A.D. 1746.

BATTLE OF CULLODEN.

ranks of the Highlanders, before a charge was ordered. It was made at great disadvantage, for a violent storm was driving hail and sleet in their faces. But that terrible onset, which few disciplined troops could stand, carried the Highlanders partly through the first line.

The second line stood firm. Then one volley from the unbroken ranks, three deep, utterly disordered the right and centre of the rebel army. They fled in irredeemThe contest became an indiscriminate slaughter. This able confusion. battle, which conclusively ended a dynastic struggle of fifty-seven years, did not continue for fifty-seven minutes.

After the victory the English soldiers went up and down, knocking on the head such of their vanquished enemies as had any remains of life in them. The weather was cold; the dead, and those supposed to be dead, had been stripped. But, naked and starving, some wretched creatures were still alive on the 17th of April. These were collected in two heaps, and a six-pounder applied to each heap. This was not the only atrocity of that week of triumph and of shame. To a little cot-house, about a quarter of a mile distant from the battle-ground, many of the wounded men had crawled in the night time. They were found by the soldiers. The door of the hut was shut; fire was put to the frail building; and thirty-two persons, including some beggars who had come to the field for plunder, perished in the flames. On the 18th, parties were sent to search the houses in the neighbourhood of the battle; to remove the wounded, and to kill them. Nineteen officers had been carried wounded to Culloden House, the residence of the lord-president Forbes. These nineteen men were tied with ropes; thrown into a cart; carried some distance; and shot under the park wall. One of them, though left for dead, was rescued, and recovered, to remain a crippled memorial of these atrocities.

To go over the afflicting details of military executions ;-of men whipped to extort confession; of boys, women, and old men murdered and maltreated; of prisoners left to perish upon insufficient allowance in filthy dungeons ;-would be as disgusting to our readers as the perusal of the documents has been to ourselves. It is some satisfaction to know that "during many years one of the most William of Cumberland was unpopular men in England."* The national prejudices of the English at that period, and at subsequent times when these prejudices were even more intense, never led them to countenance the barbarity after Culloden.

An Act had been passed, suspending that portion of the law of high treason which required that bills should be found in the counties where the offence was alleged to have been committed. The object was to try Scottish prisoners in England. The first persons brought to trial were eighteen officers of the Manchester regiment who were left to their fate at Carlisle. Mr. Townley, the colonel, and seventeen of his companions, were tried, and nine were executed on the 30th of July. Three of the Scottish officers who were left at Carlisle, were condemned and executed at Kennington Common in August; and five others, taken at various places, suffered in November. A special Commission was opened at Car

* Macaulay.

lisle in August. There were three hundred and eighty-two prisoners in the castle, but they were allowed to draw lots, that one in twenty might be selected for trial. Thirty-three were executed. At York twenty-two were also subjected to the brutal penalties of high treason.

The trials of three rebel lords-Kilmarnock, Cromartie, and Balmerino-began on the 28th of July. Bills of indictment had been found by the grand jury of Surrey against the three noblemen, and they were tried by the Peers in Westminster Hall. Walpole says that the whole ceremony was conducted with the most awful solemnity and decency. Kilmarnock and Cromartie pleaded guilty. Balmerino stood his trial. Walpole describes him as "the most natural brave old man I ever saw; the highest intrepidity, even to indifference." Kilmarnock, upon being brought up for sentence, expressed deep contrition for having joined the rebellion at a rash moment. Cromartie manifested a similar feeling of remorse. Balmerino simply desired the Lords to intercede for mercy. Cromartie was pardoned. Kilmarnock and Balmerino were executed on Tower Hill, on the 18th of August. Kilmarnock suffered with resolution. Balmerino, says Walpole, "died with the intrepidity of a hero, but with the insensibility of one too."

The last of the titled sufferers was lord Lovat. Simon Fraser, lord Lovat, had not been with his clan in the rebellion, but his son was with them. The chief of the clan, who had exhibited the passions of an untamed savage in his youth; who, in his maturer age, pursued the same system of barbarian violence in his transactions with his neighbours; in his extreme old age covered his actions with what he considered an impenetrable shield of craft. When Cope was beaten at Preston-Pans, lord Lovat thought the Stuart cause would prosper; and he compelled his son, by threats and entreaties, to join the insurgents. Meanwhile, he continued himself to play fast and loose with both parties. After the retreat from Derby, he tried to make his son faithless to the cause he had himself driven him to adopt. The honour of the son in clinging to the side on which he was fighting, is a pleasing contrast to the habitual perfidy of the father; and it is satisfactory to know that the younger Fraser was pardoned for his share in the rebellion. In December, 1746, lord Lovat was impeached by the House of Commons. His trial commenced before the peers on the 9th of March. The chief evidence against him was that of John Murray, of Broughton, who had been Secretary to Charles Edward. Lovat's conduct upon his trial was as little dignified as his ordinary mode of life. He died decorously, quoting the line of Horace, "It is pleasant and honourable to die for one's country." There were forty-three persons attainted by Parliament, some of noble families, but a large proportion of inferior rank.

After the battle of Culloden, Charles Edward quitted the large body of horsemen who had accompanied him from the fatal moor, having resolved to make his way, with a few of his personal friends, to the west coast, in order to embark for France. On the 24th of April, with two of his companions, and a poor Highlander, who had been his guide from the battlefield, he was sailing in a small boat from Loch Na Nuagh, where, nine months before, he had landed with few companions, but with the support

A.D. 1746.

CHARLES EDWARD ESCAPES TO FRANCE.

569

of the most sanguine hopes. The duke of Cumberland soon after fixed his head-quarters at Fort Augustus, in the very heart of the district where the young prince was hiding, for whose apprehension a reward of thirty thousand pounds had been offered. Through the compassionate courage and sagacity of Flora MacDonald, Charles Edward was enabled to escape to Skye. The chief of this country, sir Alexander MacDonald, was opposed to the Jacobite cause, but Flora boldly appealed to the sympathy of his wife, and through her aid Charles was enabled to escape from the danger which he might have encountered in this hostile district. He thus safely got out of Skye, and reached the isle of Rasay, alone, disguised as a manservant. Day after day the prince sustained new hardships. He returned to Skye, and early in July was conveyed in a boat to the mainland. He wandered long amongst the glens between Loch Shiel and Loch Hourn. In August he returned to the Glengarry country, which was then cleared of troops. Finally, on the 20th of September, he, for the third time, sailed from Loch Na Nuagh; but he now sailed in a French vessel, accompanied by Lochiel, and three other of his fugitive adherents.

CHAPTER XLIV.

DURING the agony of the rebellion, immediately after the defeat at Falkirk, there had occurred what is termed a ministerial crisis. Lord Granville, although out of office, had the confidence of the king; whilst the duke of Newcastle, and his brother, Mr. Pelham, his majesty's chief ministers, were not favourites with him. They resolved to try their strength by demanding office for Mr. Pitt. The king refused, and the Pelhams, with the whole body of their Whig followers, resigned. Granville became minister-for forty-eight hours; for he could command ne parliamentary support. The Pelhams returned triumphantly to power, upon their own terms. The Pelham Administration continued its temporising course through eight years of a monopoly of the real authority of the State. "Never," says a reviewer of that Administration, was the tempestuous sea of Parliament lulled into a profounder calm.' Something of this calm was produced by the almost complete absence of publicity from parliamentary proceedings. But there were other influences far more cunningly devised than the despotic privileges which controlled the public journals. The scheme of corruption which Walpole instituted to keep things quiet was perfected under the Pelhams. The agency which had been resorted to for the support of the Crown was perpetuated for the aggrandisement of an Oligarchy. The king refused to nominate Pitt Secretary-at-War. He was first appointed Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and, within a few months was promoted to be Paymaster-General. Pitt was a poor man; but he had higher aspirations than the "auri sacra fames" of a venal age. The Paymaster-General used to retain a hundred thousand pounds as

a balance in his own hands, which he invested in government securities, for his private benefit. Pitt sent every balance, as it arrived, to the Bank of England, to be available for its proper purposes. This extraordinary Paymaster exhibited similar self-denial towards foreign powers. Amidst their general contempt for the government, the people came to know that there was one man who professed some regard for public virtue.

When the British troops had been withdrawn from the Low Countries to put down the Rebellion, the successes of the French were rapid and decisive. All the Austrian Netherlands submitted to their arms. On the other hand, the French were driven out of Italy by the Austrians and Sardinians. On the 3rd of May, 1747, Admiral Anson captured, sunk, or destroyed, off Cape Finisterre, a French fleet, which had for its principal object to attempt the recovery of Cape Breton. Commodore Fox, on the 16th of June, took forty French ships, richly laden from the West Indies. Admiral Hawke, on the 14th of October, defeated a French fleet off Belleisle.

The political importance of Holland had for some years been frittered away by an imbecile government. Upon the death of William of Orange, the office of hereditary Stadtholder had been merged in that of Grand Pensionary. Louis XV. in 1747 sent an army of twenty thousand men to invade Brabant. Prince William of Nassau had succeeded, as CaptainGeneral and Lord High Admiral, to the powers held by William III. He was now proclaimed Stadtholder; and to him were entrusted the means of national defence. This young man was the son-in-law of George II., and he and the favourite son of George were to command the allied forces of British and Dutch. On the 2nd of July, at Lauffeld, near Maestricht, they, with an Austrian army commanded by marshal Bathiany, encountered the French headed by marshal Saxe. The duke of Cumberland, with his British, fought with desperation. The prince of Nassau, with his Dutch, got out of the fight as soon as possible. The Austrian marshal never moved from his entrenched position. There was a terrible slaughter of the British and the French. The war still went on unfavourably for the allies, Bergen-op-Zoom having surrendered to the French in September. Louis expressed sentiments of moderation, and finally made overtures of pacification. But it was many months before peace was accomplished. George II. wanted to obtain some paltry advantage for his beloved Hanover which might be won by another campaign. The duke of Cumberland and his brother-in-law wanted more fighting. A Congress was opened at Aixla-Chapelle in March, 1748; even while the war was going on in Flanders. The pacific members of the Cabinet outvoted the warlike; and Mr. Pelham wrote to lord Sandwich, one of the negotiators at the Congress, that the king had resolved to accept the conditions of peace proposed by France, without having the concurrence of the other powers. The preliminaries were signed by the plenipotentiaries of England, Holland, and France, at the end of April. All conquests in all parts of the world, that had been made by any of the powers engaged in the war, were to be restored. The right of search claimed by Spain off her American coast was left precisely in its former position. One point only was gained-the Pretender and his descendants were to be renounced. Charles Edward was to be expelled

A.D. 1748-1751. HERITABLE JURISDICTIONS ABOLISHED. 571

a

from France. The French Government proposed to establish him at Fribourg, with an adequate pension, and the honours that attached to the empty title of prince of Wales. The young man, with characteristic obstinacy, refused to quit Paris. He was at last arrested as he was going to the Opera; imprisoned for few days at Vincennes, and then turned loose on the frontier of Savoy. He wandered about Europe for many years, bearing a fictitious name. He contracted debasing habits of intoxication, and outraged his few remaining supporters. The brother of the unhappy prince had been named a cardinal in 1747; and this was considered by Charles and his friends as a fatal barrier to the restoration of the House of Stuart to the throne of Protestant Great Britain. But of much greater importance to the security of the House of Brunswick was the pacification of the Highlands, which was gradually being accomplished by a series of enactments. The disarming Act of 1748, and that for the abolition of the Highland dress, might be regarded as unnecessary severities, and as sources of national irritation. But the great measure for the abolition of heritable jurisdictions was open to no objections beyond the complaints of a few interested nobles. The sum of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds was wisely expended in buying up the emoluments which great and petty chiefs of clans derived from the exercise of their arbitrary and dangerous powers. The Sheriff Courts were taken as the foundation of local tribunals where justice should be administered by responsible judges.

Mr. Pelham, though a timid war-minister, was sufficiently bold as a financier. The whole unredeemed capital of the funded debt amounted, in round numbers, to seventy-one millions, of which forty-three millions were due to the bank of England, the South Sea Company, and the East India Company, at varying rates of interest,—namely, 4 per cent., 3 per cent., 3 per cent. Of the other public debt, nearly nineteen millions were in 4 per cent. annuities, and eight millions in 3 per cent. consoli dated annuities. Mr. Pelham proposed that all persons or bodies corporate entitled to any part of the redeemable national debt, which carried interest at 4 per cent., who should consent to receive interest at 3 per cent., commencing on the 25th of December, 1757, should receive 3 per cent. in the intermediate years. The confidence in the Government and the convenience to many persons of these public investments with their certain dividends, enabled the minister to accomplish his plan without the disquiet which some had dreaded.

The Parliament which commenced its sittings in November, 1747, was continued through its full septennial period until April, 1754. In this tenth Parliament of Great Britain, the energy of lord Chesterfield, with the learned aid of lord Macclesfield, carried through the Reform of the Calendar. The change which Pope Gregory XIII. had introduced in 1582 had gradually been adopted by all European States except England, Russia, and Sweden. Thus, in reading a French historian, we not only find an event bearing date ten or eleven days in advance of the date of an English narrative, but the year is made to begin from the 1st of January in the foreign annalist instead of the 25th of March, as in the English. To make the legal year correspond in all future time with the solar year, was the result of scientific calculations, the rationale of which is now