present to add * Sir Hector Maclean. xxvi appendix. 1745. (not being able to keep the ship longer, for fear of men-of- war stopping her passage entirely), I shall end, laying myself with all respect and duty at your Majesty's feet, most humbly asking a blessing. Your most dutiful son, Charles P. PRINCE CHARLES TO MORAY OF ABERCAIRNET. Kinlochiel, August 22. 1745. This is to let you know that I have set up the Boyal Standard, and expect the assistance of all my friends. I want money in particular ; and as I depend upon what I know you have promised me, I desire you would pay it immediately into the hands of Arnprior, or send it by a sure hand to whatever place I shall be in. You must not doubt me but that I shall be always ready to acknowledge this and all other services, and to give you proportionable marks of my favour and friend ship.* Charles P. E. PRINCE CHARLES'S INSTRUCTIONS TO MR. HICKSON. Sept. 22. 1745. You are hereby authorised and directed to repair forth with to England, and there notify to my friends, and particularly those in the north and north-west, the won derful success with which it has hitherto pleased God to favour my endeavours for their deliverance. You are to let them know, that it is my full intention, in a few days, to move towards them, and that they will be inexcusable before God and man, if they do not all in their power to assist and support me in such an undertaking. What I demand and expect is, that as many of them as can shall be ready to join me, and that they should take care to * This letter is printed in the Jacobite Memoirs, p. 24. Several others, to the same purport, were written on tbat day. 1745. STUART papers. xxvii provide provisions and money, that the country may suffer as little as possible by the march of my troops. Let them know that there is no time for deliberation, — now or never is the word : I am resolved to conquer or perish. If this last should happen, let them judge what they and their posterity have to expect.* C.P.B. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Edinburgh, Oct. 7. O.S. 1745. It is impossible for me to give you a distinct journal of my proceedings, because of my being so much hurried with business, which allows me no time ; but notwith standing, I cannot let slip this occasion of giving a short account of the battle of Gladsmuir, fought on the 21st of September, which was one of the most surprising actions that ever was. We gained a complete victory over Gen eral Cope, who commanded 3000 foot, and two regiments of the best dragoons in the island, he being advantage ously posted, with also batteries of cannon and mortars, we having neither horse or artillery with us, and being to attack them in their post, and obliged to pass before their noses in a defile and bog. Only our first line had occasion to engage ; for actually, in five minutes the field was cleared of the enemies ; all the foot killed, wounded, or taken prisoners ; and of the horse only 200 escaped, like rabbits, one by one. On our side we only lost a hundred men, between killed and wounded; and the army afterwards had a fine plunder. * Mr. Hickson proceeded as far as Newcastle, but was there arrested and put into prison, and these instructions found upon him. —(See Culloden Papers, p. 226.) vol. m. c c xxviii appendix. • 1745. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Edinburgh, Oct. 15. O.S. 1745. Sir, I have at last had the comfort of receiving letters from you, the latest of which is of the 7th Sept. N. S. I am confounded and penetrated with so much goodness and tenderness your Majesty expresses to me in all your letters. It is a grief to me that my keeping Strickland has given you one moment's concern, but I shaU send him away in all haste. I hope your Majesty is persuaded that this fault, or any others I may have committed, is no want of the respect and submission which you will always find in me. I remark your letter to the King of France, in which you do me more honour than I deserve; I wish to God I may find my brother landed in England by the time I enter it, which will be in about ten days ; having then with me near 8000 men, and 300 horse at least, with which, as matters stand, I shall have one de cisive stroke for it, but if the French land, perhaps none. I cannot enlarge on this subject as on many others, for want of time, because of such a multiplicity of things which hourly occur for the service of the affair. Adam (King Louis) has sent me a gentleman, who brought me your letters, to stay with me, for to give notice of any thing that I may want, which, as he says, will be done immediately ; accordingly I am sending off immediately three or four expresses, all to the same purpose, so that some one may arrive. What is said is very short, press ing to have succour in all haste, by a landing in Eng land ; for that, as matters stand, I must either conquer or perish in a little while. Thank God, I am in perfect good health, but longing much for the happy day of meeting. In the mean time, I remain, &c, Charles P. The ship being just ready to go off, I have only time to enclose here a scrawl of the account of the battle, which I in a hurry writ some days ago. 1745. STUART PAPERS. XXIX PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Edinburgh, Oct. 22. O.S. 1745. Sir, I have charged Sir James Stewart to carry this as far as Paris, and to forward it immediately by a courier to your Majesty ; as also to write you a distinct account of the situation of affairs. He is an understanding capable man, and can be depended on, which has made me choose him to send to the French Court, with proper compli ments to the French King, and to hasten them for suc cours. I hope your Majesty will be satisfied with his proceedings. As I have nothing particular to add, but what he can say, makes it needless for me to say any more at present. I am, thank God, in perfect good health, but still in the usual anxiety for want of letters, to which there is no help but patience. I lay myself at your Majesty's feet, most humbly asking blessing ; and remaining, with the profoundest respect, Your most dutiful son, Charles P. P. S. — As I writ to you in my last, I shall not fail to get rid of Strickland as soon as possible. Your Majesty, I hope, will forgive this scrawl, not having time to write it over, being so much hurried with business. THE FRENCH ENVOY TO THE DUKE OF PERTH. [From the Duke of Perth's Papers taken in the Retreat.] A Carlisle, ce Dimanche (Nov. 1745). Milord Due, On vient d'oter a mes gens un pauvre lit qu'ils avaient a trois ; de sorte qu'il faut que je les couche dans le mien, ou que je les envoie passer la nuit a, la rue, vu le beau temps qu'il fait ! Enfin, milord Due, que ceux qui sont charges du detail des logemens prennent des mesures pour m'epargner la necessite de prendre un parti qui me mettra dans le cas de n'avoir plus a me plaindre apres c c 2 XXX APPENDIX. 1746. m'etre plaint si souvent et si inutilement. Vous etes bon et avise ; vous avez mille bontes pour moi ; au nom de Dieu faites que les choses soient en regie une bonne fois, et qu'enfin mes gens aient a. se coucher ce soir. Je suis avec respect, &c. &c. Boyer. PROCLAMATION, TO THE INHABITANTS OF MANCHESTER. [See Chambers's History, vol. i. p. 271.] Manchester, Nov. 30. 1745. His Boj^al Highness being informed that several bridges had been pulled down in this county, he has given orders to repair them forthwith, particularly that at Crossford, which is to be done this night by his own troops, though his Eoyal Highness does not propose to make use of it for his own army, but believes it will be of service to the country ; and if any forces that were with General Wade be coming this road, they may have the benefit of it ! C. P. B. PRINCE CHARLES TO ONE OF HIS OFFICERS. Je vous ordonne d'executer mes ordres ou de ne plus retourner. THE PRETENDER TO PRINCE CHARLES. Albano, June 6. 1746. God knows where or when this will find you, my dearest Carluccio, but still I cannot but write to you in the great anxiety and pain I am in for you, from what 1746. STUART PAPERS. XXXI the public news mentions from Scotland. I know no thing else ; and I doubt not but those accounts are ex aggerated, considering from whence they come. But still it is but too plain to see that affairs with you don't go as I could wish. I am, though, still in hopes you may be able to keep your ground in Scotland till you can have assistance from France : but if you really cannot main tain yourself in Scotland, do not, for God's sake, drive things too far ; but think of your own safety, on which so much depends. Though your enterprise should mis carry, the honour you have gained by it will always stick by you ; it will make you be respected, and considered abroad, and will, I think I may answer for it, always en gage the French to protect and assist you, and to renew in time another project in your favour ; so that you should really have no temptation to pursue rash or des perate measures at this time, for should you do so, it would be the ruin of all, and even a drawback from the honour you have already gained. In fine, my dear child, never separate prudence and courage. Providence has wonderfully assisted you hitherto, and will not abandon you for the time to come. This I firmly hope, while I shall not cease to beseech God to bless and direct you. Adieu, my dearest child, I tenderly embrace you, and am all yours. Once more, God bless you, and protect you. James E. "A JOURNAL OF THE PRINCE'S TRANSACTIONS SINCE THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN TO THIS DAY, AS TAKEN FROM HIS OWN MOUTH." This narrative is short and summary. The following is an account of Charles's disguise and assistance from Flora Macdonald : — The Prince finding, as was proposed, that the best method was to disguise himself in woman's clothes, with a young lady that had a protection, he took his party to do so. The very night before he was to go off, landed General Campbell within a mile or two of him, which obliged the Prince to go a couple of miles southward to avoid the pressing danger, and wait the gloaming of the c c 3 xxxii appendix. 1746. evening to get away ; and for his comfort he had the men-of-war cruising before him, who luckily, towards night-fall, sailed off, which gave him the opportunity of making for Mungaster in Skye, — Lady Margaret Mac- donald's house. 12th July. The Prince left Mr. O'Neal at Benbecula, as also his own arms, as the young lady refused to go if he or any other should carry any ; but he insisted he might safely carry his pistols under the petticoats, as in case of search all would be discovered : but he could not prevail. In. the way to Mungaster, before mid-day, as he was crossing a point, a guard of the MacLeods challenged the boat ; but he not minding to answer, they fired on the boat. As soon as he landed, the young lady went to Lady Margaret's, and the Prince, at some distance, to wait a friend ; and that evening he walked eight miles to a gentleman's house, where he was to meet the young lady again ; but being unused to petticoats, he held them, in walking, up so high that some common people remarked an awkwardness in wearing them, which being told, he was obliged to change his habit again next day ; and went, being advised that Bassay was the best place to go to. He walked that evening eight miles, it pouring rain all the while, to get to the shore at ¦ : there, being in men's clothes, he parted with the young lady, and em barked in a little boat for Eassay ; being told the enemy was still on the main land. (Another Extract.) July 19. The Prince arrived at the main land in Glen- gary Morar, or North Morar, at the point of Loch Nevis, and having waited there three days to have intelligence, but to no effect, he resolved the eleventh day to try what intelligence he could get, and to cross a Loch within a mile of Scotus-house — (Nota Bene : all that time that he waited, he was exposed to wind and weather, and was excessively straightened for any kind of provision — ) which he executed ; and just as he crossed a little point entering the Loch, he stumbles on a boat of the enemy's, which was hidden in the Loch, when those who were 1746. STUART papers. xxxiii ashore ran to their boats, which startled them a little ; but the Prince, having along with him Mackinnon and three Camerons, consulted with him what best to do ; and he saying, that there was no possibility to avoid them, the best method was to put on a bold face, and make up to them, which accordingly was done — and proved to effect ; for, as luck would have it, they happened to be only five, and so only questioned them, and let them go on ; but, upon reflection, after we had passed them and gone down the Loch, fearing that more of them might have been at hand, and joining the others, might come up to them, he thought proper to stop and to climb up to the top of a very high hill, the south side of the Loch — which he did very quickly ; but, being there, he observed the boat steering off to that part of Skye, called Slate, which made him go down to the place whence he had gone ; and afterwards went to Morar. But his house being in his way to Borradale — which was no small fatigue, being obliged to march the whole night — he met there with Angus of Borradale ; and skulked with him in a cave near the side of Lochnonona, for eight or ten days. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS BROTHER, Morlaix, October 10. N. S. 1746. Dear Brother, As I am certain of your great concern for me, I cannot express the joy I have, on your account, of my safe arrival in this country. I send here enclosed two lines to my master*, just to show him I am alive and safe, being fatigued not a little, as you may imagine. It is my opinion you should write immediately to the French King, giving him notice of my safe arrival, and at the same time excusing my not writing to him myself im mediately, being so much fatigued, and hoping soon to have the pleasure of seeing him. I leave to your pru dence the wording of this letter, and would be glad no * His father. o o 4 xxxiv appendix. 1746. time should be lost in writing and despatching it, as also that you should consult nobody without exception upon it, but Sir John Graham and Sir Thomas (Sheridan), the reasons of which I will tell you on meeting. It is an absolute necessity I must see the French King as soon as possible, for to bring things to a right head. Warren, the bearer, will instruct you of the way I would wish you should meet me at Paris. I embrace you with all my heart, and remain Your most loving brother, Charles P. PRINCE HENRY TO HIS FATHER. Clichy, October 17. 1746. The very morning after I writ you my last, I had the happiness of meeting with my dearest brother. He did not know me at first sight, but I am sure I knew him very well, for he is not in the least altered since I saw him, except grown somewhat broader and fatter, which is incomprehensible after all the fatigues he has endured. Your Majesty may conceive better than I can express in writing the tenderness of our first meeting. Those that were present said they never saw the like in their lives ; and, indeed, I defy the whole world to show another brother so kind and loving as he is to me. For rmy part, I can safely say that all my endeavours tend to no other end but that of deserving so much goodness as he has for me. . . . The Prince sees and will scarce see .any body but myself for a few days, that he may have a little time to rest before he is plagued by all the world, as to be sure he will, when once he sees company. I go every day to dine with him. Yesterday I brought him privately to see my house ; and I perceive he has as much gout for the chase as ever he had. Most humbly asking your Majesty's blessing, I remain Your most dutiful son, Henrt. 1746. STUART PAPERS. XXXV PRINCE CHARLES TO THE KING OF FRANCE. Fontainebleau, ce 22 Octobre, 1746. Monsieur mon Frere et Cousin, Je prends la liberte d'ecrire a votre Majeste pour lui dire la raison que je ne parlais pas de mes affaires hier au soir ; c'est parceque mon frere etait present, et qu'en meme temps je voudrais eviter de lui dormer aucune jalousie, comme je l'aime tendrement. Oserais-je sup plier V. M., comme sa prudence est au nombre de ses grandes qualites, d'avoir la bonte la premiere fois qu'Elle voudrait que je lui parle d'affaires qu'Elle soit en parti- culier et de faire en sorte eviter cet inconvenient la, Je suis, &c. Charles P. MEMOIR TO THE KING OF FRANCE BY PRINCE CHARLES. Le 10 Novembre, 1746. La situation dans laquelle j'ai laisse 1'Ecosse, a mon depart, merite toute l'attention de votre Majeste ; ce roy- aume est a, la veille de se voir aneantir, et le gouverne- ment d'Angleterre est resolu de confondre les sujets qui lui sont restes fideles, avec ceux qui ont pris les armes pour moi ; d'ou il est aise de conclure que le mecontente- ment de cette nation est general, et que j'y trouverais aujourd'hui trois partisans pour un que j'y ai trouve en debarquant. Ce serait tromper votre Majeste que de la flatter que je pourrais encore soulever 1'Ecosse, si le Parlement a le temps cet hiver d'y mettre les lois penales en execution. Votre Majeste devrait alors renoncer pour jamais au se- cours d'une revolution dans ce pays la, et moi je n'aurais de ressource que dans les cceurs des sujets de mon pere, quand il plaira a, la Providence de les rappeller. Le nombre de sujets aguerris ne m'a jamais manque en XXXVi APPENDIX. ' 1746. Ecosse. J'ai manque' tout a la fois, d'argent, de vivres, et d'une poignee de troupes regulieres. Avec un seul de ces trois secours je serais encore aujourd'hui maitre de 1'Ecosse, et vraisemblablement de toute l'Angleterre. Avec trois mille hommes de troupes regulieres, j'aurais penetre en Angleterre immediatement apres avoir defait le sieur Cope ; et rien ne s'opposait alors a mon arrivee a Londres, puisque l'Electeur etait absent, et que les troupes Anglaises n'avaient pas encore repasse. Avec des' vivres, j'aurais ete en etat de poursuivre le General Hawley apres la bataille de Falkirk, et de de- truire toute son armee, qui etait la fleur des troupes Anglaises. Si j'eusse recu plutot la moitie seulement de l'argent que votre Majeste m'a envoye, j'aurais combattu le Due de Cumberland avec un nombre egal, et je l'aurais sure- ment battu, puisque avec quatre mille hommes contre douze, j'ai longtemps fait pencher la victoire, et que douze cent hommes de troupes reglees l'auraient decidee en ma faveur, au vu et au su de toute mon armee. Ces contre temps peuvent encore se reparer si votre Majeste veut me confier un corps de dix-huit ou vingt mille hommes. C'est dans son sein seul que je deposerai l'usage que j'en veux faire : je l'emploierai utilement pour ses interets et pour les miens. Ces interets sont inseparables, et doivent etre regardes comme tels par tous ceux qui ont l'honneur d'approcher de votre Majeste, et qui ont sa gloire et l'avantage de son royaume a coeur. Charles P. E. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. Paris, December 19. 1746. Sir, I have received yours of the 28th, and have read it with tears in my eyes, not so much for the loss of my old acquaintance*, as for the so many expressions of your Majesty's goodness to me, which I shall always be at pains to deserve, by doing what I can to serve and obey * Sir Thomas Sheridan, who died shortly after his arrival at Rome, 1746. STUART papers. xxxvii you. It is my duty to say and represent to your Majesty what I in my conscience think, as to some people ; after which it is for you to judge, and I to obey what com mands you think fit to give me. I cannot, without a new cipher (as I took the hberty already to say), put your Majesty into the light of several things, which, when I shall be able to do, I flatter myself you will ap prove of my proceedings ; which I am very sensible at present must appear odd to you. It is my humble opinion it would be very wrong in me to disgrace G. K. * unless your Majesty positively ordered me to do it. I must do him the justice to assure you I was surprised to find your Majesty have a bad opinion of him ; and hitherto I have had no reason to be dissatisfied with him, for this was the first I heard of his honesty and probity to be in ques tion. I shall take the liberty to represent, that if what he has been accused of to you, be wrote from hence, there is all reason to believe, id est, in my weak way of think ing, that such that have writ so to you mistake, because of my never having heard any body accuse him to me here of such things, and my having declared that my ears were open to every body, so as to be the better able to judge the characters of people. As Sir Thomas is dead and gone, it is useless to be troubling your Majesty for to justify him, but shall let it alone at present, until you to do it order me. I must own I am now entirely convinced F. S.f was an ill man, by a circumstance your Majesty mentions to me of him. I have never shown to any body your Majesty's letters, but to the Duke, as I ought to have mentioned before ; and for this last I have not shown it to him, as also not this answer. I do nothing without consulting my dear brother ; and when I happen to do contrary to his opinion, it is entirely of my own head, and not by any body's else advice, for 1 can assure your Majesty I myself trust nobody more than I do him, as, with reason, I tell him every thing I can : but I am afraid some people have given him a bad opinion of me, for I suppose I must own he does not open his heart to me. I shall always love him, and be united with him. * George Kelly. X Francis Strickland. xxxviii appendix. 1746. Whatever he does to me, I will always tell him" face to face what I think for his good, let him take it weU or ill. I know him to be a little lively, not much loving to be contradicted ; but I also know and am sensible of his love and tenderness for me in particular beyond expres sion, and of his good heart in general. Your Majesty cannot imagine what trouble I am at about trifles, which I cannot avoid without neglecting my duty — which I hope will never be the case. I am in hopes I shall be able soon to send to your Majesty a person of trust — and it would be of consequence nobody should know of it ; so that he should carry my despatches, and I receive your orders without its being known he carried them. In the meantime I can say no more ; and so remain, with all respect, asking blessing, your most dutiful son, Charles P. P.S. — I hope your Majesty will excuse the freedom with which I write this letter, as also the liberty I take to assure you that whatever I say to you will never pro ceed from partiality or pique, but plainly what I think. I suppose O'Brien has already given an account to you of what pains I am at, and what has been done concern ing the poor Scotch. I told Marquis d'Argenson t'other day how sensible I was at the King's goodness for what he has done for them, and that I would go, if necessary, upon my knees for them; but that I would never ask any thing for myself; for I came only in this country to do what I could for my poor country, and not for myself. The said Marquis answered, that it was his Christian Majesty's intention to give to as many as came over, and that I should only give a list, and it would be continued ; and I upon that most earnestly thanked his Most Chris tian Majesty, when I had the pleasure of seeing him t'other day, and must do him the justice in saying, he was extremely civil to us, as also all his family. O'Sul livan showed me the letter your Majesty did him the honour to write to him. I cannot let slip this occasion to do him justice by saying I really think he deserves your Majesty's favour. Townly is not the discreetest man upon earth. He was making a rout, that he, being the only Englishman, was neglected, when all the rest 1746. STUART PAPERS. XXxix got something or another. I was plagued with him se veral times on that strain. At last I stopped his mouth, having the good luck to get for him the Croix de St. Louis. I suppose you have been already informed of it. I do not mention so many trifles of that kind, sup posing others supply for me in that. I am in hopes poor Cardinal Acquaviva will escape this bout, for I believe him to be a good friend of ours. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. (Extract.) Paris, January 16. 1747. Ln reality I do not doubt of the honesty of those about me, though they may not have all the capacity in the world. I find it now-a-days so rare to find an honest man, that any that has given me proofs of being so, (un less your Majesty orders me, or I find I am deceived by any of them on any the least trifle,) I would part with them with a sore heart. Notwithstanding I offered to my dear brother, that any one, or all about me, that he had a disgust for, I would dismiss, to make him easy ; to which he assured me he had no dislike for any body, and did not want any such thing. He does not open his heart to me, and yet I perceive he is grieved, which must proceed from malicious people putting things in his head, and preventing him against me. Notwithstanding I am per suaded he loves me tenderly, which is the occasion of my grief. God Almighty grant us better days. I lay myself at your Majesty's feet, most humbly asking blessing. Your most dutiful son, Charles P. xl APPENDIX. 1747. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS BROTHER. (Extract.) Avignon, February 9. 1747. I must now tell you, dear brother, that even in Scot land I formed a project of going myself to the Court of Spain. I left Paris with that intention, which I am re solved to pursue, and would not ask leave for fear of being refused; and propose to go and return, if neces sary, with all the privacy imaginable. I shall despatch O'Sulhvan to inform the King of it, and of every step I have taken since my coming to France. I now send to entreat you, by all the ties of brotherly affection, not to think of starting from Paris. PRINCE CHARLES TO HIS FATHER. (Extract.) Guadalaxara, March 12. 1747. Sir, I believe your Majesty will be as much surprised as I am to find that no sooner arrived, I was hurred away without so much as allowing me time to rest. I thought there were not such fools as the French Court, but I find it here far beyond it. Your Majesty must forgive me if I speak here a little out of humour, for an angel would take the spleen on this occasion. Notwithstanding you will find I behaved towards them with all the respect and civility imaginable, doing a la lettre, whatever they required of me, to give them not the least reason of com plaining of me, and by that putting them entirely dans leur tort. I shall now begin my narration of all that has passed since my arrival in this country. For to arrive with the greater secrecy and diligence, so that this Court should not hear of me until I let them know it, I took post at Perpignan, with Vaughan and Cameron, the rest not being able to ride, and not to be so 1747. STUART PAPERS. xii many together. I arrived at Barcelona, and finding that, by the indiscretion of some of our own people (which the town happened then to be full of) it was immediately spread I was there ; this hindered me to wait here for the rest of my people coming up, as I intended, and made me take the resolution to leave even those that had come there with me, for the greater blind and expedition, and to take along with me one Colonel Nagle, who had been with the Duke of Ormond. I arrived at Madrid the 2d inst., and addressed myself immediately to Geraldine, Sir Charles Wogan being at his government ; and it happened better so, for I find they are not weU together, and Geraldine is all in all with the Ministers. I gave him immediately a letter for Caravajal, which enclosed one for the King, of which I send here a copy ; this was the channel he advised me to go by. Upon that I got an appointment with the said Minister ; and he carried me to him in his coach, with a great many ridiculous precautions, for I find all here hke the pheasants, that it is enough to hide their heads to cover the rest of the body, as they think. After I made Caravajal many compliments, I asked him that I sup posed he had delivered my letter to the King, and had received his orders what I should do ? To which he said he had not, telling me it was better he should not give it, and that I should go back immediately ; that he was very sorry the situation of affairs was such, that he ad vised me to do so. This he endeavoured to persuade me to by several nonsensical reasons. I answered them all, so that he had nothing in the world to say, but that he would deliver my letter. I told him that my sudden resolution of coming here was upon one of my friends coming just before I parted from Paris to me, from the rest, assuring me that they were ready as much as ever, if they had the assistance necessary, to allow them time to come to a head ; at the same time expressing what a conceit that nation had for the Spaniards' good inclina tions, and how popular it would be for me to take a jaunt in that country, out of gratitude for all they had endeavoured to do for us ; that I could be back at any event for any expedition of effect, for that, with reason, none could be undertook till the month of April or May. xiii appendix. 1747 I added to that my personal inclinations, which hit with theirs. I parted, after all compliments were over, and was never in the world more surprised than when Cara vajal himself came at the door of the auberge I was lodged in, at eleven at night and a half, to tell me that the King wanted to see me immediately. I went in stantly, and saw the King and Queen together, who made me a great many civilities, but, at the same, desiring me to go back as soon as possible ; that, unluckily circum stances of affairs required so at present ; that nothing in the world they desired more than to have the occasion of showing me proofs of their friendship and regard. One finds in old histories, that the greatest proofs of showing such things are to help people in distress ; but this, I find, is not now a la, mode, according to the French fashion. I asked the. King leave, in the first place, to see the Queen Dowager, and the rest of the Boyal Family, to which he answered, there was no need to do it. Upon my repeating again how mortifying it would be. for me, at least, not to make my respects to the. old Queen, to thank her for her goodness towards us, he said I might speak of that to Caravajal. I found by that he had got his lesson, and was a weak man, just put in motion like a clock-work. At last, after many respectful compliments, and that the chief motive of my coming was to thank his Majesty for all the services his Eoyal Family had done for ours, at the same time to desire the continuation of them ; to which he said, if occasion offered, he would even do more ; after that, I asked him, for not to trouble him longer, which was the Minister he would have me speak to of my affairs, and of what I wanted ? to which he said, that he had an entire confidence in Caravajal, and that to him alone I might speak as to himself. I spoke then, that Caravajal might hear, that there was nobody that could be more acceptable to me than him : says I, in laughing, he is half an Englishman, being called Lancaster. I parted ; and who does I make out at the door but Farinelli * ; who took me by the hand with * The celebrated singer and soprano. According to M. de Brosses, the King of Spain had granted him letters-patent of nobility in the vsual form " a lui et a toute sa posterite ! " (LTtalie, vol. i. p. 251.) 1747. STUAET papers. xliii effrontery. I first thought, as with reason, it was some Grandee, or Captain of the Guards, that had seen me in Italy, and was never so much surprised as when he named himself, saying that he had seen me formerly, which he was sure I could not remember. From thence I went in the Minister's apartment, and staid some time with him ; but I perceived immediately that he battSd la campagne, and concluded nothing to the purpose, but pressing me ardently to go out of the town and away immediately. I told him, though I had made a long journey, notwithstanding, being young and strong, I would be ready to go away that very same night ; but that, if he cared to assist me in the least, he must allow me a little time to explain and settle things with him, that if he pleased, I would be next day with him again. He agreed to that, but that absolutely it was necessary, to do a pleasure to the King, I should part the day after. I went to him as agreed upon, and brought a note of what I was to speak to him about, which, after explaining, I gave to him, a copy of which I enclose here, along with the answer he made before me, in writing, which seems to me not to say much. He pressed me again to part the next day. I represented it was an im possibility, in a manner, for me to go before any of my people coming up. At last he agreed to send along with me Sir Thomas Geraldine, as far as Guadalaxara, where I might wait for my family. We parted, loading one another with compliments. PRINCE CHARLES TO LORD CLANCARTY. Paris, March 26. 1747. I thought it proper to come back again in this country (but intend to keep myself absolutely in private), as the season is now favourable to make another attempt, and to bring these people here to reason if possible. On our side we must leave no stone unturned, and leave the rest to Providence. If you have any thing to let me know of, you have only to write to me under cover to young VOL. HI. D D xliv APPENDIX, 1747. Waters, who will always know where to find me. At present I have nothing more particular to add, so remain, assuring you anew of my constant regard and friendship. Charles P. B. S TO MR. MURRAY (LORD DUNBAR). Paris, April 15. 1747. My Lord, An Irish cordelier, called Kelly, who gives himself out for the Prince's confessor, has distributed in this town an infamous paper, entitled a Sonnet on the Death of a Caledonian Bear, and has been indiscreet enough to publish that His Majesty has been of late troubled with vapours, which have affected his judgment, and that your Lordship governs him despotically ; in fine, he has said that the King is a fool, and that you are a knave. As he is known to have access to his Eoyal Highness, his discourse has produced very bad effects ; people imagine that the Prince contemns his father. I am persuaded he does not deserve that censure. It were to be wished, however, that his Boyal Highness would forbid that friar his apartment, because he passes for a notorious drunkard. The opinion prevails here that the cordeliers in general are great drinkers, yet even among them this Kelly is in famous for his excesses ; in fine, the wine of the Prince's table is termed friar Kelly's wine ; and the same person who governs his conscience is said to regulate his di versions, and his Eoyal Highness's character in point of sobriety has been a little blemished on this friar's account. I am your Lordship's, &c. THE PRETENDER TO PRINCE CHARLES. Albano, June 13. 1747. I know not whether you will be surprised, my dearest Carluccio, when I tell you that your brother will be made a 1747. STUART PAPERS. xl? Cardinal the first day of next month. Naturally speaking, you should have been consulted about a resolution of that kind before it had been executed ; but, as the Duke and I were unalterably determined on the matter, and that we foresaw you might probably not approve of it, we thought it would be showing you more regard, and that it would be even more agreeable to you, that the thing should be done before your answer could come here, and to have it in your power to say, it was done without your know ledge and approbation. It is very true I did not expect to see the Duke here so soon, and that his tenderness and affection for me prompted him to undertake that journey ; but after I had seen him, I soon found that his chief mo tive for it was to discourse with me fully and freely on the vocation he had long had to embrace an ecclesiastical state, and which he had so long concealed from me and kept to himself, with a view, no doubt, of having it in his power of being of some use to you in the late conjunctures. But the case is now altered ; and, as I am fully convinced of the sincerity and solidity of his vocation, I should think it a resisting the will of God, and acting directly against my conscience, if I should pretend to constrain him in a matter which so nearly concerns him. The maxims I have bred you up in and have always followed, of not constraining others in matters of religion, did not a little help to determine me on the present occasion, since it would be a monstrous proposition that a King should be a father to his people and a tyrant to his children. After this, I will not conceal from you, my dearest Carluecio, that motives of conscience and equity have not alone determined me in this particular ; and that, when I seriously consider all that has passed in re lation to the Duke for some years bygone, had he not had the vocation he has, I should have used my best en deavours, and all arguments, to have induced him to em brace that state. If Providence has made you- the elder brother, he is as much my son as you, and my paternal care and affection are equally to be extended to you and him ; so that I should have thought I had greatly failed in both towards him, had I not endeavoured by all means to secure to him, as much as in me lay, that tranquillity and happiness which I was sensible it was impossible for n d 2 xlvi appendix. 1747. him to enjoy in any other state. You will understand all that I mean without my enlarging further on this last so disagreeable article ; and you cannot, I am sure, complain that I deprive you of any service the Duke might have been to you, since you must be sensible that, all things considered, he would have been useless to you remaining in the world. But let us look forward, and not backward. The resolution is taken, and will be executed before your answer to this can come here. If you think proper to say you were ignorant of it, and do not approve it, I shall not take it amiss of you ; but, for God's sake, let not a step, which naturally should secure peace and union amongst us for the rest of our days, become a subject of scandal and eclat, which would fall heavier upon you than upon us in our present situation, and which a filial and brotherly- conduct in you will easily prevent. Your silence towards your brother, and what you writ to me about him since he left Paris, would do you little honour if they were known, and are mortifications your brother did not de serve, but which cannot alter his sentiments towards you. He now writes to you a few lines himself, but I forbid him entering into any particulars, since it would be giving himself and you an useless trouble after all I have said about him here. You must be sensible that, on many occasions, I have had reason to complain of you, and that I have acted for this long while towards you more hke a son than a father. But I can assure you, my dear child, nothing of all that sticks with me, and I forgive you the more sincerely and cordially all the trouble you have given me, that I am per suaded it was not your intention to fail towards me, and that I shall have reason to be pleased with you for the time to come, since all I request of you hereafter is your per sonal love and affection for me and your brother. Those who may have had their own views in endeavouring to remove us from your affairs have compassed their end. We are satisfied, and you remain master ; so that I see no bone of contention remaining, nor any possible obstacle to a perfect peace and union amongst us for the future. God bless my dearest Carluccio, whom I tenderly embrace. I am all yours, James E. 1748. STUART PAPERS. xlvil PRINCE CHARLES TO MR. EDGAR. St. Ouen, July 24. 1747. I have received yours of the 4th current *, and send you here inclosed the usual letter. Happy would I be to have happier orders and higher spirits, which, to my misfortune, my friends hinder as well as my enemies. God forgive the last ! Having not strength to say more, I remain yours, C.P. PRINCE CHARLES TO THE MARQUIS DE PUISIEULX, FRENCH MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Paris, le 27 Mars, 1748. Mes amis en Angleterre m'ayant demande, Monsieur, d'y faire passer un nombre demedailles, j'en ai fait graver une ici par le Sieur Nicolas Botier. Apres m'en avoir donne l'empreinte, il m'a dit qu'il ne pouvait les frapper sans un ordre de votre part. J'ignorais a la verite la necessite d'une permission, et n'en pouvais prevoir la con sequence politique. Cependant, pour parer au plus petit inconvenient qui en eut pu resulter, j'ai requis le Sieur Botier de ne point mettre Paris sur la medaille, ni meme son nom ; et pour remplir en meme temps l'objet de l'amour-propre naturel a un ouvrier pour son ouvrage, nous sommes convenus qu'il n'y mettrait que les lettres initiales N. B. F. Ne Rien Faire -f, comme S. P. Q. B. J se rend par Si Peu Que Rien ! II est facheux de n'avoir que des bagatelles a proposer a quelqu'un dont je connais le zele et 1'amitie pour moi * Written to announce the elevation of the Cardinal of York on the preceding day. f Nicholas Rolier Fecit. The Ne Bien Faire of Charles is a satirical touch on the unwillingness of the French Court to assist him. t Senatus Populus Que Romanus. <¦ DD 3 xlviii appendix. 1748. dans des choses bien plus essentielles si l'occasion y etait. La mesure de ma reconnoissance n'en est pas pour cela plus bornee, et je suis, Monsieur, &c. Charles P. PRINCE CHARLES TO MR. BULKELEY. Paris, October 31. 1748. I have just seen your letter to Kelly, and am truly sensible of your zeal, but have nothing more to say on that subject, but that quod dixi, dixi, et quod scripsi, scripsi. C.P. FROM SCRAPS, LN PRINCE CHARLES'S WRITING. Paris, 1748. Je suis en peine surtout pour Louis, comme je ne peux que perdre la vie, mais Louis l'honneur. Louis se plaint que Charles veut lui donner des Iois. Je ne veux pas, dit Charles, recevoir des lois qui vien- nent d'Hanovre. Mais ne dites pas que c'est moi, n'etant pas meme Ministre. Je ne suis pas un Ministre ; un mot doit vous suflire si vous etes mon ami. IN CHARLES'S WRITING. About 1760. De vivre et pas vivre est beaucoup plus que de mourir. 1775—1780. stuart papers. xiii IN CHARLES'S WRITING. 1775—1780. Reponse qu'un homme fit a son ami qui lui conta que sa maitresse etait infidele par vengeance. Est-ce, dit-il, pour l'avoir trop aime, ou trop peu? En tout cas la vengeance est douce. Pour les hommes, je les etudie, et a, quatre-vingt ans je serais peut-etre moins savant qu'a cette heure ; mais pour les femmes, je l'ai toujours cru inutile, comme plus mediant et impenetrable. DD 4 .aj^t-i^.MJLS.. 1739. EXTRACTS FB0M THE HARDWICKE PAPERS. FROM COXE'S COLLECTIONS, &c THE PRETENDER TO MR. T. CARTE. [Walpole Papers and Coxe's Copies, vol. Iii. It is thus endorsed in Sir Robert Walpole's own hand-writing. "This original letter, " written to Mr. Thomas Carte, when at Rome, and given to him, " was delivered to me by the said Mr. Thomas Carte, September 15. " 1739, together with the heads" (of a plan of government).] Rome, July 10. 1739. The message you bring could not but appear very sin gular and extraordinary to me, because you deliver it only from second hand, and that I have no sort of proof of your being authorised by the person in question, who cannot but feel that it is natural for me to mistrust what may come from him. It may be, and I hope it is, the case, that he wishes me and my cause well, and I am sensible it may be greatly in his power to serve both. If he has really my interest at heart, let him send to me some trusty friend and confidant of his, to explain to me his sentiments and views, and if he pursues measures which manifestly tend to my restoration, I shall be per suaded of his sincerity, and shall consider and reward him after my restoration, in proportion to the share he 1739. hardwicke papers. Ii may have had in bringing it about. But whatever may or may not be in this matter, I have no difficulty in putting it in your power to satisfy him authentically on the two articles about which he is solicitous, since, inde pendent of his desires, I am fully resolved to protect and secure the Church of England according to the reiterated promises I have made to that effect, and shall be ready, after my restoration, to give all reasonable security which a fresh Parhament can ask of me for that end. As for the Princes of the House of Hanover, I thank God I have no resentment against them, nor against any one living. I shall never repine at their hving happily in their own country after I am in possession of my king doms, and should they fall into my power upon any at tempt for my restoration, I shall certainly not touch a hair of their heads. I thought it proper to explain in this manner my sentiments on these heads, not absolutely to neglect an occurrence which may be of great import ance, if well grounded, and if otherwise, no inconvenience can arise from what I have here said. James R. LORD DESKFORD TO MARQUIS VISCONTL Hanover, December 26. 1740. Upon my arrival here last week, I had the pleasure to find yours of the 3d December, which had lain here for some time, I having made my stay at Berlin longer than I at first intended, being willing to see as much as pos sible, and to form 'as just a notion as I could of the cha racter of that young ambitious Prince *, who is like to act a part of so much importance in Europe. He cer tainly has many quahties worthy of praise. His activity and application to business is surprising ; his secrecy commendable. He has a vivacity, too, and a liveliness of thought, with a justness of expression, that is un common. But his thoughts seem rather of the brilliant, * Frederick the Second. Iii appendix. 1740. than of the solid, kind ; and, even in common things, one sees him daily take a resolution, and execute it in a mo ment. His fire appears too great to let him have time to weigh the difficulties that may attend it ; and the idea he has of the superiority of his own parts, creates in him a presumption which makes him contemn and act almost in every thing without counsel. The insinuations of M. Podweis, who is remarkable for his attachment to France, are said, sometimes, to have some effect. Field- Marshal Schwerin is the man in his service whom he esteems the most ; but if the King of Prussia's genius and parts would make him estimable if they were joined with common integrity, they make him more detestable and dangerous, when we consider what a villainous heart they are directed by. His falsehood and want of faith is well known to you at Vienna. I wish to God you had not trusted him so long : neither could I find that he was possessed of any one qualite de cceur that was not detestable. He is avaricious to a great degree, but has an avarice subordinate to his governing passion — ambi tion. He seems incapable of friendship, and his ingrati tude is surprising. I shall only give you two instances of it. Two young gentlemen, Captains in the Prussian service, after having dissuaded him from the attempt, were at last induced, by solicitations, to expose their lives and fortunes in endeavouring to assist him to make his escape when he was seized. Luckily for them they got off. The one went into the Dutch service, and, at the death of the late King of Prussia, had risen to be a Captain of Horse there. This King, upon his accession to the Crown, writ for him, and offered him a pension of 1000 dollars, if he would come and settle at Berlin. The gentleman's answer was, that he had very near twice as much by his commission in Holland, and he flattered himself that his Majesty would not desire one, whose attachment to him had made him expose his life in his service, to make so disadvantageous a change. The King said he could do no more for him, and so let him go back into Holland, I believe, without paying his journey. The other gentleman retired into England, where, being a foreigner, he could not be employed ; but he there ob tained letters of recommendation to the General who is 1741. GRANTHAM PAPERS. liii at the head of the troops in Portugal, and who, as soon as he arrived at Lisbon, granted him the commission of Major of Horse. The King of Prussia, likewise, upon his accession to the Crown, wrote to him, who did not balance a moment, but immediately laid down his com mission, and set out for Berlin. Since his arrival there the King has given him the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel, and made him Ecuyer, with 1300 crowns pension, which is not half so much as he had by his commission in the Portuguese service. He had likewise a small estate, which the late King of Prussia confiscated, and gave to the recruiting cash. The King, instead of restoring to him the revenues of so many years, which, upon his ac count, he had lost, still leaves it addicted to the recruiting cash, and retains it from him. Base ingratitude ! When I join this with his unexampled falsehood and shocking breach of faith to your Queen, there is nothing so vil lainous, nothing so bad, that this Prince does not seem to me capable of doing. He has deceived you once at Vienna. I flatter myself your Court will not be weak enough to let Gotter deceive you again. MR. ROBINSON TO LORD HARRINGTON. [Grantham Papers, and Coxe's Copies.] Presburg, September 20. 174L The inclosed is the speech the Queen made on the 11th instant to her Hungarian Diet. They answered, vitam et sanguinem ! The Diet, it is thought, will break up this week, after which the Queen, it is presumed, will remove for some time to Baab, and afterwards to Pesth, over against Buda. There are as little conveniences in the one as the other place for the Court. I shall follow as close and as well as I can in this almost desert and unprovided country, till I am honoured with the King's orders. Mr. Dunant has orders to send, while Vienna is open, liV APPENDIX. 1741. all the particulars of the dispositions making there for a good defence. The Archduke * is still in Vienna. The Chancellor says that there is no safety left for Europe, but an immediate and vigorous diversion in Flanders. MR. ROBINSON TO MR. WESTON. Presburg, October 9. 1741. We have no place yet fixed for our winter residence, Vienna we cannot certainly return to, siege or not ; this place is not secure in case of a siege there ; Baab is too little ; Buda too unwholesome. In the meanwhile I have neither house nor home. Unless you have some scheme on the anvil to save us, I do not see that you can long have occasion for a Minister to the Queen of Hungary. The maladie du pays comes very fast upon me. MR. ARTHUR VILLETTE TO THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. Camp of the Concordia, July 19. 1742. I am informed on good authority, that when the news first came to Versailles, by a gentleman of Don Philip, that the Spanish galleys had been burnt, Cardinal Fleury clapped both his hands on his eyes, and kept them there for some time without uttering any thing else but these words, si mea credita trahunt me; which he repeated more than once ; and he said, that all M. Campo Florida said to incense him and excite him to resent such an in dignity offered to the cannon of one of the French King's fortresses, produced no effect, and was received but very coldly. * The Archduke, son of Maria Theresa, was then a child in arms ; but the word is undoubtedly an error of the transcriber for the " Grand Duke," her husband, who had undertaken the defence of her capital. 1744. GRANTHAM PAPERS. ly SECRET INTELLIGENCE FROM ROME [Grantham Papers, and Coxe's Collections, vol. Iii.] January 25. 1 744. On the 19th instant, in the afternoon, the Pretender sent his favourite Dunbar to the Pope, to let him know that his eldest son set out from henco in the night of the 9th of this month, in order to go to France as secretly as possible, excusing himself that he had not sooner ac quainted his Holiness with this, because he thought thus to prevent the umbrage of those who might have hoped to stop this motion. The Austrian Minister and the Ambassador of Venice were immediately informed of this notice ; and the for mer, in particular, towards the evening of that same day, sent away an express by the way of Florence, that an, information of this might be given, both at the camp of Bimini, and at the Court of Vienna. On the 20th, the Pretender being at dinner, he declared publicly this de parture of his son to all his servants and others, adding, that at the time he was speaking, he thought that his son had reached the frontiers of France, upon which he re ceived the congratulations of all that were present ; and at night he was also congratulated by the Ministers of France, of Spain, of the Court of Frankfort, and of aU those that concern themselves for that family. As to the manner of this departure, the following ac count may be depended upon. On the 7th instant was sent out of town publicly the hunting equipage and the harness for the service of the two brothers. On the 8th notice was given to all those that were to be of their party, to set out at their ease in the conveniences that were assigned them. On the 9th, in the morning, the eldest son sent one of his servants to the Cardinal, Secre tary of State, to beg of him to leave the keys of the gate of St. John with the officer of the guard, that he might not be obliged to wait till the hour that this gate is com monly opened at, he being desirous to go out that way or Cisterna, together with his brother, and that he lvi APPENDIX. 1744. wanted to get thither time enough to prepare everything that was necessary for their hunting on the 11th, which request was complied with, so that he set out in the night of the 9th, a httle after midnight, whilst his brother was asleep. He got into his own chaise with Dunbar, having no other followers than one of his grooms, who is a Nor man, and who led another horse well saddled. Mr. Fitz maurice, who was privy to the secret, was charged to tell the younger brother, when he should awake, that his brother, being excessively fond of hunting, had gone before, but that he would meet him at Albano ; insomuch that the second son set out at the appointed hour, being 12 of the clock, according to the Italian way of reckoning, that is to say, at 6 in the morning on the 10th, having all the retinue with him. After the eldest son had gone a few posts, he began to complain that he was cold, and said that to warm himself he would get on horseback. This was concerted with Dunbar, to deceive the postihon that drove them and the servant that attended. Dunbar at first opposed his desire, but at last agreed to it, so that the other, being got on horseback, was followed by his Norman groom, who accompanied him afterwards during his whole voyage (this groom is thought to be a man of consequence, though he has been for some time in the service of that house upon the footing of a servant be longing to the stable) ; and thus being come with his servant to the turning of the road which goes to Frascati, he stopped there and waited for Dunbar's chaise. When it was come, he feigned that he had had a fall from his horse, and that he had hurt his foot, upon which Dunbar desired him to go into the chaise again, but he insisted upon his getting on horseback to go quicker, and instead of going to Albano, there to wait for his brother, he took the road of Marino, to go straight to Cisterna, saying that he should there take some hours of rest, and that Dunbar might go to Albano by himself, there to wait for his brother, and to tell him of his accident ; that the other should not stop but go on to Cisterna ; and thus staying with his faithful Norman alone at the turning, after Dunbar was gone on in the chaise, he and his groom took the road to Frascati, and having coasted along the 1744. GRANTHAM PAPERS. lvii Marana*, they entered into the Consular Way, and then into the Florence road, from whence they went to Lerici and to Genoa, and then to Antibes, and that they did without any loss of time. In the meanwhile the Bailif de Tencin had dispatched on the 6th, with great secrecy, his intendant, to Paris, not only to give notice to the Court there of the resolution that was taken here about this departure, but also to make proper dispositions both at Lerici, and at Genoa, for his embarkation under a feigned name. The second son being come to Albano, and finding Dunbar there, asked him where his brother was. Dun bar told him at first of the pretended accident ; but it is said that in private he acquainted him with the truth of the thing, and desired him to go on to Cisterna, and to talk of his brother's fall, and to say that he would soon come to him. He also desired that nobody should pub lish this accident, for fear it should come to the ears of his father. He ordered the company to begin their hunt, and to divert themselves in the best manner they could. Dunbar himself remained at Albano, and went on every day in giving to the Duke of Sermoneta, to whom Cis terna belongs, an account of the eldest brother's health, saying that he grew daily better and better, and desired the said Duke not to mention any thing of this in the letters he writ to his friends at Bome, for fear it should come to the ears of the Pretender, but to say that the brothers had very good sport, and spent their time very well. The better to cover all this, the younger son sent some wild boars to Bome, in his brother's name and his, some of which were given as presents to the Pope, to Cardinal Acquaviva, and to other people. This feint lasted till the 17th instant, when a letter was sent to Cisterna, in the elder brother's name, to let the company know that the weather being bad he did not care to go a hunting, and that he would go back to Bome, but that his brother might do what he pleased. Upon this Dun bar returned to Eome that very evening, with a young Englishman, son to one of the Pope's horse guards, who is about the same age with, and very like in the face to, * A small stream in the Campagna of Rome. lviii appendix. 1744. the eldest son.. Dunbar had had this young man dex terously brought to him at Albano : there were also come thither two servants of the second son, from Cisterna, who went back to Bome with Dunbar ; so it was reported in town that the eldest son was come back. It is said in the best companies here, that some days before the setting out of the eldest son, Cardinal Acqua- viva had desired Abbot Franchini, Minister of Tuscany, to grant him a passport for a certain Marquis Spinelli, his kinsman, who wanted to go to Genoa for his own. business, which passport was immediately given at his request. It is also said that M. de Thiirm, at the desire of the fore-mentioned Abbot, had given some letters of recommendation to the supposed Marquis. I can't say whether this is true or no, but I much question that these gentlemen should have been deceived by all the manage ment of this affair. They seemed to believe that the Court of Paris had no thoughts of this young man, and gave out such reasons for it that appeared very natural ; but perhaps they did this to disgust other people from hearkening to any accounts that should be given of this undertaking. SIR THOMAS ROBINSON TO MR. WESTON. Vienna, September 16. N. S. 1744. Dear Sir, The last post brought no letters from England. We have Prince Charles * himself here ; a better testimony of all that passed upon the banks of the Bhine than either Noailles's relation to his Court, or the Emperor's fourteen postilions at Frankfort. Don Bodrigue, of Cologne, has inserted the inclosed relation of it in the Brussels Ga zette, and Konigseck Erps printed it, I hear, for the par ticular edification of those who had been surprised with the French accounts. I do not doubt but you will hear of many such victories from Bohemia, though perhaps preceded with the real * Prince Charles of Lorraine. 1744. GRANTHAM PAPERS. lix news of the loss of Prague. That loss will fall heavy upon the poor inhabitants, but it will be the triumph, per haps the conflagration, of a day ; after which the Prus sians must look to themselves. * He is supposed to have said, upon the news of Prince Charles's return, and the manner in which the French let his Highness pass the river, Voila ce que c'est que de faire des traites avec des J . The French came to the Neckar, wondering the Duke of Wurtemberg would not join. " Prince Charles " is so ruined he has not a grenadier left, and Bernclau is " cut in the wood of Hagenau ! " The Duke answered, that he had seen the Prince in good health two days be fore ; that he had seen the whole army pass column by column, in the best order ; that he had not perceived there was a grenadier wanting, and that, as for Bernclau, if they would be pleased to stay a little, they would find him returning back to teach them truth. Upon this the French retired, but not without threatening the Wurtem- bergers with corporal punishment, if they did not furnish the most exorbitant rations of all sorts. The Margrave of Baden has had the like compliments. The Court of Frankfort seems to have taken its iron sceptre into its hands. But I have the better opinion of things, as find ing that they have never gone better for the good cause than at the very moment that the Court of Frankfort begins to be in spirits. So many illusions will at last open their eyes. I think I can prove by the poetical number ter the several distinct times that the French, the Lmperialists, and the Prussians, have been for deceiving one another. Adieu, and believe me to be ever with more truth, Yours, &c. T. Bobinson. * The King of Prussia. vol. m. E E lx APPENDIX. 1745. ME.P.E CORNABE TO SIR THOMAS ROBINSON. [Coxe's Collections, vol. cvi. ] London, January 25. 1745. The day before yesterday Sir William Yonge moved in the House of Common that the 28,000 English in Flanders should be continued for the present year, and gave the principal reason for it in few words, excusing himself upon his bad state of health. Mr. Wilmington seconded him pro forma, and hardly added any thing to what the Secretary at War had said ; then Mr. Powlett, Lord Hinton's brother, got up and proposed that the said troops should be continued for two months only, till the resolution of the Dutch should be known. Mr. Pelham, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a long discourse to show the necessity of carrying on the war with vigour, in order to attain to a good peace. Speaking of the Dutch, he said, he was afraid of saying too much or too little — too much for fear he should be thought to speak without foundation, too little because they had already given the most positive assurances of seconding the King's designs, and had given proofs of their sincerity by the remittances they had made to the Elector of Cologne and to the King of Poland : he showed the danger for Flanders in general, and for its maritime towns in particular ; he entered into a great detail relating to the Queen of Hun gary's and the King of Sardinia's present situation ; in short, he spoke for about an hour with an universal appro bation, which was perceived in every body's countenance. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn gave Mr. Pelham great praise as to his abilities and his honesty : he said he was truly an English Minister, and that for that reason he would vote for this first time for the army, and that he did not doubt but all his friends would do the same, and that the whole nation would be unanimous in it, because we must all stand or fall together, there being no medium. Sir Boger Newdigate spoke much in the same manner, and made great encomium of the Chancellor of the Ex chequer. Lord Strange, Lord Derby's son, was for ad- 1745. GRANTHAM PAPERS. lxi journing the debate till Lord Chesterfield had finished his negotiations : . he talked strangely and was not minded. Mr. Pitt made strong declarations of approving the measure proposed and supporting the new Ministry ; he reflected on the late Secretary of State * in very severe terms ; he recalled all the transactions of the three last years, and made his remarks upon them, finding fault with most things that were done ; he made great compli ments to Mr. Pelham and to Lord Chesterfield ; insisted on the King's condescension in removing those that were grown obnoxious to his people ; that out of gratitude, as well as for other reasons, the nation ought now to ac quiesce in the desire of the Court ; he took notice of the discredit in France, and of the good situation of the Queen of Hungary and our other Allies ; of the King of Sardinia, he said that he was as immoveable as the rocks he so bravely defends ; he spoke of himself as of a dying man, that came to the House purely to preserve the health of his country ; he said, that for a good while he thought we were under great danger, but that now he saw a dawn, and would follow it in hopes it might bring us to salvation; he seemed extremely moved, used a good deal of gesture, employed all the figures of rhetoric, and made a great impression upon most that heard him. Sir John Barnard vindicated Lord Granville, saying, that the last three years were the most glorious which England had seen since 1710, that that Lord's conduct would bear the strictest inquiries, and that he wished it might be examined by the House to convince people at home who were unjust to him that all foreigners did him justice, and looked upon him as the ablest statesman we had ; he grew quite warm upon this subject, and, recol lecting himself, desired the indulgence of his hearers if he had gone too far. Mr. Bowes of Durham, and Lord Barrington, took him up one after the other, desired he would move for an in quiry, and they would second him ; they commended the new Ministry and their plan, which they called the Old Plan, supported by wise Englishmen. Mr. Cholmondeley, a young gentleman of Cheshire, at- * Earl Granville. E E 2 lxii APPENDIX. 1745. tempted to put off the debate, but nobody minded him : the question being put by the Chairman of the Com mittee, Mr. Fane, there was no division ; Lord Strange was the only one that put a negative against it, so that this may be looked upon like a perfect unanimity : the House was very full, there being above 400 Members. It is very observable, that not one word was said of Han over in the whole debate ; but I must not dissemble to you, that some severe reflections were made against the Ministry at Vienna, that retained their old pride now they were a little elated, who insisted upon acquisitions, or at least equivalents, which could not be had but at the expense of the English nation, to whom they showed ingratitude, in not being more desirous of peace, and saving the treasures of the nation. It was a glorious day for Mr. Pelham, who had the praises of every body, and whose character was extolled beyond all those that ever were in his place. Mr. Pitt's eloquence was much commended, but it is thought he cannot live long ; it is said that if he recovers and outlives Sir W. Yonge, he is to have the place of Secretary at War. HON. PHILIP YORKE TO HORACE WALPOLE (THE ELDER). London, May 4. 1745. Dear Sir, It is with the deepest concern I embrace so disagree able an occasion of writing, as that of acquainting you that we have fought a battle to save Tournay, and lost it.* The news came early this morning, and was soon pub lic ; for the detail of this bloody affair, we must wait the arrival of another messenger. What I have been able to learn is briefly thus : — Our army was in sight of the enemy by 5 of the clock on Tuesday morning last ; the attack of their entrenchments began about seven, and * The battle of Fontenoy. 1745. HARDWICKE PAPERS. lxiii lasted till half an hour after one. The right wing (com posed of English and Hanoverians) behaved most gal lantly, and gained thrice ground upon the enemy, but were as often repulsed by the terrible fire of several entrenched batteries, which cannonaded them in front and flank without intermission during the whole time. It is said the left, where the Dutch were, did not show the same ardour. The retreat of our right was made in good order by Sir John Ligonier, the French not pur suing a step, nor have we lost a pair of colours, but what is much worse, a great number of brave men. The brigade of Guards has suffered prodigiously : Col. Conway's com pany has but 24 men left ; Gen. Ponsonby is killed ; Sir J. Campbell has lost an arm ; the Colonels Douglas (of our house), Gee, Kellet, Montague and Ross are amongst the slain : Lord Albemarle, Lord Ancram, and Lord Cathcart are wounded. The Duke's behaviour is much commended; he was in every part of the action, en couraging the men and leading them on. My brother, who attended upon him, has, thank God ! escaped with out a hurt. Of particular corps, it is said, the High landers, Guards, and Blues, distinguished themselves. What we know at present is very general and imperfect, both his Boyal Highness's and Sir Everard's* letters being short ; but they promise a larger account in a few days. The army is now under the cannon of Ath. I dread the consequences of this disastrous opening of the campaign, and doubt the French were more numerous and better fortified than we thought them. I should be content if Tournay may be the single fruit of their success. It is said (but I do not know upon what grounds), that the coming up of a reinforcement, led by the Dauphin, turned the fortune of the day. Lord Dunmore and the officers who went with him had not joined the army. I am, &c. P. Yorke. P. S. Lord Petersham is likewise wounded. * Sir Everard Fawkener, Military Secretary. Il3 lxiv APPENDIX. 1745. HON. PHILIP YORKE TO HORACE WALPOLE (THE ELDER).* London, May 16. 1745. Dear Sir, I should not have thought of replying upon you so soon, had you not invited me to it, by saying you ex pected from me a further account of the action ; and had I done it sooner, it would not have been easy to have added any thing material or explicit to the first advices, which resemble always the confusion of the battle itself. One must stay till the smoke is a little cleared away, before one can take a distinct view of any object. I think you very right in your judgment, that the French were only not beat. Our repulse was owing, not to their bravery, but their advantageous situation and the number of their batteries, from which they had an hundred pieces of cannon or upwards playing upon us without intermis sion. Nay, even under these difficult circumstances, the opinion of the most intelligent is, that had Ingoldsby done his duty, and the Dutch infantry behaved as gal lantly as ours, there was the greatest probability of our carrying the day. I wonder the former was not super seded on the spot, and that Zastrow, who was sent to him with orders, did not take the command of his brigade, and march directly to the fort, which the enemy were beginning to desert. We might then have turned their infernal engines of death upon the artificers themselves. The Duke's behaviour was, by all accounts, the most heroic and gallant imaginable. He was the whole day in the thickest of the fire. When he saw the ranks breaking, he rode up and encouraged the soldiers in the most moving and expressive terms ; called them country men ; that it was his highest glory to be at their head ; that he scorned to expose them to more danger than he would be in himself; put them in mind of Blenheim and Ramillies ; in short, I am convinced his presence and intrepidity greatly contributed to our coming off so well. Nor must I omit doing justice to Ligonier, who, the * Two extracts from this letter are aheady printed in Coxe's Me moirs of Pelham, vol. i. p. 235. 1745. hardwicke papers. lxv Duke writes, fought like a grenadier, and commanded like a general. His Royal Highness seems determined to keep up strict discipline, and drew out a pistol upon an officer whom he saw running away. Konigseck was run over and bruised by the Dutch cavalry in their flight, insomuch that when the army marched to Les- sines, he was left at Ath. I have not heard, as yet, that the French plume themselves much upon their victory. Their accounts run in a modester strain than usual. It was certainly a dear-bought advantage. You see by the Gazette they have a great number of general officers killed and wounded ; their loss of private men is said td be from 5000 to 10,000. Ligonier writes that they con fess it to be the latter, but whether he means the reports of deserters, or intelligence from the French camp, I cannot tell. We may thank Count Saxe for our ill for tune. It was he advised them to erect so many batteries, and to throw up entrenchments along part of their line, against the opinion of the rest of the council of war, who were for giving us battle en rase campagne. Perhaps you may not have heard that the French, who are gene rally reckoned a polite enemy, used the prisoners whom they took at Bruffoel with great brutality, stripping the wounded, driving away the surgeons, and taking from them their instruments and medical apparatus. Sir James Campbell died in their hands the next day. Doctor Wintringham was sent to visit him by the Duke, and found him lying in a cottage within the enemy's quar7 ters, who had not been humane enough to give him any assistance. This has occasioned a pretty warm expostu lation between the Duke and Marshal Saxe, who denies knowing or authorising the behaviour of their irregular troops at Bruffoel; but, by way of recrimination, accuses us of having first violated the cartel, by detaining Belleisle. The orders which the States have dispatched for their corps de reserve to join the army, and for trying the de linquents, alleviate the clamour which would otherwise be raised against them, on account of the bad behaviour of several regiments, both horse and foot, in their ser vice. One Appius, Colonel-Commandant of the regiment of Hesse Homburg, rode off upon the spur to Ath, with the greatest part of his men, in the very beginning of E E 4 lxvi APPENDIX. 1745. the action, and with an impudent folly, equal to his cowardice, wrote from thence to his masters that the allied army had engaged the French, and been totally cut to pieces, except that part which he had prudently brought off safe. I hope after the loss of so much gallant blood, exemplary justice will be done upon the guilty. Lord Chesterfield returned last Saturday from Holland, and looks much better in his health than when he left us : eating, negotiating, and the fat air of the country, agree with him. He has concluded a treaty regulating the contingents of force and expense for this campaign. I wish it could have been for the whole war. The Slates agree to bring 52,000 men into the field (including their corps on the Lower Bhine) to our 40,000. In sieges they are to furnish one third, and we the rest. The ex pense of the land carriage of artillery is to be borne by the government in Flanders. I take it for granted they could be brought to no more, though it is a most unac countable thing that we should be at so much trouble to persuade them into what is absolutely requisite for their own security and independence. Have you seen my Lord's speech at taking leave ? It is quite calculated for the language it is writ in, and makes but an indifferent figure in English. The thoughts are common, and yet he strains hard to give them an air of novelty ; and the quaintness of the expression is quite a la Frangaise. You may observe it is intended to steer wide of the alert, and military, and invective turn which reigns through Lord's Stair's harangue ; and so far was prudent. Besides the three regiments of Mordaunt, Bice, and Handasyde, there is a draught of 540 men, 15 per com pany, made out of the Guards, which embarked on Sun day for Flanders. With these reinforcements, and what the Dutch are sending, we hope to look the enemy once more in the face ; and if Tournay does but hold out, some attempt will be made, either by diversion or attack, to raise the siege. Martin is returned as usual, re infecta. People ima gined he was gone to the Leeward Islands, in search of Caylus, who threatens to invade Nevis and St. Kitt's, where I doubt we are weak. There is an expectation that the Elector of Cologne will join his troops to D'Arem- 1745. HARDWICKE PAPERS. lxvii berg. If he does, and Bathiany's come down to the Bhine, we trust Monsieur le Prince must leave the coast clear, and that Smessart's corps, at least, may be detached for Flanders. — You see, Sir, we follow the Boman ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito, and really people are less dispirited with this than I expected, and full of enco miums on the gallant spirit which has shown itself in our officers and private men. And now, Sir, I must heartily beg your pardon for this long letter — I should rather call it dispatch. This I promise you, not to trouble you with one so long in haste, for I am naturally a lazy correspondent ; but when the scribbling fit is upon me, it is as difficult to leave off as it was uneasy to begin. One question let me put to you, and then I have done. Why are you quite immersed in re rusticd? Put your papers in order; write some memoirs for the instruction of your friends, or, if you will, posterity, of your own negotiations and Lord Orford's Ministry. Methinks, I should be loath to go down to future times either portrayed with all the features of de formity which Lord Bolingbroke's pen can give, or what is as bad, daubed over with the sign-post colouring of the Gazetteers. But I run on insensibly, and you will ex cuse my freedom as the strongest proof that I can give you of the regard wherewith I am, &c. P. Yorke. HON. PHLLIP YORKE TO HORACE WALPOLE (THE ELDER). London, May 27. 1745. Dear Sir, Before I leave the town, and consequently the fittest field for a correspondence which is not a mere idle one, I cannot help acquainting you with a very astonishing piece of treachery, which is but too true, and which has occa sioned the so early surrender of Tournay : — Mons. Hert- sell, a principal engineer in the Dutch service, and who was chiefly relied upon for the defence of the place, having been gained over by the French, made his escape to their lxviii appendix. 1745. camp the third day of the siege, and has assisted them with his advice and information in carrying on their ap proaches. He took off with him two persons who had the care of the sluice, which they had so spoilt, before they deserted, that the Dutch had, in many places, no water at all in it. It is hkewise thought that the blowing up a powder magazine, with good part of a Dutch regi ment, was owing to the trains this traitor had laid before he went off. In order to disguise for some time the black contrivance, Van Hoe'y writ his master a Canterbury tale he had picked up at Paris, that some Frenchmen, fishing in the Scheldt, had found a dead body, which was taken up and judged for that of the above-mentioned engineer. Every body is much shocked and surprised at this per fidy in a man at the top of his profession, and esteemed as well honest as able. Perhaps you may have heard of his name (if I do not mistake it), in the last war, for both Lords Cobham and Stair say they remember him. Neither is the Governor's conduct approved in consenting to re ceive the sick and wounded into the citadel, which must create a great and useless consumption of provision, and I am afraid the supplies in it are not near sufficient for the subsistence of so numerous a garrison. Our military men say Monsieur Dort should have retired into the citadel, and left the bouches inutiles to the French mercy, which God knows our poor countrymen have found to be that of the wicked, which David says is cruel. Tournay, if well de fended and provided, would hold the enemy at bay a whole summer, but I wish, in the present instance, it may find them work for three weeks longer. Upon re ceiving the news of the town's being surrendered, the States sat extraordinarily from eight in the morning till night, and, I hear, sent the Governor orders to hold out to the last. Surely their old spirit has quite left them, as well as their old politics, or they could not see France making such large paces towards the conquest of Flanders, without exerting their whole force, and straining every nerve to oppose her progress. It was monstrous not to have even half the quota which they have agreed to bring into the field actually there ; when the battle was fought, the whole confederate army, according to the best ac counts I have seen, consisted of 46 battalions and 73 1745. CHESTERFIELD PAPERS. lxiX squadrons, making in all 33,000 effective men ; the French, of 102 battalions and 149 squadrons, making 60,000, a terrible disproportion, considering, at the same time, how advantageously they were posted, and lined with so many batteries. We have had few particular accounts of the action : some of those first dispatched were stopped on the other side of the water, and the officers write with caution and reserve. It is whispered about, that Prince Waldeck pushed us into this desperate attempt : the best thing that can be said for it now it is over here is, that our Johns love fighting for their money, and that there was no other chance for raising the siege. EARL OF CHESTERFIELD TO MR. DAVID MALLET. Dublin Castle, November 27. 1 745. SrR, I have j ust now received the favour of your letter of the 20th, which adds to my shame, for not having sooner ac knowledged your former. The truth is, that the business of this place, such as it is, is continual ; and as I am re solved to do it while I am here, it leaves me little or no time to do things I should like much better. Assuring you of my regard and friendship is one of those things, but though one of the most agreeable, I believe the least necessary. I cannot comprehend the consternation which 8000 of your countrymen have, I find, thrown seven millions of mine into. I, who at this distance, see things only in their plain natural light, am, I confess, under no appre hensions. I consider a Highlander (with submission to you) as Eowe does a Lord, who, when opposed to a man, he affirms to be but a man ; from which principle I make this inference, that 49,000 must beat 8000 ; not to men tion our sixteen new regiments, which must go for some thing, though in my opinion not for much. I have with much' difficulty quieted the fears here, which were at first very strong, partly by contagion from England, and partly from old prejudices, which my good subjects are far from being yet above. They are in general still at 1XX APPENDIX. 1745 the year 1689, and have not shook off any religious or political prejudice that prevailed at that time. However, I am very glad I am among them; for in this little sphere, a little may do a great deal of good, but in England they must be much stronger shoulders than mine that can do any good at that bulky machine. Pray let me hear from you as often and as minutely as you have leisure ; most correspondents, like most very learned men, sup pose that one knows more than one does, and therefore don't tell one half what they could, so one never knows so much as one should. I am, &c. Chesterfield. DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. [State Paper Office.] Whitehall, December 1. 1745. Sir, There is a person whose real name is Broadstreet. He is very conversant with the Jacobites, and has often given me intelligences relating to them. He sets out to morrow for the rebel army, and will send me constant accounts by the name of Oliver Williams. If your Eoyal Highness will send in a countryman's coat any person you can depend upon, and order him to go to the head-quarters of the rebels, and inquire for Mr. Broadstreet, an Irish gentleman, and when he sees him to speak to him by the name of Oliver Williams, he will then open himself fully to him, and acquaint him with all the discoveries he shall have been able to make of the motions and designs of the rebels. Though I am far from being sure that this will be of any service to your Boyal Highness, yet at a time like this nothing ought to be omitted that has the least ap pearance of it. I am, &c. Newcastle. 1745. state-paper office. lxxi MR. BRADKEN TO SIR E. FAWKENER. [State Paper Office.] Warrington, December 4. 1745. Sir, I have been trying to pass by the rebel army ever since Friday last, in order to bring His Boyal Highness what accounts and intelligence I had, as well as my own observations on the force, &c. of it. . As I live in Lancaster, and was there while the rebels passed wholly through, I apprehend my account of them may be of use, and I hope it will contribute to their total overthrow. ... I knew all their goings on in the year 1715, and have been used to see large armies abroad, so that I made my calculations without any hurry of spirits or surprise, and I am satisfied that their foot is not 5000, one third of which are 60 years of age and upwards and under 17. As to their horse, they were counted by me in coming in and going out with little variation, and I make them 624, but scarce such as are fit to be called horse : they are so out of order and slender-shaped. The common soldiers are a most despicable crew, being in general low in stature, and of a wan and meagre countenance, stepping along under their arms with diffi culty, and what they are about seems more of force than inclination. I believe one might single out about one thousand fresh-looking fellows amongst their officers and soldiers : the first I find are of desperate fortunes in general, and might as well be shot or hanged as go back. There are several very old fellows who were at the battle of Sheriff- muir, in the last rebellion, and have brought their sons and grandsons along with them now ; so you will judge what kind of a show they must make, especially to a per son used to the sight of troops fit for the field. While they were at Lancaster, I happened to sup with their Duke of Athol, whom I knew in France, after he went off with the Pretender. There were at supper two Scotchmen who I found were come over from France( lxxii appendix. 1746. and had been in the service of that Crown several years, and three other young gentlemen, some of whose names were Murray. What I observed by their discourse was, that they designed to push for London with all speed, but did not themselves know the route. The Marquis of Tullibardine went so far as saying, it would be time for Don George to march off very soon. I observed also that they magnified their numbers exceedingly, and told confounded lies about their proceedings, but to repeat that part would be tedious. As I came from Lancaster hither, I secured several of the straggling rebels, disarmed and sent them to our gaol, so that we have about nine or ten of them safe. Upon one of the fellows, dressed like an Englishman, I seized fifty-two letters, all dated 27th November, the day they left Preston, and I designed to have carried them to Field-Marshal Wade, but finding he was on Thursday sevennight last only four miles south of Darlington, I made a trial to pass the rebel army at or near Manches ter, and finding I could not do it with safety, I went to Liverdown, and, as I am yet hindered by the bridges being pulled down, I send this express by the post. The letters were opened on my applying to Mr. Mag- nail, a justice of peace in Lancashire, and those from the great ones mention their full expectations that their King and Duke will be at London before this army, which they say gives them uneasiness. Other letters tell their friends in Scotland that their army now consists of 24,000 men, and that neither dike, ditch, nor devil can turn them ; but I hope these are no true prophets. In general they are well armed, but I dare say most of them cannot charge quick, for their pistols are of the screw sort ; and as to the common men, very few of them have any pistols, and the target, it is plain, is more for single combat than field fighting ; so that when their army is fairly faced, it must be borne down entirely, it is so weak and light. Their Chief is about 5 foot 11 inches high, pretty strong and well built, has a brown complexion, full cheeks, and thickish lips that stand out a little. He looks more of the Polish than the Scotch breed, for he is 1746. HARDWICKE PAPERS. lxxiii nothing like the King they call his grandfather. He looks very much dejected, not a smile being seen in all his looks, for I walked a quarter of a mile with him on the rpad, and afterwards saw him in his lodgings amongst company. His guards were in a horrible pother at Lancaster in the night, thinking they had lost him, but he was only gone for a little walk into the garden. As to the fifty-two letters which I took from the foot- post between the army and Edinburgh, they are gone to Lord Cholmondeley, who, I dare say, will forward them to the Duke of Newcastle's office. I am a practiser of physic in Lancaster. If you think proper to honour me with two hnes of your receipt of this express, for which I intend to wait at Warrington, and for any orders from you that can be executed by, Sir, Your most devoted humble servant, Henry Bradken. ABSTRACT OF THE EXAMINATION OF MR. MURRAY, OF BROUGHTON, BEFORE THE SECRET COMMITTEE, AUGUST 13. 1746. [From the papers of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke.] Lord Traquatr acquainted him in the beginning of 1743, that in 1740 an association was signed by the seven foUowing persons in favour of the Pretender, namely, Lord Traquair himself, the late Lord Perth, Lord John Drummond, uncle to the late Lord Perth, Sir James Campbell of Auchinbreck, Lord Lovat, young Lochiel, and Mr. John Stuart, brother to Lord Traquair. This paper was sent to Eome by Drummond, alias Mac- gregor *, who carried at the same time a memorial to the Cardinal de Fleury, with a list of the Highland chiefs that were thought well-affected to the Pretender. Amongst them were the names of Sir Alexander Mac- * Of Bohaldie. lxxiv APPENDIX. 1746 donald and the Laird of Macleod. Drummond on his return to Scotland in 1741-2, acquainted Lord Traquair and the rest, that the Cardinal had received him very graciously, and promised, on encouragement from Eng land, to send troops into Scotland, in autumn 1742. Lord Traquair was employed in London to get this en couragement, and told the examinant afterwards, that the principal persons he had conversed with on the subject were, Sir John Hinde Cotton, Sir Watkin Wynn, and Lord Barrymore ; that Dr. Barry, Colonel Cecil, and Colonel Brett were concerned as agents. In March or April, 1743, the examinant was prevailed with, by Lord Traquair and Lochiel, to undertake a journey to Paris, in order to see whether the French assurances were to be depended on. During the short abode he made by the way in town, he talked with no Englishman whatever on the Pretender's affairs. When he arrived in France, he was introduced by Drummond and Sempill to Cardinal Tencin and Amelot, to whom he opened his commission, and the latter told him his master had the Pretender's interest much at heart, and would take the first opportunity of assisting him. The examinant came back to Edinburgh in the summer, and made a re port of what had passed to the persons above mentioned. The scheme was, that 3000 French were to be sent to Scotland, 1500 to land at Inverness, and as many in the Western Highlands, and to be joined by the disaffected clans in those parts. At the same time Marshal Saxe was to make a descent with 12,000 men near London. About this time Drummond was a few days in London, and had meetings with Sir J. H. Cotton, W. Wynn, and Lord Barrymore, in relation to these matters, which, after the invasion was disappointed, slept awhile, till, in June, 1744, the examinant was persuaded by Lord Traquair to make a second journey to France, which he agreed to, took our army in his way, and had frequent conversa tions at Paris with the young Pretender, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Lord Elcho, Drummond, and Sempill. The young Pretender made no doubt of being supported by the French Court, but told him he would come though he brought but a single footman. The examinant, on his return to Edinburgh, recon- 1746. HARDWICKE PAPERS. lxXV sidered the whole matter with Lord Traquair, Lochiel, and Lord Perth. The two former thought it a rash en terprise ; the latter had a better opinion of it. The Laird of Macleod declared that, though he looked upon it as a desperate scheme, he would join the Pretender if he came, and he informed Murray, in April, 1745, that the Jacobites in England were well disposed, but against stirring, unless France would assist them. The first notice which the examinant received of the young Pretender's resolution to set out for Scotland, was in June, 1745, upon which he acquainted Lochiel and Macleod with it, who both disapproved it, as rash and unseasonable, and encouraged the examinant to write dissuasive letters, which he did accordingly, but they came too late ; the young Pretender landed at Arisaig, and Mr. Murray joined him, and acted as his Secretary. He knows of no letters being sent into England, but one to Lord Barrymore from Perth, written with the young Pretender's own hand. Sir Thomas Sheridan told him he had sent Hickson to talk with people in the north, but named nobody. He knows of no letters received from persons not in arms, except Lord Lovat. He was not acquainted with Sir James Stewart's negotiation at Versailles, nor with Lord Clancarty's message to France in August last. He says Sheridan was the person in principal confidence with the young Pretender, who had the correspondence with France entirely in his hands. To the best of his knowledge there was no money re mitted from England to the young Pretender, and, during the whole time of their being in England, they received no message nor application from any person in it, which vexed them extremely. He does not know that any body about the Pretender had any dependence on the late Provost, nor is he acquainted with the private cor respondences they might have in Edinburgh. He recol lects that during the siege of Stirling Castle, Sir John Douglas came to Bannockburn, and was introduced pri vately to him in his chamber, that is, he was obliged to go to Stirling. Sir John was carried to his audience of the young Pretender by Sheridan, and only told him (Murray) in general, at his return, that he had a message from the Pretender's friends in England, that 10,000/. was vol. ht, f e lxxvi appendix. 1746. deposited in London for his use, and that a messenger was setting out for France when he left it ; Sir John did not tell him by whom the message was sent to France, but he concluded it was by the persons above mentioned. At Derby, the young Pretender was singly of opinion for marching on to London, against the advice of the whole council of war ; but the examinant advised him to submit to the general sense of his officers. He does not believe the rebels were above 5000 men at Derby. They had little or no intelligence from any quarter whilst they were in England. He has heard the Duke of Beaufort named by the Pretender's friends as one that wished them well ; but he does not know of any person that corre sponded with him. After the battle of Culloden, Mac donald of Lochgarry offered to he in wait for the Duke, between Fort Augustus and Fort William, and shoot him, but the young Pretender absolutely forbade him to attempt any such thing. The declaration of the 10th of October, 1745, was drawn up by Sheridan and Sir James Stewart. Being shown two letters, dated Paris, one signed Drummond Macgregor, and the other G. Kelly, he ac knowledged both their hands, and recollected that the first had been read over to him by Sheridan. He also said, to the best of his remembrance, the deciphering of the names over the figures was in Sheridan's hand. These two letters are most remarkable ones, and were found amongst the papers taken at Culloden ; but where, or in what manner, I can give no account. The first was written not long after the battle of Gladsmuir, and before the march into England. The writer speaks san- guinely of the French having a real intention to support the young Pretender's cause, and says he had taken great pains to persuade his friends in England to declare them selves ; that he had, from the beginning, corresponded with the principal of them, who were connected with and trusted by all the Boyalists in the kingdom, such as the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Orrery, Sir W. Wynn, Sir J. -H. Cotton, and Lord Barrymore ; that the latter was much relied on, and a great deal left to his management ; that he did not doubt but, as soon as the young Pretender had made any advances in England, and shown his friends 1746'. HARDWICKE PAPERS. , Ixxvii there an army able to protect them, they would flock to his standard from all quarters. He mentions his long and painful adherence to the Jacobite cause ; that he was now worn out with age and infirmities, but could have wished to have ended his life gloriously in the field, fighting with the rest of his gallant countrymen in de fence of his lawful prince and the hberties of Scotland. I think this letter is addressed to the young Pretender himself. The other is a despatch to Sheridan from Kelly, who was sent to France after the taking of Edinburgh, to re present the state of the Pretender's affairs in Scotland, and solicit succours. After mentioning the narrow escape he had from being seized at Camp Veer *, by the Consul there, he proceeds to give an account of the conferences he had with the French Ministry upon his arrival, and how strongly he had represented the necessity of their making a speedy diversion in favour of the Pretender, by a descent upon the south. He relates the particular answers he received from Marshal Noailles, the D'Argen- sons, and Mons. Maurepas : but the most remarkable passage is what fell from Cardinal Tencin, who expressed himself very hearty in the Pretender's interests, but com plained of the backwardness of the Pretender's friends in England to appear in arms for him, and insisted that, before the embarkation then in hand was completed, Sir J. H. Cotton should give up his place, and that when his resignation was pubhshed in the Gazette, he (the Car dinal) should consider it as a sufficient pledge for his master to send his troops upon. To which Kelly an swered, that it was not reasonable to expect a rising of the Jacobites here, till they saw an army capable of pro tecting them in the island ; and as to Sir J. H. Cotton, his Eminence should reflect how hazardous it would be for him to resign at this juncture, since the moment after he would be sent to the Tower. I can recollect nothing else material in the letter. Mr. Kelly flourishes a little on the esteem and affection pro fessed by every body at Paris for the young Pretender ; * Camp Veer, in Zealand. 112 lxxviii appendix. 1748. and compliments Sheridan on the credit he had acquired by his conduct. These letters were read over to us at the Secret Com mittee, when the drawing up a Beport on the Rebellion was under consideration ; but for what reasons I do not well know, it was afterwards laid aside. I have reason to think, that the moderation of Mr. Pelham, and the Cabinet Ministers, then satisfied with having brought the leaders of the Bebelhon to the block, and having the rest at mercy, did not choose to push inquiries further. The Tories at first seemed very angry with us for letting the names of Sir Watkin, &c. slip out of Murray's mouth ; and Prowse *, a Tory, but no Jacobite, asked Speaker Onslow, if some notice ought not to be taken of it in the House. Mr. Onslow intimated that he believed the parties concerned would not choose it. Prowse replied, " That I cannot help ; others know themselves " best." EARL OF CHESTERFIELD TO MR. DAVID MALLET. Bath, March 9. 1748. Snt, I am very much concerned at the continuance of your complaint, and am afraid that you increased it by the letter which you favoured me with. I shall put your eyes to that trial no more of a good while at least, for I shall be in town next Monday or Tuesday, and I hope for the rest of my life, except now and then a little excur sion to this place, which always does me good. I can say to you now, without a compliment, what I could not with truth have said to you some years ago, which is, that I do not know a pair of eyes in which I interest myself so much as I do in yours. I use the word, " interest," here very properly, for it is from the use of your eyes that I expect the best employment for my own. By this time I suppose tha;t I am a httle out of fashion, as a subject of political refinements ; and that new matter * Mr. Prowse was M.P. for Somersetshire, 1748. CHESTERFIELD PAPERS. lxxix has shoved me off the coffee-house tables. I own I should not have been sorry to have heard, unseen, the various speculations thrown out, and facts asserted concerning myself of late ; which I dare say were full as near the truth, as those will be, which some sohd historians of these times will transmit to posterity. Not one of them will allow the desire of ease and quiet to have had the least share in my determination ; but on the contrary will assert that it was only the pretence of disappointed am bition. Lord Chesterfield would be Caesar or nothing, says a spirited politician ; there is something more in this affair than we yet know, says a deeper ; he expects to be called again, says a third ; while the silent pantomimical politician shrugs at every thing eventually, and is sure not to be disproved at last. They are all welcome ; let them account for my present situation how they please, this I know, and they do not, that I feel and enjoy the comfort of it. Before I left London I spoke to Mr. Pelham concerning you ; he told me that he had been exceedingly pressed by Lyttleton in favour of Thomson and West. I answered that I had a great value for them both, and should be extremely sorry to hurt either, but they had already something, and could therefore, in my opinion, better wait a httle than you. Our conversation ended, as all those conversations do, with general assurances on his part, that he would do for you when he could. None but he who gives these assurances can knew the real value of them ; for he could not say more if he meant to realize them, and he would not say less if he did not ; all that I can say is, that he shall not want a remembrancer. The situation of your affairs makes me only more anxious, but not more desirous to serve you than I was before ; as it was your merit, which I did know, and not your cir cumstances, which I did not know, that made me what I ever shall be, Your most faithful friend and servant, Chesterfield. END OF THE THIRD VOLUME. ALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 02394 5646