A.D. 1739-1745.
BRITISH SOVEREIGN:--George II., 1727-1760.
Foreign intrigues--Edinburgh Association--Maria Theresa--Jacobite
intrigues--Drummond of Bochaldy at Edinburgh, and Murray of
Broughton at Paris--Plan of a French invasion--Prince Charles
Edward, the Chevalier’s son, arrives at Paris--Preparations for
invasion--Embarkation and failure of the expedition--Murray of
Broughton proceeds to Paris--Interview with the Prince, who
resolves to proceed to Scotland.
War having been declared against Spain in the year 1739, the
Chevalier de St. George despatched Lord Marischal to Madrid to
induce the court of Spain to adopt measures for his restoration. But
however willing Spain might be to assist him, he was desirous that
no attempt should be made without the concurrence of France.[781]
About the same time, that is, in the beginning of the year 1740, some
of the more zealous and leading Jacobites, in anticipation of a war
with France, held a meeting at Edinburgh, and formed themselves into
an association, by which they engaged themselves to take arms and
venture their lives and fortunes to restore the family of Stuart,
provided the King of France would send over a body of troops to
their assistance. The association, like that which brought over King
William to England, consisted of seven persons, viz., Lord Lovat,
James Drummond, commonly called Duke of Perth, the Earl of Traquair,
Sir James Campbell of Auchinbreck, Cameron of Lochiel, John Stuart,
brother to Lord Traquair, and Lord John Drummond, uncle to the Duke
of Perth.[782] The conspirators despatched Drummond of Bochaldy, or
Balhady, (nephew to Lochiel,) to Rome with the bond of association,
and a list of those chiefs and chieftains who were considered by the
associates to be favourable to the cause. Drummond was instructed to
deliver these papers into the hands of the Chevalier de St. George,
and to entreat him to procure assistance from France in furtherance
of their design. The project was well received by James, who, after
perusing the papers, forwarded them immediately by the same messenger
to Cardinal Fleury at Paris, with a request that the court of France
would grant the required assistance. But the cardinal, with that
caution which distinguished him, would come under no engagement, but
contented himself at first by a general assurance of conditional
support.
The negotiation was, however, persevered in, but the death of the
Emperor Charles VI., which happened on the 20th of October, drew off
the cardinal’s attention to matters which appeared to him of greater
importance. The emperor was succeeded in his hereditary dominions
by his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, married to the Grand-duke of
Tuscany, formerly Duke of Lorraine. Though this princess succeeded
under the title of the pragmatic sanction, which had been guaranteed
by England, France, Spain, Prussia, Russia, Holland, and the whole of
the Germanic body, with the exception of the elector-palatine, and
the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, a powerful confederacy was formed
against her by almost all these powers, to strip her of her dominions.
Alarmed at the formidable confederacy formed against her, the Queen
of Hungary applied to Great Britain for succour; but Sir Robert
Walpole evaded the demand, and recommended an immediate peace
with Prussia. The parliament, as well as the nation, however, had
different views; and as the minister saw that he would be compelled
to fulfil his engagements to the house of Austria, parliament was
called upon to support the Queen of Hungary, and maintain the
liberties of Europe. The commons cheerfully voted a sum of £300,000
to enable George II. to fulfil his engagements, which sum was
remitted to the Queen of Hungary, and the contingent of 12,000 Danish
and Hessian troops, which Great Britain had engaged to furnish, was
got in readiness.
While the flames of war were thus spreading over Europe, the
situation of the British ministry was every day becoming more
critical from the clamours of the Tories and the discontented Whigs.
Walpole had triumphed in both houses on motions for an address to
the king to dismiss him from his presence and councils; but his
triumph was short, and the approach of an election redoubled the
efforts of his enemies. Though the Jacobites required no incentive
to induce them to assist in displacing a minister who had been the
chief obstacle to the restoration of the exiled family; yet to make
perfectly sure of their aid, Lord Chesterfield went to France, and by
means of the Duke of Ormond, obtained, it is said, a circular letter
from the Chevalier de St. George to his friends, urging them to do
every thing in their power to ruin Walpole. To encourage the popular
clamour against the minister, reports, the most absurd and incredible
respecting him, were circulated among the people and believed;
and while the general discontent was at its height, the election
commenced. The contests between the two parties were extremely
violent; but the country party, backed by the adherents of the Prince
of Wales, who had formed a party against the minister, prevailed.
So powerful was the influence of the Duke of Argyle, who had lately
joined the opposition, that out of the forty-five members returned
for Scotland, the friends of the ministry could not secure above six.
The new parliament met on the 4th of December, 1741; and Walpole, no
longer able to contend with the forces arrayed against him, retired
from office within a few weeks thereafter.
Encouraged by appearances, and imagining that some of the old
discontented Whigs who deprecated the system which had been pursued
since the accession of the house of Hanover, of maintaining the
foreign dominions of the sovereign at the expense, as they thought,
of the honour and interests of the nation, Drummond of Bochaldy
proposed to the Chevalier to visit England, and make overtures in
his name to the “old Whigs.”[783] This plan was highly approved of
by James, who wrote him a letter in his own hand, which was intended
to be exhibited to such persons as might seem inclined to favour his
restoration. This letter was inclosed in a private letter containing
instructions for the regulation of his conduct in the proposed
negotiation, which it was intended should be kept an entire secret
from the Jacobites, both in England and Scotland. Erskine of Grange,
who enjoyed the confidence of some of the discontented Whigs, and who
privately favoured the designs of the exiled family, was pitched upon
as a fit person to make advances to the old Whigs.[784]
In pursuance of his instructions, Drummond departed for England
about the beginning of the year 1742, but it does not appear that
at this time he entered upon the subject of his mission. He came
privately to Edinburgh in the month of February, and there met some
of the persons who had entered into the association, and several
others, who, in conjunction with the original conspirators, had
formed themselves into a society, denominated by them “the Concert
of Gentlemen for managing the King’s affairs in Scotland.” To these,
among whom was Murray of Broughton, Drummond represented that, on his
return from Rome, he had been extremely well received by Cardinal
Fleury, to whom he had delivered the papers which he had carried
from Edinburgh,--that the cardinal expressed great satisfaction
with the contents of these papers, had the Pretender’s interest so
much at heart, and was so sanguine of his success, that provided he
had sufficient assurances from the friends of the exiled family in
England, that they would assist in the restoration of the Stuarts,
he would send over an army of from 13,000 to 15,000 men, the number
required. One division of this force, consisting of 1,500 men, was
to be landed on the east coast of Scotland, at or near Inverness;
another of a similar amount in the west Highlands of Scotland; and
the main body, which was to consist of 10,000 or 12,000 men, was
to be landed as near London as possible. He added, that, provided
assistance could be obtained in England, the projected invasion might
be put in execution the following autumn. Before leaving Edinburgh,
Drummond had an interview with Cameron of Lochiel, who came to town
at his desire, and to whom he communicated the result of his mission
to Rome and Paris.[785]
After a short stay at Edinburgh, Drummond returned to Paris, where,
according to his own account, as communicated in letters to Lord
Traquair and Lochiel, he had an audience of the cardinal, to whom
he represented matters in such a favourable light that he promised
to carry his design of invasion into effect in a very short time.
The French minister, however, though he appears to have seriously
contemplated such a step, was not yet in a condition to come to
an open rupture with England; and to postpone the enterprise, he
proposed to Drummond that an application should be made to Sweden
for a body of troops to invade Scotland, and that a person from
Scotland, along with another person from France whom the cardinal
would appoint, should be sent thither to urge the application at the
Swedish court. The cardinal gave as his reason for thus deviating
from his original plan, that the Swedes being Protestants, would be
more agreeable to the people of Scotland than French or Irish troops.
In accordance with this proposal, Lord Traquair suggested that Murray
of Broughton should be sent to Sweden on the proposed mission, but he
declined.[786]
From the turn which the affair of the invasion had now taken, and
the time when it was expected to take place being allowed to elapse
without any preparations on the part of France, a suspicion began
to be entertained by the members of the Concert, that the cardinal
never had any intention to invade Scotland, and that the whole was a
scheme of Drummond’s to keep alive the spirit of party in Scotland,
and to make himself pass for useful in the eyes of his employers.
To ascertain the real state of the case, Murray of Broughton, at
the suggestion of Lord Traquair, was sent to Paris in the month of
January, 1743. He took London on his way, but before he reached the
capital, he heard of the death of Cardinal Fleury. After staying
a short time in London, Murray went privately to Paris, where he
met Drummond and Sempil, who managed the Chevalier’s affairs in
France. They stated to him, that in all probability the scheme of
invasion would have been carried into effect, had not the army of
Marshal Maillebois been sent towards Hanover instead of the coast of
Flanders, as at first intended; and that from the interest taken by
the cardinal in the affairs of the Stuarts, he had put all the papers
relating to them into the hands of Monsieur Amelot, the secretary for
foreign affairs.[787]
At an audience which Murray afterwards had with Monsieur Amelot
at Versailles, the foreign secretary told him that, on being
made acquainted by Sempil with the cause of Murray’s journey, he
had informed the King of France of it, and that his majesty had
authorised him to assure Mr. Murray that he had the interest of
the Stuart family as much at heart as any of the gentlemen who had
signed the memorial of association, and that as soon as he had an
opportunity he would put the scheme into execution.[788]
Shortly after this interview, Murray left Paris for London,
accompanied by Drummond, who came over to obtain the assurances
required by the French court from the English Tories and Jacobites.
After remaining a few days in London, Murray returned to Edinburgh,
to report to his friends the result of his mission. Drummond stopped
at London, where he met Mr. Erskine of Grange,[789] but although
overtures were then, it is believed, made to Lord Barrymore, Sir
John Hynde Cotton, and Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, they declined to
give any assurance or promise of support in writing. By desire of
Drummond, Lord Traquair met him in London shortly after his arrival
to assist him in his negotiations.[790]
At first view it may appear singular, and the circumstances must
convey a very sorry idea of the councils of the Chevalier de St.
George, that a person of so little weight and influence as Drummond,
who was utterly unknown to the English Tories and Jacobites,
should have been sent on such an important mission; but when it
is considered that some of the leading Jacobites were proscribed
and in exile, and that those at home were strictly watched by the
government, and were therefore afraid to commit themselves by any
overt act, it cannot excite surprise that the Chevalier availed
himself of the services of one whom he considered “an honest and
sensible man.”[791] Drummond was, however, considered, even by his
original employers, as a person unfit to execute the trust reposed
in him, and Lord John Drummond, one of the seven who had signed the
association, was quite indignant when he found him engaged in the
mission to England.[792] Nor was Sempil, between whom and Drummond a
close intimacy subsisted, more acceptable to the Scottish Jacobites,
some of whom he offended by his forwardness.[793]
During the earlier part of the year 1743, the French ministry were
too much occupied with the war in Germany to pay much attention
to the affairs of the Stuarts; but towards the close of that year
they began to meditate an invasion of Great Britain. The British
parliament met in the beginning of December, when a motion was made
in the house of peers by the Earl of Sandwich, for an address to
the crown to discontinue the Hanoverian troops in British pay, in
order to remove the national discontent, which was represented to
be so violent, that nothing but their dismission could appease it.
The motion was negatived, but renewed in another shape on the army
estimates being brought forward, when it shared the same fate. The
attention of the French ministry being drawn to these and similar
discussions, and to the general dissatisfaction which seemed to
pervade the people of Great Britain, by the agents and partizans
of the exiled family, backed by the influence of Cardinal Tencin,
entered upon the project of an invasion in good earnest. The
cardinal, who now had great influence in the councils of France,
had, while a resident at Rome, been particularly noticed by the
Chevalier de St. George, by whose influence he had been raised to
the cardinalate, and he was moved as much by gratitude to his patron
as by ambition to bring about the restoration of the Stuarts. The
court of Versailles, indeed, required little inducement to engage
in an enterprise which, whether it succeeded or not, would at all
events operate as a diversion in favour of France in her contest
with the house of Austria, whose chief support was Great Britain;
but it is not improbable that they at this time contemplated a more
serious attempt. In intimating, however, his resolution to undertake
the expedition, the King of France notified to the Chevalier de St.
George that it was to be kept a profound secret, and that neither the
Duke of Ormond nor Lord Marischal should be told, till the enterprise
was ready to be put into execution.
The command of the troops designed for this expedition, amounting to
15,000 men, was given to the celebrated Marshal Saxe; and the naval
part, consisting of thirteen ships of the line, besides transports,
collected at Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne, was intrusted to Monsieur
de Roquefeuille, an officer of considerable experience and capacity.
This force was destined for the coast of Kent, and a smaller force
was to be landed in Scotland under the command of Lord Marischal.
While the preparations for the expedition were going on, Cardinal
Tencin kept up an active correspondence with the Chevalier de St.
George. As James felt rather disinclined to accompany the expedition
himself, he proposed that his eldest son, Charles, then in his
twenty-third year, should go in his stead; but as it was doubtful
whether the prince would arrive in time to join the expedition,
the Chevalier sent an express to the Duke of Ormond requesting
him to accompany the expedition, and to act as regent, by virtue
of a commission of regency formerly granted him, until the prince
should arrive. On arriving in England, the duke was directed to
advise with the principal friends of the family, among whom he
particularly enumerated the Duke of Beaufort, the Earls of Barrymore,
Westmoreland, and Orrery, Lord Cobham, and Sirs Watkin Williams
Wynne, John Hynde Cotton, and Robert Abdy. Having obtained the
consent of the French court to this arrangement, the cardinal, upon
the completion of the preparations for the expedition, despatched
a messenger to Rome to request the attendance of the young prince
at Paris. Accordingly, on the morning of the 9th of January, 1744,
Prince Charles, accompanied by his brother Henry and two or three
attendants, left Rome before break of day, but they had not proceeded
far when they parted, the prince on his route to France and the duke
to Cisterna.[794] The former was disguised as a Spanish courier, and
took only one servant along with him on his journey. To account for
the departure of the two brothers, it was given out at Rome that they
had gone to a boar hunt, and so well was the secret of the prince’s
real destination kept, that nearly a fortnight elapsed before it was
discovered.[795]
Provided with passports furnished by Cardinal Aquaviva, the prince
travelled through Tuscany and arrived at Genoa. From Genoa he
proceeded to Savona, where he embarked in a felucca, and passing by
Monaco arrived at Antibes. From the latter place he proceeded to
Paris, where he met Marshal Saxe and other officers belonging to
the expedition, and after a private audience of the French king, he
set out incognito for the coast of Picardy. The route by Genoa and
Antibes was selected as the safest, and, from the season of the year,
the most expeditious; but so unfavourable was the weather, that the
prince had to stop some days at different places, and when he reached
Antibes he was recognised, and information of his arrival there and
of his departure for Paris was sent to the British government by
persons in its interest. Hitherto the British ministry do not appear
to have had any suspicion that the armaments at Brest, Boulogne, and
other French ports, were destined for the shores of Britain, but
the appearance of the eldest son of the Chevalier de St. George in
France opened their eyes to the dangers which now menaced them. At
this time the military force in England did not exceed 6,000 men, so
that if the threatened invasion had taken place, the result might
have been disastrous to the reigning family.[796]
Meanwhile, the French fleet, consisting of 15 ships of the line and
5 frigates, under M. de Roquefeuille, sailed from Brest, and for
several days displayed itself in the channel. Knowing the object
for which these ships had put to sea, the government was greatly
alarmed, and not without cause; for, besides the paucity of troops
in the island, they had only six ships of the line at home ready for
sea, the grand fleet being then in the Mediterranean. The activity
and preparations of the government corresponded with the magnitude
of the danger with which it was threatened. Orders were instantly
sent to fit out and man all the ships of war in the different ports
of the channel. These orders were so promptly obeyed, that in a few
days an English fleet of three ships of 100 guns, four of 90, six
of 70, and six of 50, was collected at Spithead under the command
of Sir John Norris.[797] Several regiments were immediately marched
to the southern coast of England; all governors and commanders were
ordered to repair forthwith to their respective posts; the forts at
the mouth of the Thames and Medway were put in a posture of defence;
and the militia of Kent were directed to assemble to defend the coast
in case of an invasion. On the 15th of February, the arrival of
Prince Charles in France, the preparations along the French coast,
and the appearance of the French fleet in the English channel, were
announced to parliament in a message from the king. Both houses
joined in an address, in which they declared their indignation at
the design formed in favour of “a popish pretender,” and assured
his majesty they would take measures to frustrate so desperate and
insolent an attempt. The city of London, the universities of Oxford
and Cambridge,[798] the principal towns in Great Britain, almost all
the corporations and communities of the kingdom, the clergy of the
establishment, the dissenting ministers, and the Quakers, or Society
of Friends, presented similar addresses. A demand was made from the
States-general of the 6,000 auxiliaries which by treaty they had
engaged to furnish on such occasions; and this force was immediately
granted. Forgetful of the wrongs which he had suffered at the hands
of the government, the Earl of Stair tendered his services, and
was reappointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Great Britain.
Several noblemen of the first rank followed his example, among whom
was the Duke of Montague, who was permitted to raise a regiment
of horse. Orders were sent to bring over the 6,000 British troops
from Flanders; and both houses of parliament, in a second address,
exhorted the king to augment his forces by sea and land, in such
manner as he should think necessary at this dangerous juncture of
affairs. The habeas corpus act was suspended for six months; several
suspected persons were taken into custody; the usual proclamation
was issued for putting the laws in execution against the unfortunate
Catholics and nonjurors, who were ordered to retire ten miles
from London; and every other precaution, deemed necessary for the
preservation of the public tranquillity, was adopted.[799]
Meanwhile the preparations for invasion were proceeding rapidly at
Boulogne and Dunkirk, under the eye of Prince Charles. Roquefeuille
had in his excursion in the channel come in sight of Spithead; and,
as he could perceive no ships there, he imagined that the English
ships had retired within their harbours. Judging the opportunity
favourable, he detached M. de Barriel with five ships of war to
hasten the embarkation at Dunkirk, and to order the transports
thereupon to put to sea. Roquefeuille then sailed up the channel
with the remainder of his fleet as far as Dungeness, a promontory on
the coast of Kent, off which he anchored to await the arrival of the
transports. Having received intelligence of Roquefeuille’s arrival
from an English frigate which came into the Downs, Sir John Norris
left Spithead with the British fleet, and doubling the South Foreland
from the Downs, on the 23d of February discovered the French fleet
at anchor. Though the wind was against him, Sir John endeavoured,
by availing himself of the tide, to come up and engage the French
squadron; but the tide failing, he was obliged to anchor when
about two leagues from the enemy. He intended to attack them next
morning, but M. de Roquefeuille, not judging it advisable to risk
an engagement, weighed anchor after sunset, and favoured by a hard
gale of wind from the north-east which blew during the night, ran
down the channel and got into Brest harbour. So violent was the gale,
that all the English fleet (two ships only excepted,) parted with
their cables and were driven out to sea, and before they could have
returned to their station, the transports, under convoy of the five
ships of war despatched by Roquefeuille, might have disembarked the
army under Marshal Saxe had the storm not reached the French coast;
but the tempest, which merely forced the English ships to quit their
moorings, was destructive to the expedition, and utterly disconcerted
the design of invading England.
On the very day on which the two fleets discovered each other,
Marshal Saxe, accompanied by Charles Edward, arrived at Dunkirk, and
proceeded to get his troops embarked as fast as possible; 7,000 men
were actually shipped, and proceeded to sea that day with a fair
wind, but in the evening the wind changed to the east, and blew a
hurricane. The embarkation ceased, several of the transports which
had put to sea were wrecked, many soldiers and seamen perished, and
a considerable quantity of warlike stores was lost. The remainder of
the transports were damaged to such an extent that they could not be
speedily repaired.
Such was the result of an expedition planned with great judgment
and conducted with such secrecy as to have escaped the vigilance
of the government till on the very eve of its being carried into
execution. After the discomfiture it had met with from the elements,
and the formidable attitude which England, aroused to a sense of the
imminent danger she was in, had now assumed, the French court must
have instantly abandoned, as it is believed it did abandon, any idea
of renewing the enterprise; but Charles Edward, sanguine of success,
and in no shape discouraged by the catastrophe which had happened,
daily importuned Marshal Saxe to re-embark his troops and proceed to
England; but the marshal excused himself, by urging the necessity of
fresh instructions from court and the previous repair of the damaged
transports.[800] The French ministry, however, finally resolved to
postpone the expedition.
Although war may be said to have virtually commenced between Great
Britain and France by the battle of Dettingen, which was fought
between the allies and the French in the month of June, 1743, no
formal declaration of war was issued by either power till the month
of March following, after the expedition against England had been
given up.
After the failure and abandonment of the enterprise, Prince Charles
retired to Gravelines, where he lived several months in private,
under the assumed name of the Chevalier Douglas. Ever since his
arrival in France he had been forced by the French court to preserve
an incognito, which, though highly approved of by Drummond and
Sempil, his father’s agents, was productive of great uneasiness to
the Chevalier de St. George, who could not understand the reason for
affecting to conceal a fact which was notorious to all the world.[801]
The preparations for invasion had raised, not without foundation,
great hopes of a restoration in the minds of the Scottish Jacobites;
but when they ascertained that the expedition was relinquished, they
felt all that bitterness of disappointment which the miscarriage
of any cherished scheme is sure to engender. They did not however
despair of effecting their object ultimately, and, in the meantime,
the leading members of the Concert despatched a messenger to the
prince to assure him of their attachment to his cause, and inform him
of the state of the country and the dispositions of the people.[802]
About the same time Murray of Broughton went to Paris, by advice of
the Earl of Traquair, to ascertain the exact situation of affairs.
Here he was introduced to the prince by Drummond and Sempil. At
a private interview which he had with Charles the following day,
Murray stated, that from the absurd and contradictory nature of the
communications made by the prince’s agent at Paris, they had, as it
appeared to him, a design to impose upon him with the intention of
serving themselves. Charles alluded to the association which had
been formed at Edinburgh, said that he did not doubt that the King
of France intended to invade Britain in the ensuing spring,--that
he was already preparing for it, and intended to execute it as soon
as the campaign in Flanders was over; but that whether the King of
France undertook the expedition or not, he himself was determined to
go to Scotland. Murray, thereupon, endeavoured to show him that such
an attempt would be desperate, as he could not at the utmost expect
to be joined by more than 4,000 or 5,000 men; but notwithstanding
Murray’s representations, Charles repeated his determination of going
to Scotland. Murray says that he was so much against the undertaking,
that he spoke to Sir Thomas Sheridan--an Irish gentleman who enjoyed
the prince’s confidence--to endeavour to persuade him against it,
and that Sir Thomas told him, on his arrival in Scotland, that he
had done so, but to no purpose. On returning to Scotland Murray
reported to the members of the association all that had passed at
the conference with the prince; and all of them, except the Duke of
Perth, declared themselves opposed to the prince’s resolution of
coming to Scotland without troops.[803] Murray then wrote a letter
to Charles, stating the opinion of his friends, and representing the
ruinous consequences which might ensue from such a rash undertaking.
This letter was committed to the care of a gentleman who went to
London in the month of January, 1745; but he neglected to forward
it, and it was returned to Murray in the month of April. Murray made
several attempts afterwards to forward the letter to France, and at
last succeeded; but it never came to the hands of the prince, who
departed for Scotland before the letter reached its destination.
During the spring of 1745, the agents of the Chevalier de St.
George renewed their solicitations at the French court for another
expedition; but Louis and his ministers were too much occupied with
preparations for the campaign in Flanders to pay much attention to
such applications. They however continued to amuse the Jacobite
negotiators with assurances of conditional support; but James began
to perceive that little or no reliance could be placed upon such
promises. To relieve himself from the _ennui_ occasioned by the
failure of the expedition, and the state of seclusion in which he
was kept by the French government, and to obtain some knowledge of
military tactics, Charles applied for permission to make a campaign
with the French army in Flanders; but although he was warmly backed
in his application by his father, Louis refused to accede to his
wish. Though frustrated in his expectations of any immediate aid from
France, and denied the trifling gratification of making a campaign,
Charles manifested little of the restlessness and hauteur which he
afterwards displayed on his return from Scotland. Though he had
much reason, as he observed, “to be out of humour,” he resolved,
notwithstanding, to bear with patience the disappointments which he
had experienced.[804]
To ease his mind from the anxieties which pressed upon it, the Duke
of Fitzjames and other friends of his family, invited the prince
to pass the spring at their country-seats in the neighbourhood of
Paris, where, amid the society of his friends and rural recreations,
he seemed, for a time, to forget the object for which he had come to
France.
FOOTNOTES:
[781] Letters to the Duke of Ormond and Lord Marischal, 27th January,
1740, among the _Stuart Papers_. Alluding to his expectations of
assistance from France, the Chevalier, in a letter (of which a copy
is also in the same collection,) written to Marischal on the 11th
January, 1740, while the latter was on his way to Madrid, says, “I am
betwixt hopes and fears, though I think there is more room for the
first than the last, as you will have perceived by what Lord Sempil
(so an active agent of James was called,) has I suppose writ to you.
I conclude I shall sometime next month see clearer into these great
affairs.”
[782] Trial of Lord Lovat, p. 21. Home’s _Rebellion_, p. 24.
[783] This scheme was first broached by Drummond to Sempil, another
active agent of the Chevalier, and communicated by him to James, who
signified his approbation of it in a letter to Sempil, dated Nov.
22, 1741. “I approve very much in general of our making application
to the old Whigs, and take it as a new and great mark of Balhaldy’s
zeal. The offer he makes of being instrumental in that measure, I
perused with satisfaction. What you write on the subject, I shall
consider seriously on it betwixt this and next week; I shall by next
post send you a packet for Balhaldy, with all that may appear proper
and necessary for me on that particular.”--_Stuart Papers._
[784] There is, among the _Stuart Papers_, a copy of a letter from
the Chevalier de St. George to Mr. Erskine, 13th March, 1740,
thanking him for the zeal he had shown in his cause.
[785] Lord Lovat’s Trial, p. 75.
[786] Lord Lovat’s Trial, p. 76.
[787] Idem.
[788] Idem.
[789] The Chevalier alludes to this meeting in a letter to Sempil,
9th April, 1743; and in another of 16th May following, he mentions
a long paper which Mr. Erskine had sent him on the state of
affairs.--_Stuart Papers._
[790] Letter from the Chevalier to Sempil, 24th May, 1743.--_Stuart
Papers._
[791] Letter to Sempil, 16th March, 1740,--_Stuart Papers_. Drummond
was not the only person employed by the Chevalier about this time
to visit his friends in England. A Colonel Bret, and afterwards a
Colonel Cecil, with both of whom James corresponded, made frequent
journeys to England. The Duchess of Buckingham made many unsolicited
trips to Paris to hasten Cardinal Fleury’s motions, but James was by
no means satisfied with her officiousness. In writing to her on 20th
July, 1741, he cautions her as follows:--“I must seriously recommend
to you not to importune the old gentleman too much. When you have
given him what lights and information have come to your knowledge,
all the good is done, for in the present situation one would think he
should want no spur to befriend us, and in all events he will go on
in his own way, while teazing him can serve for nothing but to make
him peevish and out of humour.” The duchess must have been possessed
of some important papers, as James, in a letter to Sempil, (2d May,
1743,) written shortly after her death, expresses his concern lest
her papers should fall into the hands of the government.--_Stuart
Papers._
[792] Letter from Lord John to Secretary Edgar among the _Stuart
Papers_, Feb. 25th, 1743.
[793] Letter from Lord Marischal to Lord John Drummond.--_Stuart
Papers_, Feb. 12th, 1743.
[794] “My children,” says James in a letter to Sempil, 9th January,
1744, “parted both this morning from hence before day, the duke for
Cisterna and the prince for his long journey. We have been at so much
pains and contrivance to cover it, that I hope the secret will be
kept for some days, perhaps for several.”--_Stuart Papers._
[795] Alluding to the discovery, James says, (letter to Sempil, 23d
January, 1744,) that it made “a great noise, as you may believe,
here,” viz. at Rome.--_Stuart Papers._
[796] About this time, if we may believe the accounts of the Stuart
party, the spirit of Jacobitism was widely diffused in Scotland. “The
violentest Whigs,” says Mr. John Stuart in a letter to Secretary
Edgar from Boulogne, in February, 1744, “are become the most zealous
Jacobites. My friend says that the last night of the year with us
(that is to say, the prince’s birth-night,) was celebrated there (in
Scotland) as publicly as we could do it here,--that he was himself in
a numerous company of people of fashion, amongst whom were several
officers of the army,--that the health of the day, the merry meeting,
and a whole train of such, were drunk publicly,--that about the third
hour, when the third bottle had banished all reserve, servants were
turned out and the doors lockt, one of the company made a speech,
and filled a bumper to the restoration, and damnation to every
one that would not help; the whole stood to their feet, drunk the
(some words are here torn away in the original,) and their hands to
their swords: the officers pulled the cockades out of their hats,
trampled them under feet, and then tossed them into the fire; then
called for music, and serenaded the ladies with loyal tunes, songs,”
&c.--_Stuart Papers._
[797] _Memoirs of Europe_, vol. ii. p. 197.
[798] The Chevalier de St. George drew up an address to both
universities. It bears the same date (23d December, 1743,) as
the two declarations published in 1745. This address was not
published.--_Stuart Papers._
[799] Smollett’s _History of England_, vol. iii. book ii. chap. 5.
[800] The Marshal, in answer to a querulous note sent by the prince
on 11th of March, says in his answer on the 13th, “Vous ne pouvez,
Monseigneur, accuser que les vents et la fortune des contretemps qui
nous arrivent.” But he promises after the ships were refitted to
proceed with the expedition.--_Stuart Papers._
[801] James, however, at first approved of the incognito. Writing
to Sempil, on 10th March, 1744, he observes, “The prince will have
been tired with his confinement; but, as matters stand, the French
court was much in the right to keep him private, tho’ that will not,
it is true, hinder the Elector of Hanover from taking the alarm, and
his measures against the invasion.” His views were different when
writing Drummond on 12th June. After complaining of the disagreeable
way in which the prince had been employed on his first arrival at
Gravelines, (of which no particulars are given,) he continues, “I
shall not be easy till I know the prince is out of his strange and
long confinement and incognito, which must be so uneasy to him, and,
I think, does little honor to the King of France, while it must carry
something very odd with it in the eye of the public. But there were,
to be sure, reasons for it which the public never knew, but I hope I
shall at last.”--_Stuart Papers._
[802] The arrival of this messenger, whose name was Blair, was
announced by Drummond of Bochaldy to the prince’s father, in a
letter, dated 30th July, 1744:--“Yesterday night there arrived
here, (at Dunkirk,) a gentleman from Scotland sent by the Duke of
Perth, Lord Traquair, and young Lochiel, to inform the prince of
the state and disposition of that country, and the hazard the clans
run by Lord John Drummond attempting to raise a regiment in your
majesty’s name, which he gloriously averred to every particular,
was by his majesty’s command and order; but the dangerous effect of
this was prevented by the gentlemen of the Concert, their prudence
and influence in allowing nobody of any distinction to give either
countenance or credit to it except his brother, who, it seems, they
could not hinder from going such lengths as brought troops about him,
and forced him to abscond, till such time as the government came to
understand that the view was absolutely private in Lord John, and
that the using your majesty’s name was an imposition for private
ends, which the clans had disappointed as much as they could. It
would appear exaggeration to repeat to your majesty the accounts this
gentleman brings of the real spirit and forwardness every man showed
on hearing that the prince was coming to them, and what an universal
melancholy succeeded that flow of spirits on being made certain of a
disappointment.”--_Stuart Papers._
It appears from the Chevalier’s answer (28th August, 1744), to the
above-mentioned letter, that Lord John Drummond was authorised to
raise the regiment:--“I remarked what you said last post in relation
to Lord John: he had my approbation for endeavouring to raise a Scots
regiment in the French service; and as I think that in general the
more troops there be of my subjects in that service, the better. I
must recommend to you not to take any steps to obstruct the raising
of the said regiment.”--_Stuart Papers._
[803] The prince’s design was rumoured at Paris, and communicated
by Sempil to the Chevalier, who, in his answer, dated 23d February,
1745, remarks as follows:--“I am noways surprised that some French
people should have a notion of the prince’s going to Scotland without
troops, tho’ nobody surely can enter into such an idea except out
of ignorance, and from not knowing the true state of things. But
I am always alarmed at it, because I think it impossible that the
King of France should approve of such a project, and that it is well
known how much I should myself be averse to it. However, it will be
always well that you use your best endeavours to refute so dangerous
a scheme, and that nobody can do more solidly and effectually than
yourself, from the lights and knowledge you have of the affairs of
Britain; and I own, till I see the contrary, I shall, as long as
the war lasts, always hope that the French will take at last some
generous resolution in our favour.”--_Stuart Papers._
[804] _Stuart Papers_, February and March, 1745.