himself, with a tenacity for which those who recollected the hereditary
politics of the Erskine family, could find no motives but self-interest.
James, Duke of Queensbury, was, it is true, the son of one of the most
active partisans of the Stuart family, to whom the house of Queensbury
owed both its ducal rank and princely fortune. Possessed of good
abilities, but devoid of application, and with the disadvantage to a
public man of being of an easy, indolent temper, this celebrated
promoter of the union between Scotland and England, had acquired, by
courtesy, and by a long administration of affairs, a singular influence
over his countrymen. His character has been written with a pen that
could scarcely find sufficient invectives for those politicians who, in
the opinion of the writer, were the ruin of their country. The Duke of
Queensbury falls under the heaviest censures. "To outward appearance,"
says Lockhart, "he was of a gentle and good disposition, but inwardly a
very devil, standing at nothing to advance his own interest and designs.
Though his hypocrisy and dissimulation served him very much, yet he
became so well known, that no man, except such as were his nearest
friends, and _socii criminis_, gave him any trust; and so little regard
had he to his promises and vows, that it was observed and notorious,
that if he was at any pains to convince you of his friendship, and by
swearing and imprecating curses on himself and family to assure you of
his sincerity, then, to be sure, he was doing you underhand all the
mischief in his power."[17]
These characteristics must be viewed as proceeding from the pen of a
partisan; nor can we wonder at the contrariety of opinion which prevails
respecting any public man who proposes a great and startling measure.
Honours, places, and a pension were showered down upon this most
fortunate of ministers; and his career is remarkable as having been
cheered by the favour of four sovereigns of very different tempers. In
his early youth, after his return from his travels, the Duke of
Queensbury was appointed a Privy Councillor of Scotland by Charles the
Second. He held the same post under James the Second, but resigned it in
1688. The reserved and doubting William of Orange placed him near his
person, making him a Lord of the Bedchamber, and captain of his Dutch
guard; eventually he became Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, and--to
abridge a list of numerous employments and honours--Lord High
Commissioner of Scotland. So far had Queensbury's fortunes begun with
the Stuarts and continued under the House of Orange. It appeared
unlikely that the successor of William--she who in her first speech
announced that her heart was "wholly English," to mark the distinction
between herself and the foreigner who had sat on the throne before
her,--would adopt as her own representative in Scotland the favourite of
William; yet she continued Queensbury in that high station which it was
believed none could fill so adequately in the disturbed and refractory
kingdom of Scotland.[18]
During the early years of Queen Anne's reign, and in the season of his
own comparative prosperity, the young Earl of Mar entered into his first
marriage, at Twickenham, with Lady Margaret Hay, daughter of John Earl
of Kinnoul. The wife whom he thus selected was the daughter of a house
originally adverse to the principles of the Revolution. William Earl of
Kinnoul, in the time of James the Second, had remained at St. Germains
with that monarch. But the same change which had manifested the
political course of Lord Mar, had been apparent in the father of Lady
Margaret Hay. The Earl of Kinnoul was afterwards one of the
Commissioners for the Union, and supported that treaty in Parliament;
yet, when the Rebellion of 1715 commenced, this nobleman was one of the
suspected persons who were summoned to surrender themselves, and was
committed a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle. His daughter, the Countess of
Mar, was happily spared from witnessing the turmoils of that period.
Married in her seventeenth year, she lived only four years with a
husband whose character was but partially developed, when, in 1707, she
died at the age of twenty-one, having given birth to two sons. She was
buried at the family seat at Alloa Castle, an ancient fortress, built in
the year 1300, one turret of which still remaining rises ninety feet
from the ground. Seven years intervened before Lord Mar supplied the
place of his lost wife by another union.
His days were, indeed, consumed in public affairs, varied by the
improvement of his Scottish estates, embellishing the tower of Alloa by
laying out beautiful gardens in that wilderness style of planting which
the Earl first introduced into Scotland.[19] He had the reward of
seeing his efforts succeed, the gardens of Alloa being much eulogized
and visited. This was by no means Lord Mar's only recreation;
architecture was his delight, and he introduced into London the
celebrated Gibbs, who, out of gratitude, eventually bequeathed a large
portion of his fortune to the children of the Earl.[20] It is refreshing
to view this busy and versatile politician in this light before we
plunge into the depths of those intricate politics which form the
principal features of his life.
It was during the year 1703 that a political association or club was
framed consisting of the chief nobility and gentlemen of fortune and
afterwards known by the name of the _Squadrone Volante_. They acquired
distinguished popularity and influence by the patriotic character of the
measures which they introduced into the Scottish Parliament; and by
their professions of being free from any court interest, they gained the
confidence of the country. They were firm friends of the Revolution
party, great sticklers to the Protestant succession, forming a _separate
band_ distinct from the Whigs, yet opposed to the Cavaliers, or, as they
were afterwards called, Jacobites. The power of the Squadrone was, in a
great measure, the result of those jarring counsels in the Scottish
Parliament, which only coalesced upon one theme,--independence of
England--interference of "foreign" or English counsels, as they were
termed. This combination was headed by the Duke of Montrose, the Marquis
of Tweedale, and several other Scottish noblemen, to whom adhered thirty
commoners.[21]
During the existence of this association, the celebrated "Queensbury
affair," as it was usually called, involved the temporary disgrace of
the Duke of Queensbury, and first brought to view those convenient
doctrines of expediency which afterwards formed so marked a feature in
the character of Lord Mar.
The "sham plot," as it is called by Jacobite writers, was a supposed
intended invasion of Great Britain, disclosed to the Duke of Queensbury
by Simon Fraser of Beaufort, afterwards Lord Lovat; whose very name
seems to have suggested to his contemporaries, as it has since done to
posterity, the combination of all that is subtle, treacherous, and base,
with all that is dangerous, desperate, and remorseless in conduct.
This tool of the court of St. Germains came over from France, in company
with John Murray, who was sent to watch his proceedings, and also to aid
his object in procuring the promises of the most distinguished Highland
chieftains to the furtherance of the projected invasion of England. The
assistance of Captain Murray was conjoined on this occasion, the
fidelity of that gentleman having been ascertained by the court of St.
Germains; whilst there existed not a human being who did not
instinctively distrust Beaufort: to Mary of Modena, who far more
ardently desired the restoration of the Stuarts than her consort James,
he was peculiarly obnoxious.
The exiled Queen's fears proved well founded, for no sooner had Beaufort
landed in England, than he formed the scheme of converting this secret
enterprise into a means of obtaining reward and protection from the Duke
of Argyle, whose mediation with the Duke of Queensbury he required for
private reasons; he therefore notified his arrival to Argyle, who had
been his early and hereditary friend, offering at the same time to make
great disclosures, if he had previous assurances of remuneration.
Such is the account of most impartial writers, and more especially of
those who lean to the Whig party: but, by the Jacobites, the very
existence of a conspiracy to invade England at this time was denied, and
the whole affair was declared to be a scheme of the Duke of Queensbury's
to undermine the reputation of the Cavaliers, and "to find a pretence to
vent his wrath, and execute his malice against those who thwarted his
arbitrary designs," for the completion of a treaty of union between
Scotland and England, which had been in contemplation ever since the
days of William the Third.[22]
After much deliberation the Duke of Queensbury was induced to have
several communications with Fraser of Beaufort, and to listen to the
information which he gave, all of which the Duke transmitted to Queen
Anne, although he concealed the name of his informant. In consequence of
Fraser's disclosures, several persons coming from France to England were
apprehended on suspicion of being engaged in the Pretender's service,
and an universal alarm was spread, as well as a distrust of the motives
and proceedings of Queensbury, who thus acted upon the intelligence of
an avowed spy, and noted outlaw, like Fraser. A temporary loss of
Queensbury's political sway in Scotland was the result, and a consequent
increase of power to the Squadrone Volante.
It was at this juncture that the Earl of Mar came forward as the
advocate of the Duke of Queensbury's measures, and the opponent of the
Squadrone Volante, who had now completely fixed upon themselves that
name, from their pretending to act by themselves, and to cast the
balance of contending parties in Parliament. The opposition of Lord Mar
to the Squadrone was peculiarly acceptable to the Tories, or Cavaliers,
who had recently applied to that faction to assist them in the defence
of their country against the Union, but who had been greeted with an
indignant and resolute refusal.
The Earl of Mar therefore appeared as the champion of the Cavaliers, and
for the first time won their confidence and approbation. "He headed,"
writes the bitter and yet truthful Lockhart, "such of the Duke of
Queensbury's friends as opposed the Marquis of Tweedale and his party's
designs; and that with such art and dissimulation, that he gained the
favour of all the Tories, and was by them esteemed an honest man, and
well inclined to the royal family. Certain it is, he vowed and protested
as much many a time; but no sooner was the Marquis of Tweedale and his
party dispossessed, than he returned as a dog to the vomit, and promoted
all the court of England's measures with the greatest zeal
imaginable."[23] The three parties in the Scottish Parliament, according
to the same authority, consisted of the Cavaliers,--that remnant of the
Jacobite party which remained vigorous, more especially in the
Highlands, since the days of Dundee,--of the Squadrone, "or _outer_
court party," and of the present court party, consisting of true blue
Presbyterians and Revolutioners.[24] With the interests of the latter
party the Earl of Mar was undoubtedly engaged.
Scotland was at this time, and continued for several years, racked with
dissensions regarding the Treaty of Union. No one can form an adequate
idea of the heartburnings, feuds, parties, and tumults, by which that
great measure was preceded, and followed, without looking into the
contemporary writers, whose aim it ever is to heighten the picture of
passing events; whereas the calm historian subdues it into one general
effect of keeping.
The Earl of Mar took a prominent part in seconding the treaty; no man's
commencement of a career could be more opposed to its termination than
that of this politician of easy virtue. The Duke of Queensbury was for
some time so hated in Scotland as scarcely to venture to appear there,
but contented himself with sending the Duke of Argyle as commissioner,
and "using him as the monkey did the cat in pulling out the hot roasted
chesnut." But when he was, after an interval, reinstated in power, Lord
Mar was again his devoted ally. The influence of the Duke over every
mind with which he came into collision was, indeed, almost irresistible.
"I cannot but wonder," remarks the indignant Lockhart, "at the influence
he had over all men of sense, quality, and estate; men that had, at
least many of them, no dependance on him, yet were so deluded as to
serve his ambitious designs, contrary to the acknowledged dictates of
their own conscience."[25]
In 1706, in the beginning of the session of Parliament, the Earl of Mar
presented the draught of an Act for appointing Commissioners, to treat
of an Union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England. Thus was he the
instrument of first presenting to the Scotch that measure so revolting
to their prejudices, so singularly distasteful to a proud and
independent people. It is impossible to judge how far Lord Mar was
convinced of the expediency of the Treaty, or whether he was, in secret,
one of those who feigned an affection for the measure, whilst, in their
hearts, they wished for the preponderance of the votes against it. The
Treaty of Union was espoused by those in whose opinions Lord Mar had
been nurtured,--and originally, according to De Foe, it had been mooted
by William the Third, who declared that this Island would never be easy
without an union. "I have done all I can in that affair," he once
observed; "but I do not see a temper in either nation that looks like
it: it may be done, but not yet."[26]
The Treaty, retarded by many interests, clashing between nations, but,
more especially, by the burning recollections of massacred countrymen in
the blood-stained valley of Glencoe, was now brought into discussion
just when the Earl of Mar was at that age when a thirst for gain, or an
ambition to rise is unquenched, in general, by disappointment. Differing
in one respect from many Cavaliers, in being of a family strictly
Protestant, Lord Mar had not the inducement which operated upon the
Catholics, in their undiminished, ardent desire to restore the young
Prince of Wales to the throne. Differing, again, in another respect from
many of the Jacobites, Lord Mar had not the tie of a personal knowledge
of the exiled King to fix his fidelity; or, what was considered far more
likely to have sealed his, or any adherent allegiance, he had enjoyed no
opportunities of cultivating the favour of the enthusiastic, bigoted,
and yet intelligent Mary of Modena, whose exertions for her family kept
alive the spirit of Jacobitism during the decline of her royal devotee
and the childhood of her son. Lord Mar seems to have been reared
entirely in Scotland, and he might perhaps come under the description
given by the eloquent Lord Belhaven of a Whig in Scotland:--"A true,
blue Presbyterian, who, without considering time or power, will venture
all for the Kirk, but something less for the State;"[27] but that his
subsequent conduct contradicts this supposition.
The Treaty struggled on through a powerful and memorable opposition. It
is a curious instance of Scottish pride, that one of the objections made
to the Commissioners appointed to treat of the Union, was, that there
were six or eight newly-raised families amongst them, and but few of
the great and ancient names of Hamilton, Graham, Murray, Erskine, and
many others.[28] Never was there so much domestic misery and
humiliation, abroad, for poor Scotland, as during the progress of this
Treaty. The fame of Marlborough, and the fortunes of Godolphin, were now
at their zenith; they were considered as the great arbiters of Scottish
affairs,--the Queen being only applied to for the sake of form. These
two great statesmen treated the Scottish noblemen to whom the Cavaliers
entrusted the success of their representations, with a lofty insolence,
which galled the proud Highlanders, and went to their very hearts.
"I myself," writes the author of Memoirs of Scotland, "out of curiosity,
went sometimes to their levées, where I saw the Commissioners, the Duke
of Queensbury, the Chancellor, the Secretary, Lord Mar, and other great
men of Scotland, hang on near an hour; and when admitted, treated with
no more civility than one gentleman pays another's valet-de-chambre; and
for which the Scots have none to blame but themselves, for had they
valued themselves as they ought to have done, and not so meanly and
sneakingly prostituted their honour and country to the will and pleasure
of the English Ministry, they would never have presumed to usurp such a
dominion over Scotland, as openly and avowedly to consult upon and
determine in Scots' affairs."[29]
At home, the spirit of party ran to an extent which cannot be called
insane, because the interests at stake were those dearest to a
high-spirited people. "Factions," exclaimed Lord Belhaven, "in
Parliament, are now become independent, and have got footing in
councils, in parliaments, in treaties, in armies, in incorporations, in
families, among kindred; yea, man and wife are not free from them."[30]
"Hannibal, my Lord," he cried, in one of what Lockhart calls his long
premeditated harangues, "Hannibal is at our gates; Hannibal is come the
length of this table; he is at the foot of this throne: he will demolish
the throne; if we take not notice, he will seize upon these regalia;
he'll take them as our _spolia opima_, and whip us out of this House,
never to return again."
In order to understand the effect of the Act of Union upon the hopes of
the Jacobite party, it is necessary to take into consideration the
following facts. The Act of the English Parliament, by which the Crown
had been settled on Queen Mary and her sister, extended only to the
Princess Anne and her issue. After the death of the Duke of Gloucester,
and about the end of the reign of William the Third, another settlement
was made, by which the Crown was settled on the House of Hanover; but no
similar Act was passed in Scotland. And at the beginning of Queen Anne's
reign, and until after the Union, the Scottish Parliament were legally
possessed of a power to introduce again the exiled family into Great
Britain.[31]
During the course of the negotiations for the Treaty of Union, the Earl
of Mar formed an alliance with the celebrated Duke of Hamilton. In the
consideration of public affairs at this period, it may not appear a
digression to give some insight into the character of one who headed the
chief party in the Scottish Parliament, and with whom the Earl of Mar
was, at this period of his life, in frequent intercourse.
James Duke of Hamilton was at this period nearly fifty years of age. His
youth had been passed in the gay court of Charles the Second, as one of
the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber of that monarch,--an office which he
only relinquished to become Ambassador Extraordinary to France, where he
remained long enough to serve in two campaigns under Louis the
Fourteenth. Upon the death of Charles the Second, Louis recommended the
young nobleman, then termed Earl of Arran, strongly and essentially to
James the Second, who made him Master of his Wardrobe, and appointed him
to other offices.
Under these circumstances it is not surprising that in the honest and
warm feelings of the Duke of Hamilton, affection for the Stuarts should
form a principal feature. He had the courage to adhere firmly to James
the Second, amid the general obloquy, and to accompany the monarch on
his abdication to his embarkation at Rochester. "I can distinguish," he
said, at a meeting of the Scottish nobility in London, over which his
father, the Duke of Hamilton presided, "between the King's popery and
his person. I dislike the one, but have sworn to do allegiance to the
other, which makes it impossible to withhold that which I cannot forbear
believing is the King my master's right: for his present absence in
France can no more affect my duty, than his longer absence from us has
done all this while."
Notwithstanding these professions, upon the unfortunate conclusion of
the affair of Darien, the Earl of Arran, after twice encountering
imprisonment upon account of the Stuarts, esteemed it his duty to his
country to take the oaths to King William, in order to qualify himself
to sit in Parliament.
The character of the Duke of Hamilton presents a favourable specimen of
the well-principled and well-intentioned Scotchman, with the
acknowledged virtues and obvious defects of the national character. He
was disinterested in great matters, refusing many opportunities of
worldly advantage, and bearing for the first eight years of his public
career, a retirement which is always more galling to an ambitious temper
than actual danger; yet, it was supposed, and not without reason, that,
whilst his heart was with the Cavaliers, or country party, the
considerations of his great estate in England occasioned a lukewarmness
in his political conduct, and broke down his opposition to the Union.
Wary and cautious, he could thus sacrifice his present hopes of a
distinction which his talents would have readily attained, to his
adherence to a lost cause; but his resolution failed when the sacrifice
of what many might deem inferior interests, was required.
The Duke soon formed a considerable party in the Parliament; and his
empire over the affections of his countrymen grew daily. To those to
whom he confided, the Duke was gracious and unbending; but a suspicion
of an insult recalled the native haughtiness attributable to his
house.[32] "Frank, honest, and good-natured," as he was esteemed by
Swift, and displaying on his dark, coarse countenance, the
characteristics of good sense and energy, the Duke was a bitter and
vindictive foe[33]--characteristics of his age, and of a nation
undoubtedly prone to wreak a singular and remorseless revenge on all who
offend the hereditary pride, or militate against the prejudices of its
people.