snow. PERTH. From a view by D. O. Hill. the Duke of Argyle and General Cadogan ad-| apprehend from the slow pursuit of the regular vanced in person to survey the roads leading to troops, whose horses in many places could scarcely Perth, and to direct the labours of the soldiers keep their feet. On the following morning, and peasants employed in clearing the roads from having secured in Perth a few of the rebel priThe rebel Highlanders, advancing from soners, "who, being drunk, had stayed behind Perth and from a few little garrisons they held the rest," Argyle followed along the Carse of Gowrie with six squadrons of dragoons, three battalions, and a detachment of 800 light foot, being still impeded by the state of the roads, as also by the provisions and artillery he thought necessary to take with him. When he reached Dundee on the 3d of February, he of course found the Highlanders all gone, the lightfooted mountaineers having struck along the road to Montrose, a road buried under the snow, and almost impassable to any other kind of troops. Argyle, however, followed, and sent Cadogan towards Montrose by another route. On the 5th of February, about the hour of noon, Cadogan, who had got as far as Arbroath, received advice that the pretender was gone for France the evening before. He had ordered the clans which had remained with him since his flight from Perth to be ready to march with him about eight at night towards Aberdeen, where, he assured them, they would find a considerable force just arrived to join him from the Continent. At the hour appointed for their march the pretender's horses were at the door of the house in which he lodged, a guard of honour was ready to see him mount, and no doubt was entertained by the Highlanders as to his remaining with them and going on to Aberdeen; but in the meantime he had slipped out on foot by a back door, proceeded to Lord Mar's quarters, and thence by a by-way to the water-side, where a boat was in waiting. Mar and the pretender got into this boat, which carried them to a French ship of about ninety tons, called the Marie Therese, of St. Malo, which lay in the offing with her yards bent. About a quarter of an hour later, two other boats carried on board the Earl of Melfort, the Lord Drummond, Lieutenantgeneral Sheldon, and ten other gentlemen, and then they spread their sails and put to sea. This cunning and paltry flight was decisive as to some important parts of the pretender's character; but there are one or two circumstances to be mentioned that do honour to his better feelings. He left behind him a letter addressed to the Duke of Argyle, with a small sum of money-probably nearly all that he had-for the relief of the on the borders of Fife, skirmished to interrupt these operations, which were slow and tedious in themselves, and could only go on under cover of muskets. But on the 29th a considerable advance was made, and a detachment of the royalists, with two pieces of cannon, got to the castle of Braco, which was immediately abandoned by the rebels. On the 30th the army advanced and lay all night in the open air on the snow, all but a detachment of 200 dragoons and 400 foot, which had driven the Highlanders out of Tullibardine. On the following morning the main body crossed the river Earn without opposition, and advanced to Tullibardine, which was only eight miles from Perth. That little city and the temporary court there had been a scene of confusion, despondency, and riot ever since the 24th. But on the 30th the near approach of Argyle and Cadogan made some resolution necessary; and on that day, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I., the pretender got ready to quit Perth and his ancient kingdom of Scotland, in which he had been just five weeks. And on Tuesday, the last day of January, as Argyle with his main body was advancing from Tullibardine, Perth was evacuated, and the pretender and the Highlanders defiled across the broad, deep, and rapid river Tay, which was then frozen over with ice strong enough to bear both horse and foot. Having crossed the Tay, Mar and the pretender proceeded along the Carse of Gowrie to Dundee the rapid movements of a Highland army leaving them little to poor people dwelling between Perth and Stirling, whose houses and villages had been burned by his orders; and in a letter addressed to General Gordon, who took upon him the remnant of the Highland army, he acquainted his friends that the disappointments he had met with, especially from abroad, obliged him to leave the country; and, after thanking them all for their services, he advised them now to consult their own safety in the way they should think most advisable. Together with General Gordon, the Earls Marischal and Southesk, the Lord Teignmouth, son to the Duke of Berwick, and many other Jacobite noblemen and gentlemen, were left to shift for themselves. The main body of the insurgents, who remained under General Gordon, struck off from Aberdeen by Castle Gordon, Strathspey, and Strathdon, diminishing in numbers at the opening of every glen or mountain-pass which led to the homes of some of them. Colonel Grant took possession of Castle Gordon, and there halted, Argyle and Cadogan having both agreed not to risk their regular troops among the wild parts of the Highlands, where they were sure of loss, if not of destruction. When the pretender arrived, incognito, in the neighbourhood of Paris, Bolingbroke waited upon him, attempted to revive his spirits, and to prescribe a political line of action. The prince professed the greatest affection, begged his lordship to follow him into Lorraine, and pressed him in his arms at parting, like a bosom friend. But, three days after this, when Bolingbroke thought his master was many a French league off, his lordship received a visit from the Duke of Ormond, who handed him two orders just written by the pretender, and stating, sans phrases, that he was dismissed from his post as secretary of state, and must deliver to the Duke of Ormond all the papers in his office! The witty profligate says that this all might have been contained in a moderate-sized letter-case: but the rage which this treatment excited was scarcely to be contained in any space. Bolingbroke, with all his genius, had been duped and insulted by a blockhead and a bevy of women. Instead of taking post for Lorraine, as he had promised his secretary he would do, the pretender had merely gone to an obscure house in the Bois de Boulogne, close to Paris, and had there confabulated and plotted with a set of kept-women and secretaries of foreign embassies, who used the place, and the majority of the persons assembled in it, for two kinds of intrigues. Bolingbroke says that he had in his hands matter wherewith to damp the triumph of the Duke of Ormond, who was now secretary of state as well as lord-general to the prince without state or army, but that he scorned to make usc of it. But Bolingbroke instantly renounced and denounced all connection with the Jacobites; made overtures to Lord Stair, who was too conscious of his ability to despise him, and told Maria d'Este, the wretched mother of a wretched son, that he wished his arm might rot off if he ever again drew sword or pen for that cause. The Duke of Berwick saw at once the enormous blunder that had been committed in thus dismissing the only Englishman the pretender ever had able to manage his affairs, and dismissing him in such an insulting manner, as to make reconciliation impossible. When the pretender took the road, he went to Chalons, in Champagne, where he waited for an answer from his always unwilling host, the Duke of Lorraine, touching his former lodgings at Bar-le-Duc. No refusal could be more politely worded; but still it was a refusal he received; and, instead of going into Lorraine or into the little state of Deux-Ponts, the pretender, irritated at the duke, made a long stage towards Rome, and settled himself under the wing of the pope in the city of Avignon, which the French had AVIGNON, the Castle of the Popes.-From Hughes' Views in the South of France. still allowed to remain to the holy see. In that famed old town, where Petrarca met his Laura, the pretender was rejoined by the Duke of Ormond, the Earl of Mar, and other Scotch and English fugitives and outcasts. Little danger was to be apprehended from these stalking specimens of mediocrity or imbecility. The archminister Bolingbroke gone, the cabinet of the pretender was little better than a conclave of old women. But, in the meantime, hundreds, thousands of Englishmen and Scots were paying a severe penalty for their rash doings. In Scotland, the number of prisoners was very small, and little as traitors, was forthwith pronounced upon Derwentwater, Widdrington, Nithsdale, Carnwath, Kenmure, and Lord Nairn; and preparations were ordered for the trial of Lord Winton, who had pleaded not guilty. Secretary Stanhope, who was a man of feeling, interposed and saved the life of Lord Nairn, who had been his schoolfellow: but the united interest and earnest supplications of the Duchesses of Cleveland and Bolton, of the young Countess of Derwentwater pleading with tears for the husband she tenderly loved, and of many other ladies of rank, failed in moving the rough and sturdy king, who admitted them to an audience, but adhered to his purpose, which was the purpose of the majority of his ministers. Bribes, which had succeeded before in like circumstances, were offered now without effect. Sixty thousand pounds were tendered for the single pardon of Lord Derwentwater, for whose present hard fate tears were shed and lamentations raised in every valley and on every hillside in Cumberland. Some of the best of the Whigs in the commons, and among them poor Steele, would have saved life without money or bribe; but Robert Walpole, who in after-life was certainly not a cruel minis work was done by the courts of law; but the George-a prince neither unmerciful nor cruel, clans were let loose upon one another, and the but far indeed from possessing either a tender troops of George were put to live at free quar-heart or a lively imagination. Sentence of death, ters in the houses and upon the estates of the Jacobites. But, in England, Forster's imbecile conduct and dastardly surrender at Preston had filled the jails of the north with prisoners of a strange variety of conditions-nonjuring Protestants, high-church divines, Popish priests and monks in disguise, fox-hunting Jacobite squires, and Catholic officers and non-commissioned officers who had been turned out of the army on account of their religion: and mixed with these were Highland chiefs and dunnie-wassails, and Jacobite Lowland lairds, who had marched with Forster from Kelso. Upon some of these unfor1inate captives military law was executed, and they were tried in bands by a court-martial, and then shot in a heap; while above 500 prisoners of inferior condition were left inhumanly to starve of hunger and cold in various castles and jails in the north. Forster and the most conspicuous of the leaders were marched off for London, where they arrived on the 9th of December. When these unfortunate gentlemen had crossed Finchley Common, and reached the brow of Highgate Hill, they were made to halt, and to submit to numerous indignities: their arms were tied behind their backs like cut-ter, was on the present occasion perfectly obduthroats and cut-purses; their horses were led by foot-soldiers, and their ears were stunned by all the drums of the escort beating a triumphal march, and by the shouts, scoffs, and jeers of the multitude. Upon their reaching the city, such as were lords or noblemen were sent to the Tower-the rest were divided among the four common jails. They were not long suffered to remain there in doubt and uncertainty: the nation, the parliament which re-assembled on the 9th of January, were eager for an example, in the spirit of the time, and far too anxious for blood. Mr. Lechmere, after a long and vehement speech, impeached James, Earl of Derwentwater, of high treason. Other members of the commons, with fewer words, but equal heat, impeached Lord Widdrington, the Earls of Nithsdale, Winton, and Carnwath, Viscount Kenmure, and Lord Nairn. Not a single voice was raised in opposition, not an effort made in debate to avert the doom of these incompetent revolutionists, though certainly there was still many a Jacobite in the house. On the 19th of January, these noblemen were all brought before the House of Lords, assembled as a court of justice in Westminster Hall, with Earl Cowper, the chancellor, presiding as lord high-steward. They knelt at the bar till the chancellor desired them to rise; and then they all, but one, confessed their guilt, and threw themselves upon the mercy of King rate: he expressed his horror and disgust at the leniency of these Whigs, whom he called "unworthy members of this great body," since they could, "without blushing, open their mouths in favour of rebels and parricides." As, however, favourable circumstances had arisen for the Earl of Carnwath and Lord Widdrington, and as some respect was due to the opinion and feeling of the House of Lords, those two noblemen were respited. The three remaining victims were left for execution, and, to prevent any further interference, orders were sent to the Tower to have the block ready on the following morning. But during that night the conjugal affection and heroism of Lady Nithsdale robbed the block of a head. She dressed her lord in her own clothes, and he escaped by night, and in that disguise, out of the Tower. There thus remained only two victims-the English Lord Derwentwater and the Scottish Lord Kenmure; and they, at an early hour the next morning the 24th of February-were brought to the scaffold on Tower hill. Lord Winton, who had pleaded not guilty, embarrassed his prosecutors, for, though he seemed at times crazy or half idiotic, he managed his business with considerable craft and skill, and on his trial, struck one of the first of Whigs and ministers with a sharp repartee. He was not put upon his trial till the 15th of March, having gained time by petitions and other devices. He was found guilty of high treason, and sent back to the Tower; but it appears that there was no real intention to proceed to execution, and, after lying some time in that state prison, he effected his escape. In the beginning of April a commission for trying the rebels of inferior rank met in the Court of Common Pleas. Forster, Brigadier Mackintosh, and twenty of their confederates, were found guilty on indictments for high treason. Forster and Mackintosh were both fortunate enough to break their prison and escape, and seven others followed their example, and got safe to the Continent. But four were executed in London, and twenty-two in Lancashire, where above a thousand submitted to the king's mercy, and petitioned to be transported to the colonies in America. The amount of punishment and of blood seemed in those days unaccountably and imprudently small. As the English Catholics, driven by persecution, and intolerance, and insult, into disaffection, had in some places shown so warm a zeal for the pretender, it was resolved to increase those very evils which had been the cause of their disaffection. On the 17th of April a bill "to strengthen the Protestant interest in Great Britain, by enforcing the laws now in being against Papists," was finally passed without opposition. CHAPTER XIII-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1716-1720. GEORGE I. The king's dislike of the Tories-Efforts used to keep them out of parliament-The septennial bill passed-State of affairs on the Continent-The king repairs to Hanover-His negotiation with the French minister-A treaty proposed-Obstacles arising to it from the proceedings of Charles XII. of Sweden-Intrigues in the British cabinet-The treaty called the "Triple Alliance" signed-Meeting of parliament-Jacobite scheme of Baron Gortz, minister of Charles XII.-Its detection-Resignation of Walpole and other ministers-Formation of a new cabinet-The Walpole and Stanhope parties-Trial of the Earl of Oxford-His acquittal-State of Spain-War between Spain and Austria-The members of the triple alliance interpose-Energetic proceedings of Cardinal Alberoni-Dissensions in the family of George I.-The king desires the army to be increased —A naval armament sent to check the Spanish aggressions-The "Quadruple Alliance" formed-Its conditions -Spain rejects it-Movements of the British and Spanish opposed fleets-The Spanish fleet destroyed-Death of Charles XII.-Conspiracy in Paris for the overthrow of the Orleans regency detected-British parliament assembled Proposals for further toleration to the dissenters-Bill to that effect passed-Bill for a limitation of the peerage rejected—Alberoni adopts the cause of the pretender-The pretender and the Jacobites repair to Spain-An invasion of Britain planned at Madrid-Preparations in Britain to resist it-Failure of the invasion-War between France and Spain-Successes of the French under the Duke of Berwick-Co-operation of the British-Effectual services of the British fleet in Sicily-Curious controversy about Spanish ships at Messina-The controversy ended by destroying the ships-Difficulties of Admiral Byng at Naples-Surrender of Messina to the Imperialists-Dangerous position of Alberoni-He is displaced-Submission of Philip, King of Spain-Palermo invested by the Imperialists-It is evacuated by the Spaniards-The Duke of Savoy put in possession of Sardinia-Peace restored to Europe. N the last general election the Whigs had secured a most triumphant majority; but extreme changes in opinion had of late years been both frequent and sudden; and it was seriously apprehended by the new king and his ministers that circumstances had been and were at work among the people which would render another general election very uncertain in its issue-perhaps return a strong Tory majority. With the first George the word Tory was, and could be little better than a synonym for Jacobite or traitor: it was scarcely possible for him to be impartial, and to look coolly on the struggle of the two parties for power and pre-eminence. In his eyes, and in the opinion of a vast portion of the nation, it was not a mere party contest, a dispute about general principles, but a life and death conflict for dynasties and entire systems. But for the Whigs, George would never have got to England, and notwithstanding the Hanoverian Tories, whose number had been reduced since his accession by the disappointment of their hopes in obtaining high places and rewards, he firmly believed that, but for the Whigs, the Jacobites, Tories, and high churchmen would send him back to Germany in the course of a single session. It therefore became the great object of his majesty, of his best adviser Robert Walpole, and of all the present Whig cabinet, to keep by all means in their power the Jacobites and Tories out of parliament; and to effect this, they As his majesty now considered himself in a state of security, and as he had been relieved by a subsequent statute from the embarrassing clause in the act of settlement restraining him from leaving the kingdom, he intimated that he was going to revisit his dominions in Germany, the state of affairs on the Continent demanding serious attention. And, in fact, the elements of strife and hostility seemed to be combining in a very alarming manner against this first prince of the house of Hanover, who, beyond Holland and the states-general, had scarcely a single ally upon whom he could depend; for even his own sonin-law, the King of Prussia, a capricious, wrong resorted to the very questionable measure of passing an act not only extending the limit of the duration of future parliaments from three to seven years, but even so far disregarding the act of 1694, under which the members of the existing House of Commons had been returned, as to give to the present parliament also the benefit of the extended term. If the act of 1694 were to continue law, the present Whig parliament must rise in little more than a year, when the nation was likely to be threatened with invasion from abroad, insurrections at home, plots, intrigues, and manœuvres of all kinds; but if, on the contrary, four years could be added to its existence, there was a probability that the political atmo-headed prince, was frequently tempted to quarrel sphere might clear up in the interval-the Whigs would have time to complete their work, and the new king to become somewhat better acquainted with his subjects, among whom at present he was moving and acting like a strange man in a strange country. Ministers resolved that the septennial bill should originate in the House of Lords, where neither a failure nor the unpopularity of the measure could do any direct mischief; and, on the 10th of April, the Duke of Devonshire, lord-steward of the household, and son of the nobleman who had been one of the principal promoters of the triennial act, brought in the new bill for repealing it. His grace was supported by the Duke of Argyle, Lords Dorset, Carteret, Cowper, and other peers attached to the ministry; and the measure was opposed by the Duke of Buckingham, Lords Peterborough, Nottingham, Anglesey, and all the Tories. On a division the commitment was carried by ninetysix votes to sixty-one. When the bill had finally passed the lords, it was sent down to the commons by the hands of two of the judges. The septennial bill was read a third time on the 26th of April, when the Tory minority could muster no more that 121 votes; and, with the applauses of some and the curses of others, it became the law of the land. The great Somers, whose complicated disorders had ended in a paralysis which affected both mind and body, died on the very day the bill was passed. The equally conspicuous Whig, Halifax, had died some months before him. It is said that Somers on his deathbed, expressed his hearty approbation of the septennial act; but those who love shorter parliaments doubt whether he was in a state competent to give an opinion. On the 8th of June Stanhope and Cragg's separate bill, disabling any person from being chosen a member of the House of Commons, or sitting or voting in the same, that held any pension during pleasure, or for any number of years, from the crown, was passed; and on the 26th of June the parliament was prorogued. with him, and even to proceed to the extremity of joining the confederacy against him. The Emperor Charles, who was invested with the fanciful function of preserving harmony throughout the Germanic confederacy, was, upon several grounds, exceedingly jealous of George I., whom he personally disliked; and he had also a strong antipathy to the Dutch-the Hanoverian's best allies-on account of their conduct at the peace of Utrecht and in the barrier treaty. The emperor, however, was not in a condition to provoke open hostilities with England and Holland; and though he declined any direct engagement for compelling the pretender to remove to Rome, and remain there quiet upon an English pension allowed by the occupant, or, as he considered him, the usurper of his throne, he consented to a defensive alliance with England in case of aggression from France or any other power, with a mutual guarantee of territory. This alliance was concluded a month before the English king prorogued his parliament; but still there remained the difficult business of the pretender's removal beyond the Alps, and many other serious questions which would be best settled on the Continent. Lord Stair, after the miserable failure of the expedition into Scotland, had acquired a great influence over the French regent, who was himself surrounded by many difficulties. According to the arrangement of the peace of Utrecht, the Duke of Orleans, by the death of the boy Louis XV., would be promoted from his condition of regent to that of sole and absolute sovereign of France. Philip V. of Spain, indeed, stood nearer to the French throne; but, in accepting the Spanish, he had made that solemn act of renunciation about which so much has been said. It was, however, well known to Orleans that, in case of this sickly boy's death, Philip would get absolved from his oaths, set the act of renunciation and the treaty of Utrecht at defiance, and claim the French kingdom. And, indeed, as if to facilitate his seizure of the throne, Philip had endeavoured and was at the moment endeavour |