Reign of George II. (_continued_).
Effects of Walpole's Administration--Formation of the new
Ministry--Attitude of the Malcontents--Committee of Inquiry into
Walpole's Administration--Walpole's Protectors--Ministerial
Measures--Prorogation of Parliament--Disasters of the
French--British Division in the Netherlands--Opening of
Parliament--The German Mercenaries--Amendment of the Gin
Act--George goes to Germany--Stair and De Noailles in
Franconia--Stair in a Trap--Bold Resolution of King George--The
Battle of Dettingen--Resignation of Stair--Retreat of the
French--Negotiations for Peace--Treaty of Worms--Pelham becomes
Prime Minister--The Attacks of Pitt on Carteret--Attempted
Invasion of England--Its Failure--Progress of the French
Arms--Frederick II. invades Bohemia--His Retirement--Resignation
of Carteret--Pelham strengthens his Ministry--Death of the
Emperor--Campaign in Flanders--Battle of Fontenoy--Campaign of
Frederick II.--The Young Pretender's Preparations--Loss of the
_Elizabeth_--Landing in the Hebrides--The Highland Clans join
him--The First Brush--Raising of the Standard--Cope's Mistake--He
turns aside at Dalwhinnie--Charles makes a Dash for Edinburgh--The
March to Stirling--Right of the Dragoons--The "Canter of
Coltbridge"--Edinburgh surprised by the Highlanders--Charles
marching against Cope--Battle of Prestonpans--Delay in marching
South--Discontent of the Highland Chiefs--The Start--Preparations
in England--Apathy of the Aristocracy--Arrival of the Duke of
Cumberland--Charles crosses the Border--Capture of Carlisle--The
March to Derby--Resolution to retreat--"Black Friday"--The
Retreat--Recapture of Carlisle--Siege of Stirling--Battle of
Falkirk--Retreat to the Highlands--Cumberland's Pursuit--Gradual
Collapse of the Highlanders--Battle of Culloden--Termination of the
Rebellion--Cruelty of the Duke of Cumberland--Adventures of the
Young Pretender--Trials and Executions--Ministerial Crisis.
So passed from a long possession of power a Minister who inaugurated
a system of corruption, which was not so much abused by himself, as
made a ready instrument of immeasurable mischief in the hands of his
successors. Had Walpole used the power which he purchased with the
country's money more arbitrarily and perniciously, the system must have
come much sooner to an end. As it was, the evils which he introduced
fell rather on posterity than on his own time.
Before he withdrew, the king, who retained his high opinion of his
political wisdom, consulted him on the constitution of the new Cabinet.
Walpole recommended that the post of First Lord of the Treasury,
including the Premiership, should be offered to Pulteney, as the man
of the most undoubted talent. If he should refuse it, then that it
should be given to Lord Wilmington, who, though by no means capable
of directing affairs by his own energy, was of a disposition which
might allow them to be conducted by the joint counsel of his abler
colleagues. The king consented that the Premiership should be offered
to Pulteney, though he hated the man, but only on this condition,
that he pledged himself to resist any prosecution of the ex-Minister.
Pulteney declined the overture on such a condition, for though he said
he had no desire to punish Walpole, he might not be able to defend him
from the attacks of his colleagues, for, he observed, "the heads of
parties, like those of snakes, are carried on by their tails." The king
then sent Newcastle to Pulteney, and it was agreed to allow Wilmington
to take the post of First Lord of the Treasury. Carteret thought
that this office was more due to him, but Pulteney declared that if
Wilmington were not permitted to take the Premiership he would occupy
it himself, and Carteret gave way, accepting the place of Secretary of
State, with the promise that he should manage in reality the foreign
affairs. In all these arrangements the king still took the advice
of Walpole, and Newcastle was instructed to again endeavour to draw
from Pulteney a promise that he would at least keep himself clear of
any prosecution of the late Minister. Pulteney evaded the question by
saying that he was not a bloody or revengeful man; that he had always
aimed at the destruction of the power of Walpole, and not of his
person, but that he still thought he ought not to escape without some
censure, and could not engage himself without his party.
Newcastle, who wanted to retain his place in the new Cabinet, was
more successful on his own behalf. Pulteney said he had no objection
to himself or the Lord Chancellor, but that many changes must be made
in order to satisfy the late Opposition, and to give the Cabinet a
necessary majority. Pulteney then declared that, for himself, he
desired a peerage and a place in the Cabinet, and thus the new Ministry
was organised:--Wilmington, First Lord of the Treasury; Carteret,
Secretary of State; the Marquis of Tweeddale, Secretary for Scotland;
Sandys, the motion-maker, Chancellor of the Exchequer; the Prince of
Wales was to receive the additional fifty thousand pounds a year; and
his two friends, Lord Baltimore and Lord Archibald Hamilton, to have
seats at the new Board of Admiralty.
When these arrangements became known, the Tory party grew dreadfully
exasperated. But not the Tories only--there were throngs of Whigs who
had battled zealously for the same object, and with the same hope
of personal benefit, and yet they were passed over, and Pulteney,
Carteret, and their immediate coterie had quietly taken care of
themselves, and thrown their coadjutors overboard. A meeting was
appointed between Pulteney and the rest already in office, and the Duke
of Argyll, Chesterfield, Cobham, Bathurst, and some others. The Prince
of Wales was present, and the different claims were discussed. Argyll
was satisfied by being made Master-General of the Ordnance, Colonel
of His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, Field-Marshal and
Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in South Britain. Chesterfield
got nothing, professing to wait to see a more thorough change of men
before he went amongst them; but Cobham was made a Field-Marshal,
and restored to the command of the Grenadier Guards, but he could
get nothing for his nephew, the fiery Oppositionist, Lyttelton. Lord
Harrington was made an Earl and President of the Council. But what
surprised the country most was that Pulteney, hitherto the head and
soul of the party, should have been content to sacrifice himself for
the sake of a title. He was made Earl of Bath and received a place in
the Cabinet; but by this change, although he seemed to have a brilliant
career before him, he forfeited the confidence of the country, which
had always looked up to him as the most determined and disinterested of
patriots. From this moment he sank into insignificance and contempt.
Some others of the old officials remained in as well as Newcastle. Sir
William Yonge and Pelham, brother of Newcastle, retained their posts,
Yonge as Secretary of War, and Pelham as Paymaster of the Forces.
The new Ministry were now to find that it was very difficult to
perpetuate principles and measures which they had for a quarter of
a century been condemning simply because they furnished weapons of
annoyance to the party then in power. The public, still smarting under
the ruinous mismanagement of the war, returned to the charge, by
demanding an inquiry into the conduct of Walpole, whom they accused of
their sufferings. These petitions were introduced and recommended by
what were called the Boy Patriots--Pitt, Lyttelton, and the rest.
As a means of popularity, they insisted on the standing army being
abolished in time of peace, on the strict limitation of placemen in
Parliament, and on the return to triennial Parliaments. These were hard
topics for the patriots now in power to digest. But the depression
of trade continued, and no one could suggest a remedy but that of
reducing taxation at the very time that all parties were zealous
for the prosecution of the war. Finding no other solution to their
difficulties, the public turned again to the demand of an inquiry into
the administration of Walpole, hoping to lay bare in that the causes of
their sufferings. Accordingly Lord Limerick, on the 23rd of March, rose
and proposed a committee to inquire into the administration of Walpole,
not for twenty, but for the last ten years. Pulteney not only voted,
but spoke in favour of this motion, and it was carried by a majority
of seven. Lord Limerick was chosen chairman, and such was the partial
and vindictive spirit in which they went to work in examining papers
and witnesses, that the honourable-minded Sir John Barnard, though so
staunch an opponent of Walpole when in power, declared that he would
no longer take part in the labours of a committee which displayed
so little regard to the general inquiry, but concentrated all their
efforts on the ruin of one individual.
But the Committee found itself opposed in these objects in the highest
quarter. The king displayed the most firm disposition to protect
his late Minister, and was in constant communication with Walpole
and his friends for the purpose. Every means were used to protect
from the scrutiny of the Committee those who were possessed of the
most important information, and to induce them to remain obstinately
silent. Mr. Edgecumbe, who had managed the Cornish boroughs for
Walpole, and could have revealed things which would have filled the
Committee with exultation, was raised to the Upper House, and thus
removed from the power of the Commons. Paxton, the Solicitor to the
Treasury, a most important witness, remained unshakably silent, and
was committed to Newgate; nor was the Committee more successful with
Scrope, the Secretary to the Treasury. This officer, who, no doubt,
held most desirable knowledge in his bosom, firmly refused to make any
disclosures, though he was now a very feeble old man. Other officials
declined to make statements whose disclosure might incriminate
themselves, and which they were excused from doing by the great
principles of our judicature. To remove this obstacle Lord Limerick,
the Chairman of the Committee, then moved that a Bill of Indemnity
should be passed, to exempt witnesses from all penalties in consequence
of their disclosures. This passed the Commons by a majority of twelve,
but was rejected in the House of Lords by a large majority.
After contending with such difficulties--for the Committee was, in
truth, combating with all the powers of the Crown--it was not likely
that it would produce a very effective report. In fact, desirable as it
was that a deep and searching inquiry should have been made, and the
mysteries of that long reign of corruption thrown open, the fact that
the Monarch and the Minister had gone hand in hand through the whole of
it was, on the very surface, fatal to any hope of a successful issue,
and what rendered this fatality greater was, that the Committee too
obviously went into the question hotly to crush an old antagonist who
had defeated and humiliated them for a long course of years, rather
than to serve the nation. When, therefore, on the 30th of June, they
presented their report, the feeling, on its perusal, was one of intense
disappointment. It alleged that, during an election at Weymouth, a
place had been promised to the Mayor if he would use his influence
in obtaining the nomination of a retiring officer, and that a church
living had been promised to the Mayor's brother-in-law for the same
purpose; that some revenue officers, who refused to vote for the
ministerial nominees, were dismissed; that a fraudulent contract had
been given to Peter Burrell and John Bristow, two members of the House
of Commons, for furnishing money in Jamaica for the payment of the
troops, by which they had pocketed upwards of fourteen per cent. But
what were these few trifling and isolated cases to that great system
of corruption which the public were satisfied had spread through all
Walpole's administration, and which abounded with far more wonderful
instances than these? The very mention of them, and them alone, was a
proclamation of defeat.
The Committee of Inquiry, stimulated by the disappointment of the
public, began preparations for a fresh report; but their labours were
cut short by the termination of the Session. In order to conciliate in
some degree public opinion, Ministers hastened to allow the passing
of a Bill to exclude certain officers from the House of Commons; they
passed another to encourage the linen manufacture; a third, to regulate
the trade of the Colonies; and a fourth, to prevent the marriage of
lunatics. They voted forty thousand seamen and sixty-two thousand
landsmen for the service of the current year. The whole expenditure of
the year amounted to nearly six million pounds, which was raised by a
land-tax of four shillings in the pound; by a malt-tax; by a million
from the sinking fund; and by other resources. They provided for the
subsidies to Denmark and Hesse-Cassel, and voted another five hundred
thousand pounds to the Queen of Hungary. On the 15th of July the king
prorogued Parliament; at the same time assuring the two Houses that
a peace was concluded between the Queen of Hungary and the King of
Prussia, through his mediation; and that the late successes of the
Austrian arms were in a great measure owing to the generous assistance
of the British nation.
Deserted by the Prussians, the French retired with precipitation to
Prague, where they were followed by the Austrian army under Prince
Charles of Lorraine and Prince Lobkowitz. Soon after the Grand Duke
of Tuscany took the principal command, and the French offered to
capitulate on condition that they might march away with their arms and
baggage. This was refused; but Marshal Belleisle stole out of Prague
in December, and, giving Lobkowitz the slip, made for the mountains
with fourteen thousand men and thirty pieces of artillery. Belleisle
displayed unwearied activity in protecting his men and baggage from
the harassing pursuit of Lobkowitz. Notwithstanding this his men
perished in great numbers from famine and the severity of the season.
They had been reduced to eat horseflesh before leaving Prague, and now
they fell exhausted in the deep snows, and were mercilessly butchered
by the Austrian irregulars and peasantry. On the 29th of December he
reached Eger, and from that point marched into Alsace without further
molestation; but he then found that of the thirty-five thousand troops
which he took into Germany, only eight thousand remained. Though this
retreat was celebrated as one of the most remarkable in history, the
Marshal, on reaching Versailles, was received with great coldness.
Whilst these events had been passing in Austria and Bavaria, the
King of England had endeavoured to make a powerful diversion in the
Netherlands. Under the plea of this movement sixteen thousand British
troops were embarked in April for the Netherlands; but they were first
employed to overawe Prussia, which was in contention with Hanover
regarding the Duchy of Mecklenburg. There were other causes of dispute
between Prussia and the Elector of Hanover. George having now this
strong British force, besides sixteen thousand Hanoverian troops and
six thousand auxiliary Hessians, Frederick thought proper to come
to terms with him, and, in consequence of mutual arrangements, the
Hanoverian troops quitted Mecklenburg, and George, feeling Hanover
safe, marched this united force to the Netherlands to join the British
ones. He expected the Dutch to co-operate with him and the Austrians,
and strike a decided blow at France. But the Earl of Stair, who was
to command these forces, and who was at the same time ambassador to
the States, found it impossible to induce the Dutch to act. They had
increased their forces both by sea and land, but they were afraid of
the vicinity of the French, and were, with their usual jealousy, by no
means pleased to see the English assuming power in the Netherlands.
Therefore, after making a great demonstration of an attempt on the
French frontier with the united army, the project was suddenly
abandoned, and the troops retired into winter quarters. But little was
accomplished during this year by the British fleet.
Parliament met on the 16th of November, when the king told them that
he had augmented the British forces in the Low Countries with sixteen
thousand Hanoverians and six thousand Hessians. In fact, it had been
his design, accompanied by his son, the Duke of Cumberland, to go over
and take the command of the combined army of English, Hanoverians,
Austrians, and Dutch; but the arrival of the Earl of Stair, who had
been the nominal commander of these troops, and the return of Lord
Carteret from the Hague, with the news that the Dutch could not be
moved, had caused him to give up the idea and order his baggage on
shore again. He assured Parliament, however, that the spirit and
magnanimity of the Queen of Hungary, and the resolute conduct of the
King of Sardinia in Italy, had produced the most beneficial effect.
The usual address, proposed by the Marquis of Tweeddale, met with
considerable opposition, especially in the Upper House, from the Earl
of Chesterfield. Lyttelton again introduced the Place Bill, but it
was rejected by the very men who had formerly advocated it. There was
another motion made for inquiry into the administration of Walpole,
on the plea that inquiry had been shamefully stifled on the former
occasion; but it met with the same fate. But on the 10th of December
the Opposition mustered all its strength on the motion of Sir William
Yonge, the new Secretary at War, that we should pay for the sixteen
thousand Hanoverians and the six thousand Hessians, and that a grant
of six hundred and fifty-seven thousand pounds should be made for
their maintenance from August, 1742, to December, 1743. It was the
hard task of Sandys, as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, to defend
this monstrous grant and the interests of Hanover, after so many
years of attack on these topics in opposition. Pitt answered Sandys
in the most caustic style of his eloquence, and Sir John Aubyn and
others followed as indignantly; but the Ministers carried the motion
by two hundred and sixty votes against one hundred and ninety-three.
Their ablest supporter on this occasion was Murray, afterwards Lord
Mansfield, who made his first parliamentary speech on the occasion, and
showed the delighted Cabinet that the man whom they had just made their
Solicitor-General was capable of contending with that "terrible comet
of horse," Pitt.
[Illustration: GEORGE II. AT DETTINGEN, 1743.
FROM THE PAINTING BY ROBERT HILLINGFORD]
The year 1743 opened with a mighty struggle on the subject of gin. In
1736, as we have seen, the awful increase of drunkenness, which was
attributed to the cheapness of gin, induced a majority of the House
of Commons to pass an Act levying twenty shillings a gallon duty upon
the liquor, and charging every vendor of it fifty pounds per annum for
a licence. Walpole at the time declared that such an attempt to place
gin beyond the reach of the poor consumers would fail; that it would
fail equally as a source of revenue, for it would lead to wholesale
smuggling and every possible evasion of the law. The event had proved
Walpole only too correct in his prognostications. So far from checking
the use of gin, the Act had stimulated it enormously. The licences, so
preposterously high, were wholly neglected; no duty was paid, yet the
destructive liquid was sold at every street corner. Ministers now saw
that, by attempting too much, every thing in this case had been lost.
They were sacrificing the revenues only to sacrifice the well-being of
the people. They determined, therefore, to reduce the licences from
fifty pounds to one pound per annum, and at the same time to retain a
moderate duty on the liquor. By this means the fatal compound would
remain much at the same price, but the vendors would be induced to take
out licences, and the revenues would be greatly improved, whilst the
whole sale of the article would be more under the restraints of law
and police. A Bill was framed on these principles, and passed rapidly
through the Commons; but in the Lords it encountered a determined
opposition. It was, however, carried entire, and, says Smollett, "we
cannot help averring that it has not been attended with those dismal
consequences which the Lords in the Opposition foretold."
The business of the session now hastened to its close. Votes were given
for forty thousand seamen and eleven thousand marines; for sixteen
thousand British troops in Flanders, and twenty-three thousand for
guards and garrisons at home. For the year's supplies six millions of
pounds were voted, and then Parliament was prorogued on the 21st of
April. In doing this, George told the Houses that he had ordered his
army to pass the Rhine to support the Queen of Hungary. No sooner had
Parliament closed, than George, accompanied by his son, the Duke of
Cumberland, and Lord Carteret, hastened off to Germany. The British
army, which the king had ordered to march from Flanders to aid the
Austrians, had set out at the end of February. They were commanded
by Lord Stair, and on their route were joined by several Austrian
regiments under the Duke of Aremberg, and the sixteen thousand
Hanoverians in British pay, who had wintered at Liége. They marched
so slowly that they only crossed the Rhine in the middle of May. They
halted at Höchst, between Mayence and Frankfort, awaiting the six
thousand Hanoverians in Electoral pay, and an equal number of Hessians,
who had been garrisoning the fortresses of Flanders, but who were now
relieved by Dutch troops. Stair had now forty thousand men, and might
easily have seized the Emperor at Frankfort. All parties had respected,
however, the neutrality of Frankfort, and Stair did the same, probably
because the Emperor, having no subjects to ransom him, might have
proved rather a burden on his hands. De Noailles, on his part, had
sixty thousand men, independently of the twelve thousand furnished to
Broglie. He kept an active eye on the motions of the allied army, and
as Stair encamped on the northern bank of the Main, he also passed the
Rhine and encamped on the southern bank of the Main. The two camps lay
only four leagues from each other, presenting a most anomalous aspect.
The genius of Lord Stair was anything but military, and soon led him
into a dilemma. Instead of waiting, as he had first determined, for the
reinforcements of Hessians and Hanoverians, he advanced up the river,
with the intention of drawing supplies from Franconia. He advanced to
Aschaffenberg, which he reached on the 16th of June; but Noailles had
rapidly followed him, and adroitly seized on the fords of both the
Upper and Lower Main, thus cutting off Stair both from his own stores
at Hanau, and from the expected supplies of Franconia. At this critical
moment King George arrived at the camp, and found Noailles lying in a
strong position, and Stair cooped up with his army in a narrow valley
between the wild and hilly forest of Spessart, which extends from
Aschaffenberg to Dettingen and the river Main. To render his case the
more desperate, he had quarrelled with Aremberg, who had let him pursue
his march alone; and Stair now lay, with only thirty-seven thousand
men, in the very grasp, as it were, of Noailles and his sixty thousand
men.
In this awkward dilemma the king resolved to cut his way through the
French, superior as they were, and regain communication with their
magazines and their auxiliaries at Hanau. But Noailles was closely
watching their movements; and, being aware of what was intended, took
instant measures to prevent the retreat. He immediately advanced
from their front to their rear, threw two bridges over the Main at
Selingenstadt, and despatched his nephew, the Duke de Gramont, to
secure the defile of Dettingen, through which the English must pass in
their retreat. He also raised strong batteries on the opposite bank of
the Main, so as to play on the English as they marched along the river.
These preparations being unknown to the English, and still supposing
Noailles' principal force lay between them and Aschaffenberg, instead
of between them and Dettingen, on the 27th of June, at daybreak, the
king struck his tents, and the march on Dettingen began. George showed
a stout heart in the midst of these startling circumstances, and the
soldiers, having the presence of their king, were full of spirits.
George took up his position in the rear of his army, expecting the
grand attack to come from that quarter; but presently he beheld his
advanced posts repulsed from Dettingen, and the French troops pouring
over the bridge of the Main. He then perceived that Noailles had
anticipated their movements, and, galloping to the head of his column,
he reversed the order of his march, placing the infantry in front and
the cavalry in the rear. His right extended to the bosky hills of the
Spessart, and his left to the river. He saw at once the difficulty of
their situation. Gramont occupied a strong position in the village of
Dettingen, which was covered by a swamp and a ravine. There was no
escape but by cutting right through De Gramont's force--no easy matter;
and whilst they were preparing for the charge, the batteries of the
French on the opposite bank of the Main, of which they were previously
unaware, began to play murderously on their flank. With this unpleasant
discovery came at the same instant the intelligence that Noailles had
secured Aschaffenberg in their rear with twelve thousand men, and was
sending fresh reinforcements to De Gramont in front. Thus they were
completely hemmed in by the enemy, who were confidently calculating on
the complete surrender of the British army and the capture of the king.
George and his soldiers, however, lost no atom of heart; they
determined to cut a way through the enemy or die on the ground; and
luckily at this moment the enemy committed almost as great an error
as Stair had done. Noailles quitted his post in front of the king's
army, and crossed the Main bridge to give some further orders on that
side; and no sooner did he depart than his nephew, De Gramont, eager
to seize the glory of defeating the English, and not aware that the
whole British army was at that moment about to bear down upon him,
ordered his troops to cross the ravine in their front, and assault the
English on their own side. The order was executed, and had instantly
the unforeseen effect of silencing their own batteries on the other
side of the river, for, by this movement, the French came directly
between their fire and the English, which it had been till that moment
mercilessly mowing down.
At this moment the horse which George II. was riding, taking fright at
the noise made by the French in their advance, became unmanageable,
and plunged forward furiously, nearly carrying the king into the
midst of the French lines. Being, however, stopped just in time, the
king dismounted, and placing himself at the head of the British and
Hanoverian infantry on the right, he flourished his sword and said,
"Now, boys! now for the honour of England! Fire, and behave bravely,
and the French will soon run!"
The first charge, however, was not so encouraging. The French made
an impetuous onset, and threw the advanced guard of the English into
confusion; but the king and his son, the Duke of Cumberland, who
commanded on the left, and, like his father, took his stand in the
front line, displayed the highest pluck, and inspired their troops
with wonderful courage. The tide of battle was quickly turned, and
Noailles, from the other side, saw with astonishment and alarm his
troops in action contrary to his plans. He returned in all haste to
give fresh support to his soldiers, but it was too late. Gallantly as
the French fought, the presence of the king and prince on the other
side made the English and Hanoverians irresistible. King, and prince,
and army all showed an enthusiastic courage and steadiness which bore
down everything before them. The dense column of infantry, led on by
the king, broke the French ranks, and cut through them with terrible
slaughter. Noailles, seeing the havoc, gave a command which completed
the disaster. To shield his men, he ordered them to repass the Main;
but a word of retreat, in all such cases, is a word of defeat. The
retrograde movement produced dismay and disorder; the whole became a
precipitate rout. The French were driven in confused masses against the
bridges, the bridges were choked up with the struggling throng, and
numbers were forced into the river, or jumped in for escape, and were
drowned.
Such was the battle of Dettingen, equally remarkable for the blunders
of the generals and the valour of the men; still more so, as the last
battle in which a King of England has commanded in person. At Hanau,
the army not only refreshed itself, but was joined by reinforcements,
which rendered the Allies nearly equal in numbers to the French. Lord
Stair, therefore, proposed to pass the Main, and make a second attack
on the enemy. The king, however, would not consent. Stair, with all his
bravery, had shown that he was very incautious. He was, moreover, of a
most haughty temper, and had quarrelled violently with the Hanoverian
officers, and displayed much contempt for the petty German princes.
They were, therefore, by no means inclined to second his counsels,
though they had fought gallantly at Dettingen. Stair complained loudly
of the neglect to follow up the French, and resigned.
[Illustration: GEORGE II.]
The best excuse for George II.'s apparent sluggishness was, that the
French were now so closely pressed by concentrating armies. Prince
Charles of Lorraine and the Austrians were pressing De Broglie so
hotly that he was glad to escape over the Rhine near Mannheim; and
Noailles, thus finding himself between two hostile armies, followed his
example, crossed over the Rhine to Worms, where, uniting with Broglie,
they retreated to their own frontier at Lauter, and thus the Empire
was cleared of them. The Emperor Charles now suffered the fate which
he may be said to have richly deserved. He was immediately compelled
to solicit for peace from Austria through the mediation of George of
England and Prince William of Hesse. But Maria Theresa, now helped out
of all her difficulties by English money and English soldiers, was
not inclined to listen to any moderate terms, even when proposed by
her benefactor, the King of England. The Emperor was down, and she
proposed nothing less than that he should permanently cede Bavaria to
her, or give up the Imperial crown to her husband. Such terms were
not to be listened to; but the fallen Emperor finally did conclude a
treaty of neutrality with the Queen of Hungary, by which he consented
that Bavaria should remain in her hands till the conclusion of a peace.
This peace the King of England and William of Hesse did their best to
accomplish; and Carteret, who was agent for King George, had consented
that on this peace England should grant a subsidy of three hundred
thousand crowns to the Emperor. No sooner, however, did the English
Ministers receive the preliminaries of this contract, than they very
properly struck out this subsidy, and the whole treaty fell to the
ground.
Before quitting Germany, however, George had signed a treaty between
himself, Austria, and Sardinia, in which Italian affairs were
determined. The Spaniards, under Count Gages and the Infant Don
Philip, had made some attempts against the Austrians in Italy, but
with little effect. By the present treaty, signed at Worms on the
13th of September, the King of Sardinia engaged to assist the Allies
with forty-five thousand men, and to renounce his pretensions to the
Milanese, on condition that he should command the Allied army in Italy
in person, should receive the cession of Vigevenasco and the other
districts from Austria, and a yearly subsidy of two hundred thousand
pounds from England. This was also negotiated by Lord Carteret on the
part of King George, and without much reference to the Ministers in
England, who, on receiving the treaty, expressed much dissatisfaction;
but, as it was signed, they let it pass. But there was another and
separate convention, by which George agreed to grant the Queen of
Hungary a subsidy of three hundred thousand pounds per annum, not only
during the war, but as long as the necessity of her affairs required
it. This not being signed, the British Ministers refused to assent to
it, and it remained unratified.
In all these transactions Carteret showed the most facile disposition
to gratify all the Hanoverian tendencies of the king, in order to
ingratiate himself and secure the Premiership at home. But in this he
did not succeed; he was much trusted by George in foreign affairs, and
in them he remained. Lord Wilmington, Prime Minister, had died two
months before the signing of the treaty at Worms, and the competitors
for his office were Pelham, brother of the Duke of Newcastle, and
Pulteney. Pelham was supported by Newcastle, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke,
and still more powerfully by the old Minister under whom he had been
trained--Lord Orford, who, though out of office, was consulted in
everything relating to it. Pulteney and Pelham had both, according
to their friends, neglected the necessary steps for succeeding
Wilmington. Pulteney had declined any office, vainly hoping that his
great popularity would enable him to guide public affairs. His friends
reminded him that had he taken the Treasury on Walpole's resignation,
he would now have been still at the helm. Pelham's great adviser,
Lord Orford, said to him, "If you had taken my advice, and held the
Exchequer under Wilmington, the whole had dropped into your mouth."
Pelham, however, received the appointment from the king, and this was
communicated in a letter from Carteret, who candidly told him that, as
the old friend and colleague of Pulteney, Lord Bath, he had done all in
his power to secure the office for him, but now he would support Pelham
cordially, notwithstanding. Pelham was at this period forty-seven years
of age, of far inferior talent to Orford, but pursued his cautious
principles and acted under his advice.
On the return of the king and Carteret, Parliament was opened on the
1st of December. The first trial of the Opposition was on the Address,
on which occasion its real strength was not called forth, and this was
carried by two hundred and seventy-eight votes against one hundred
and forty-nine. But the subject of Hanoverian troops and Hanoverian
measures soon displayed its extent and virulence. There was a vehement
feeling against everything relating to Hanover, and Pitt lost no time
in denouncing Carteret and his measures in the most bitter terms.
Pitt's thunder was echoed by others, and the scene in the Commons
was described by a spectator as like nothing but a tumultuous Polish
Diet. Such was the ferment amid which opened the year 1744, and it
soon became evident that the existence of the country was at stake.
Preparations had been making for the invasion of England for some time.
Cardinal Tencin, the new French Minister, sent Murray of Broughton to
James in Rome, to desire him to send his eldest son, Prince Charles,
to France to be in readiness for the campaign in England, and in due
course the Young Pretender arrived at Gravelines.
The expedition against England was at this moment actually in motion.
The squadrons of Brest and Rochefort were already united under the
command of Admiral Roquefeuille, and sailing up the Channel to clear
the way for the transports containing the soldiers. Sir John Norris had
been appointed Admiral of our Channel fleet, consisting of twenty-one
ships of the line. He had lain at Spithead, but had quitted that
station and sailed into the Downs, where he was joined by other ships
from Chatham; and thus was not only superior in number to the French,
but had the advantage of being well acquainted with the coasts, he
having long been Captain of Deal Castle. Roquefeuille sailed right
up to the Isle of Wight, and, observing no vessels off Spithead, he,
in his French egotism, concluded that the fleet had sought shelter
in Portsmouth harbour. He therefore lost no time in despatching a
small vessel to Dunkirk to hasten on his armament. Seven thousand men
were instantly sent on board transports, and the prince and Marshal
Saxe, who was to take command of the land force, accompanied them.
Roquefeuille, meanwhile, proceeding on his voyage, came to anchor off
Dungeness, which he had no sooner done than he beheld the British fleet
bearing down upon him in much greater force than his own, for he had
only fifteen ships of the line and five frigates. The destruction of
the French fleet appeared inevitable, but Sir John Norris this time
justly incurred the censure of lingering. He thought, from the state of
the tide and the approach of night, it was better to defer the attack
till morning; and, when morning came, no Frenchmen were to be seen. The
French admiral, much more active than poor old Sir John, had slipped
his cables and made the best of his way homewards.
The next day tempest scattered the approaching transports. Sir John
thought the storm sufficient excuse for not pursuing; but the winds
followed the invaders, and blowing directly from London towards
Dunkirk, dispersed the French transports, sank some of the largest
of them with all their men, wrecked others on the coast, and made
the rest glad to recover their port. Charles waited impatiently for
the cessation of the tempest to put to sea again, but the French
ministers were discouraged by the disaster, and by the discovery of so
powerful a British fleet in the Channel. The army was withdrawn from
Dunkirk, Marshal Saxe was appointed to the command in Flanders, and the
expedition for the present was relinquished.
After these transactions there could no longer remain even the name of
peace between France and England. Mr. Thompson, the British Resident at
Paris, made the most indignant complaints of the hostile proceedings
of the French fleets and of the encouragement of the Young Pretender.
The reply to this was a formal declaration of war, couched in the most
offensive terms, in the month of March, to which George replied in a
counter-declaration equally strong.
The French having now formally declared war with England, entered on
the campaign with Flanders in the middle of May with eighty thousand
men, the king taking the nominal command, in imitation of Louis XIV.
Marshal Saxe was the real commander, and with this able general Louis
went on for some time reaping fictitious laurels. The King of England
expected to see the Allies muster seventy-five thousand men--a force
nearly equal to that of the French; but the Dutch and Austrians had
grievously failed in their stipulated quotas, and the whole army did
not exceed fifty thousand. General Wade, the English commander, was
a general of considerable experience, but no Marlborough, either
in military genius or that self-command which enabled him to bear
up against tardy movements and antagonistic tempers of the foreign
officers. Consequently, whilst he had to contend with a very superior
force, he was hampered by his coadjutors, lost his temper, and, what
was worse, lost battles too. The French went on taking town after town
and fortress after fortress. But this career of victory was destined
to receive a check. Prince Charles of Lorraine, at the head of sixty
thousand men, burst into Alsace, and marched without any serious
obstacle to the very walls of Strasburg; while the French king was
stricken with fever at Metz.
Whilst Louis lay ill at Metz, France received an unexpected relief.
Prince Charles was hastily recalled to cope with Frederick of Prussia,
who had now joined France in the counter-league of Frankfort, and burst
into the territories of Maria Theresa. He found in Prague a garrison of
fifteen thousand men, yet by the 15th of September he had reduced the
place, after a ten days' siege. At the same time Marshal Seckendorf,
the Imperial general, entered Bavaria, which was defended only by a
small force, and quickly reinstated Charles on the throne of Munich.
Vienna itself was in the greatest alarm, lest the enemies uniting
should pay it a visit. But this danger was averted by the rapid return
of Prince Charles of Lorraine from before Strasburg. He had to pass the
very front of the French army; nevertheless, he conducted his forces
safely and expeditiously to the frontiers of Bohemia, himself hastening
to Vienna to consult on the best plan of operations. Maria Theresa
again betook herself to her heroic Hungarians, who, at her appeal, once
more rushed to her standard; and Frederick, in his turn alarmed, called
loudly on the French for their promises of assistance, but called in
vain. The French had no desire for another campaign in the heart of
Austria. The Prussian invader, therefore, soon found himself menaced on
all sides by Austrians, Croatians, and Hungarian troops, who harassed
him day and night, cut off his supplies and his forages, and made him
glad to retrace his steps in haste.
Carteret--or Granville, as we must now style him, for he succeeded to
the earldom in 1744--still retained the favour of the king precisely
in the same degree as he had forfeited that of the people and the
Parliament, by his unscrupulous support of George's Hanoverian
predilections. Elated with the favour of the king, Granville insisted
on exercising the same supreme power in the Cabinet which Walpole had
done. This drove Pelham and his brother, Newcastle, to inform the king
that they or Granville must resign. George, unwilling to part with
Granville, yet afraid of offending the Pelham party, and risking their
support of the large subsidies which he required for Germany, was in a
great strait. He sent for Lord Orford up from Houghton, who attended,
though in the extreme agonies of the stone, which, in a few months
later, brought him to his end. Walpole, notwithstanding the strong
desire of the king to retain Granville, and that also of the Prince
of Wales--who on this and all points connected with Hanover agreed
with the king, though no one else did--decided that it was absolutely
necessary that he should resign; and accordingly, on the 24th of
November, Granville sullenly resigned the seals, and they were returned
to his predecessor, the Earl of Harrington.
The fall of Granville became the revolution of all parties. The
Pelhams, in order to prevent his return to the Ministry through the
partiality of the king, determined to construct a Cabinet on what was
called a broad bottom--that is, including some of both sections of the
Whigs, and even some of the Tories. They opened a communication with
Chesterfield, Gower, and Pitt, and these violent oppositionists were
ready enough to obtain place on condition of uniting against Granville
and Bath. The difficulty was to reconcile the king to them. George
was not well affected towards Chesterfield, and would not consent to
admit him to any post near his person, but permitted him, after much
reluctance, to be named Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. As for Pitt, he
was even more repugnant to the king than Chesterfield, and Pitt, on
his part, would accept nothing less than the post of Secretary at
War. The Pelhams advised him to have patience and they would overcome
the king's reluctance; but when they proposed that the Tory Sir John
Hynde Cotton should have a place, George, in his anger, exclaimed,
"Ministers are kings in this country!"--and so they are for the time.
After much negotiation and accommodating of interests and parties, the
Ministry was ultimately arranged as follows:--Lord Hardwicke remained
Lord Chancellor; Pelham was First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor
of the Exchequer; the Duke of Newcastle became one Secretary of State,
Lord Harrington the other; the Duke of Devonshire remained Steward of
the Household; the Duke of Bedford was appointed First Lord of the
Admiralty, with Lord Sandwich as Second Lord; Lord Gower was made
Privy Seal; Lord Lyttelton became a member of the Treasury Board; Mr.
Grenville was made a Junior Lord of the Admiralty; Sir John Hynde
Cotton received the office of Treasurer of the Chamber in the Royal
Household; and Bubb Doddington contrived to be included as Treasurer of
the Navy. Lords Cobham and Hobart had also appointments; and the Duke
of Dorset was made President of the Council.
Granville being got rid of, and the Opposition bought up with place,
the only difference in the policy which had been pursued, and which
had been so bitterly denounced by the noblemen and gentlemen now in
office, was that it became more unequivocally Hanoverian and more
extravagant. "Those abominably Courtly measures" of Granville were
now the adopted measures of his denouncers. The king had expressed,
just before his fall, a desire to grant a subsidy to Saxony; but Lord
Chancellor Hardwicke had most seriously reminded his Majesty of the
increased subsidy to the Queen of Hungary, which made it impracticable:
now, both the increased subsidy to Maria Theresa and the subsidy to
Saxony were passed without an objection. A quadruple alliance was
entered into between Britain, Austria, Holland, and Saxony, by which
Saxony was to furnish thirty thousand men for the defence of Bohemia,
and to receive a hundred and fifty thousand pounds, two-thirds of which
were to be paid by England, and one-third by Holland. The Elector of
Cologne received twenty-four thousand pounds, the Elector of Mayence
eight thousand pounds. Nay, soon discovering that, as there was no
opposition, there was no clamour on the subject, Ministers the very
next year took the Hanoverians into their direct pay again, and in 1747
increased the number of them from eighteen thousand to twenty thousand.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN 1742.
(_From a Drawing by Gravelot engraved by W. J. White._)]
In January of 1745 died Charles VII., King of Bavaria and Emperor of
Germany. His life had been rendered miserable, and his kingdom made the
prey of war, by his unpatriotic mania of supporting the French in their
attacks on Germany. His son and successor showed himself a wiser and a
better man. He at once renounced all claims to the Austrian succession,
and to the Imperial crown. He agreed to vote for the Prince of Tuscany,
Maria Theresa's husband, at the next Diet, and never to support the
French or the Prussian arms. On these terms a treaty was concluded
between Austria and Bavaria at Füssen, and Austria therefore restored
to him his rightful inheritance of Bavaria.
The campaign in Flanders opened in April. The British faithfully
furnished their stipulated number of men (twenty-eight thousand), but
both Austria and Holland had most disgracefully failed. Holland was to
send fifty thousand into the field, and keep the other ten thousand in
her garrisons; but she had sent less than half that number, and Austria
only eight squadrons. The French had a fine army of seventy-five
thousand men under the able general, Marshal Saxe; and the King of
France and the Dauphin had come to witness the conflict, which gave a
wonderful degree of spirit to their troops. On the part of the Allies,
the Duke of Cumberland was chief in command, but, from his youth, he
was not able to set himself free from the assumptions of the Austrian
general, old Marshal Königsegg, and the Dutch general, the Prince of
Waldeck. As it was, to march against the French before Tournay was
to rush into a certain contest with the whole French army of nearly
eighty thousand men, whilst the Allies could have only about fifty
thousand. Saxe made the ablest arrangements for the coming fight. He
left fifteen thousand infantry to blockade Tournay, drew up his army in
a very strong position a few miles in advance, and strengthened it by
various works.
The Allies, on coming near, found Saxe encamped on some gentle heights,
with the river Scheldt and the village of Antoine on his right, and a
wood named Barré on his left. In front lay a narrow valley, and, as
at Dettingen, he had secured the passage of the river by the bridge
of Calonne in his rear, defended by a tête-de-pont, and a reserve
of the Household Troops. He had constructed abatis in the wood of
Barré, thrown up redoubts between Antoine and Fontenoy, and strongly
fortified those villages themselves. The narrow valley between Barré
and Fontenoy was formidably defended by cross batteries, and by the
natural ruggedness of the ground; and altogether the French officers
confidently regarded their position as unassailable. Yet, inferior
as they were in numbers, the Allies at once marched and attacked the
French pickets and outposts, drove them in, and stood under arms, as it
was growing dark, ready to renew the onset at daybreak.
At four o'clock in the morning (the 11th of May) the cannonade began.
Prince Waldeck undertook to carry Fontenoy and Antoine with the Dutch,
and the Duke of Cumberland, at the head of the English and Hanoverians,
to bear down on the enemy's left. At the same time, the Duke sent
General Ingoldsby with a division to clear the wood of Barré, and
storm the redoubt beyond. When Ingoldsby reached the wood, he found
it occupied by a body of sharpshooters, and instead of attacking them
vigorously he paused and returned to the duke for fresh orders--a great
neglect of duty by which much time was lost, and the enemy enabled
to direct their undivided attention on that side to the main body of
English and Hanoverians advancing under the duke. On the other hand,
the Dutch, finding Fontenoy surrounded by a fosse, and the French
mounted with their batteries on the rubbish of houses, which they had
demolished for the purpose, were panic-struck, and instead of making a
resolute rush to storm the place, having suffered considerably from the
French batteries, fell back, and stood aloof, thus leaving the English
and Hanoverians exposed to the whole fire of the hostile army.
Thus shamefully deserted on both hands, Cumberland still led forward
his British and Hanoverians against the main body of the French army.
The ruggedness of the ground in the narrow valley between the wood of
Barré and Fontenoy compelled them to leave the cavalry behind; but the
infantry pushed on, dragging with them several pieces of artillery.
Cumberland had the advantage of the advice and spirit of his military
tutor, General Ligonier, and, in face of a most murderous fire, the
young commander hastened on. The batteries right and left mowed them
down, and before this comparative handful of men stood massed the
vast French army, in a position pronounced by the French impregnable.
The dense column of the English, compressed between the wood of Barré
and Fontenoy, soon drove the French from their positions, and, still
pushing on towards the rear of Fontenoy, threatened to cut off the
bridge of Calonne, and with it the enemy's retreat across the river.
Both French and English conceived that the battle was decided for the
Allies. Marshal Königsegg congratulated Cumberland on their victory,
and, on the other hand, Saxe warned Louis XV. that it was necessary
to retreat. Louis, however, is said to have protested against giving
way, and both French and English soon became aware that the Dutch
had deserted their post, and that the right wing of the French army
remained wholly unengaged. The British and Hanoverian conquerors on
their right, when they mounted the French positions, looked out for
their left wing, the Dutch, and, to their dismay, beheld them hanging
with cowardly inactivity in the distance. The brave Marshal Saxe, at
the same moment making the same discovery, called forward the Household
Troops, which had been posted to receive the Dutch, and precipitated
them on the flank of the British. Foremost in this charge was the Irish
Brigade, in the pay of France, who fought like furies against their
countrymen. Overwhelmed by numbers, and numbers perfectly fresh, and
mowed down by additional artillery which the default of the Dutch had
set at liberty, and unsupported by their own cavalry from the confined
and rugged nature of the ground, the brave British and Hanoverians were
compelled to give way. But they did it in such order and steadiness,
disputing every inch of the ground, as excited the admiration of their
opponents. The Duke of Cumberland was the last in the retreat, still
regardless of his own danger, calling on his men to remember Blenheim
and Ramillies; and seeing one of his officers turning to flee, he
threatened to shoot him. Thus they gave way slowly, and still fighting,
till they reached their horse, which then made a front to cover them,
till they were out of the _mêlée_; their dastardly allies, the Dutch,
then joined them, and they marched away in a body to Ath. Tournay, for
which the battle was fought, might have detained the French a long
time; but here, again, Dutch treachery did its work. Hertsall, the
chief engineer in the Dutch service, betrayed the place to the French,
fled to their camp, and then assisted them by his advice. Tournay
surrendered in a fortnight, and the citadel the week after. Ghent,
Bruges, Oudenarde, and Dendermond fell in rapid succession. Whilst the
Allies were covering Antwerp and Brussels, the French attacked and took
Ostend, again by the treachery of the governor, who refused to inundate
the country.
The affairs of England, menaced by invasion, were during this time
compelling George to draw part of his forces homeward; it was,
consequently, only the approach of winter which saved the towns of
Flanders from the French. At the same time, the wily Prussian was in
arms again, trusting to seize yet more of the Austrian territories,
whilst the powerful ally of Maria Theresa was at once pressed by
the fault of the Dutch and Austrians in Flanders, and at home by
the Pretender. George, who, in spite of all remonstrances, had
persisted, notwithstanding the domestic danger, in paying his annual
visit to Hanover, was earnestly engaged, through Lord Harrington,
in endeavouring to accomplish a peace between Prussia and Austria.
Neither Frederick nor Maria Theresa, however, was in any haste to
conclude peace. Frederick hoped to profit by the engagement of England
with the French, and Maria Theresa held out, with some vague hopes of
regaining Silesia through the money of England. But Frederick, on the
3rd of June, gained a decided victory over Prince Charles of Lorraine,
throwing himself between the Austrians and the Saxons, whom the English
subsidy had brought to their aid. In this battle of Hohen Friedberg
the Austrians lost nine thousand men in killed and wounded, and had as
many made prisoners. Prince Charles retreated into Bohemia, and was
soon followed by Frederick, who fixed his camp at Chlum. Whilst another
battle was impending, Maria Theresa, still undaunted, accompanied her
husband to the Diet at Frankfort, where she had the satisfaction of
seeing him elected Emperor of Germany on the 13th of September. The
same month, however, her troops were again defeated by Frederick at
Sohr, near the sources of the Elbe. The King of Prussia now offered
to make peace, and Maria Theresa rejected his overtures; but another
victory over her combined army of Austrians and Saxons, which put
Frederick in possession of Dresden, brought her to reason. A peace was
concluded at Dresden on Christmas Day, by which Silesia was confirmed
to Prussia, and Frederick, on his part, acknowledged the recent
election of the Emperor Francis. King George had also entered into a
secret treaty with Prussia; and Frederick, sending his army into winter
quarters in Silesia, returned to Berlin, thence to ponder fresh schemes
of aggrandisement.
The time for the last grand conflict for the recovery of their
forfeited throne in Great Britain by the Stuarts was come. The
Pretender had grown old and cautious, but the young prince, Charles
Edward, who had been permitted by his father, and encouraged by France,
to attempt this great object in 1744, had not at all abated his
enthusiasm for it, though Providence had appeared to fight against him,
and France, after the failure of Dunkirk, had seemed to abandon the
design altogether. When he received the news of the battle of Fontenoy
he was at the Chateau de Navarre, near Evreux, the seat of his attached
friend, the young Duke de Bouillon. He wrote to Murray of Broughton to
announce his determination to attempt the enterprise at all hazards.
He had been assured by Murray himself that his friends in Scotland
discountenanced any rising unless six thousand men and ten thousand
stand of arms could be brought over; and that, without these, they
would not even engage to join him. The announcement, therefore, that
he was coming threw the friends of the old dynasty in Scotland into
the greatest alarm. All but the Duke of Perth condemned the enterprise
in the strongest terms, and wrote letters to induce him to postpone
his voyage. But these remonstrances arrived too late; if, indeed, they
would have had any effect had they reached him earlier. Charles Edward
had lost no time in making his preparations.
He had been able to borrow a hundred and eighty thousand livres from
two of his adherents, had made serious exertions to raise arms, and
though he had kept his project profoundly secret from the French King
and Ministry, lest they might forcibly detain him, he had managed to
engage a French man-of-war called the _Elizabeth_, carrying sixty-seven
guns, and a brig of eighteen guns called the _Doutelle_, an excellent
sailer. On the 2nd of July the _Doutelle_ left St. Nazaire, at the
mouth of the Loire, and waited at Belleisle for the _Elizabeth_, when
they put forward to sea in good earnest. Unfortunately, only four days
after leaving Belleisle, they fell in with the British man-of-war the
_Lion_, of fifty-eight guns, commanded by the brave Captain Butt,
who in Anson's expedition had stormed Paita. There was no avoiding
an engagement, which continued warmly for five or six hours, when
both vessels were so disabled that they were compelled to put back
respectively to England and France.
With the _Elizabeth_ the Young Pretender lost the greater part of
his arms and ammunition. Yet he would not return, but set out in
the _Doutelle_ towards Scotland. In two days more the little vessel
was pursued by another large English ship, but by dint of superior
sailing they escaped, and made the Western Isles. It was only after a
fortnight's voyage, however, that they came to anchor off the little
islet of Erisca, between Barra and South Uist.
Charles landed in Lochnanuagh on the 25th of July, and was conducted
to a farm-house belonging to Clanranald. He then despatched letters to
the Highland chiefs who were in his interest. Principal amongst these
were Cameron of Lochiel, Sir Alexander Macdonald, and Macleod. Lochiel
was as much confounded at the proposal to commence a rebellion without
foreign support as the Macdonalds. For a long time Lochiel stood out,
and gave the strongest reasons for his decision; but Charles exclaimed,
"I am resolved to put all to the hazard. I will erect the Royal
Standard, and tell the people of Britain that Charles Stuart is come
over to claim the crown of his ancestors, or to perish in the attempt.
Lochiel, who, my father has always told me, was our firmest friend, may
stay at home, and learn from the newspapers the fate of his prince."
"Not so!" instantly replied the impulsive Highlander. "I will share
the fate of my prince, whatever it may be, and so shall every man over
whom nature or fortune has given me any power." The decision of Lochiel
determined the whole Highlands. The Macdonalds of Skye held back when
sent for, but numbers of others were immediately influenced by the
example of Lochiel. Macdonald of Keppoch, Macdonald of Glengarry, and
numbers of others, sent in their adhesion. Charles then removed to
Kinloch Moidart, the residence of the chief of that name, where he was
joined by Murray of Broughton, who brought with him from the south
the manifestoes of Charles ready printed. Charles appointed him his
secretary, which post he continued to hold during the expedition.
On the 16th of August a party of English soldiers, sent by the Governor
of Fort Augustus to reinforce the garrison at Fort William, were
assailed by a number of Keppoch's Highlanders in the narrow pass of
High Bridge. They attempted to retreat when they found they could not
reach their antagonists in their ambush, but they were stopped by a
fresh detachment of the followers of Lochiel, and compelled to lay
down their arms. Five or six of them were killed, and their leader,
Captain Scott, was wounded. They received the kindest treatment from
the conquerors, and as the Governor of Fort Augustus refused to trust
a surgeon amongst them to dress the wounds of Captain Scott, Lochiel
immediately allowed Scott to return to the fort on his parole, and
received the rest of the wounded into his house at Auchnacarrie.
[Illustration: THE LANDING OF PRINCE CHARLIE. (_See p._ 92.)]
In the valley of Glen Tronian, on the 19th of August, they proceeded to
erect the standard. The Marquis of Tullibardine, as highest in rank,
though feeble and tottering with age, was appointed to unfurl the
banner, supported on each hand by a stout Highlander. The colours were
of blue and red silk, with a white centre, on which, some weeks later,
the words TANDEM TRIUMPHANS were embroidered. Tullibardine held the
staff till the manifesto of James, dated Rome, 1743, appointing his son
Regent, was read; and as the banner floated in the breeze the multitude
shouted lustily, and the hurrahs were boisterously renewed when Charles
made them a short address in English, which few of the common class
understood.
The slowness with which the Government became aware of these
proceedings is something astonishing in these days of telegraphs and
railroads. Though Charles sailed on the 2nd of July, it was not till
the 30th of the same month that Lord Tweeddale, the Scottish Secretary
of State in London, was informed even that he had left Nantes. Sir John
Cope was the commander of the forces in Scotland, and he immediately
gave orders for drawing together such troops as he had to Stirling.
These were extraordinarily few. There were two regiments of dragoons,
Gardiner's and Hamilton's, but both recent in the service; and the
whole force at his disposal, exclusive of garrisons, did not amount to
three thousand men. Cope was eager enough to march into the Highlands,
even with such forces as he had, and crush the insurrection at once.
He proposed this apparently active and judicious scheme to the Lords
Justices in England, George II. himself being at Hanover, and they
warmly approved of it, and issued their positive orders for its
execution. It was, in truth, however, the most fatal scheme which could
be conceived. The spirit of rebellion was fermenting in every glen and
on every hill, and to march regular troops into these rugged fastnesses
was only to have them shot down by invisible marksmen on all hands,
and reduced to the extremity of the two companies already captured.
The plan was to have secured all the passes into the Lowlands, to have
drawn his forces to the foot of the mountains wherever a descent could
be made, and blockade the rebels in their own hills till they should be
reduced by gradual approaches and overwhelming numbers. Famine, indeed,
would soon have tamed any large body of men in those sterile regions.
Sir John marched out of Edinburgh for the north on the very day that
the standard of the Stuarts was erected in Glenfinnan, the 19th of
August. On the following day he continued his route from Stirling,
accompanied by one thousand five hundred foot, leaving, very properly,
the dragoons behind him, as of no service in the mountains, nor capable
of finding forage there. He then continued his march towards Fort
Augustus, which he hoped to make the centre of his operations, and then
to strike a sudden and annihilating blow on the handful of rebels. At
Dalwhinnie he heard that the rebels now mustered six thousand, and
that they meant to dispute the pass of Corriarrick, lying directly
in the line of his march towards Fort Augustus. This Corriarrick had
been made passable by one of General Wade's roads, constructed after
the rebellion of 1715, to lay open the Highlands. The road wound up
the mountain by seventeen zig-zags or traverses, and down the other
side by others, called by the Highlanders the Devil's Staircase. Three
hundred men were capable, much more three thousand, of stopping an army
in such a situation, and Cope called a council of war. At length it
was agreed that they should take a side route, and endeavour to reach
Inverness and Fort George. The resolve was a fatal one, for it gave the
appearance of a flight to the army, and left the road open to Stirling
and the Lowlands.
Charles, on his part, had determined to occupy Corriarrick. For that
purpose he had made a forced march, disencumbered himself of all
possible encumbrances by burning his own baggage, and encouraging his
followers to do the same. On the morning of the 27th he stood on the
north side of Corriarrick, and, as he put on his brogues, he is said to
have exclaimed, with exultation, "Before these are unloosed, I shall be
up with Mr. Cope." To his great astonishment, however, when he reached
the summit all was one wild solitude--not a man was visible. At length
they discerned some soldiers ascending, whom they set down for part of
Lord Loudon's regiment, forming the English vanguard. They turned out
to be only some deserters, who informed them of the change in Cope's
route.