the laird of Mackintosh and the Duke of Gordon, yet he can raise 300 followers." "The name of the clan Macgregor (Rob Roy's clan) was called down by Act of Parliament, and they now live dispersed under different names [such as Campbell]. They have no present chief, that being elective, and continuing no longer than the current expedition; they can raise 700 men." The Highlander was armed “with a gun, a strong handsome target, with a sharp-pointed steel spike, on his arm, a sturdy claymore [broadsword] by his side, and a pistol or two, with a dirk [short, broad-bladed dagger], and knife in his belt." The gentry still wore armour sometimes, and they had only just given up bows and arrows. Each clan made a regiment. Their invariable tactics were to advance swiftly till within a few yards of the enemy, when they stopped a moment, poured in a brisk volley of musketry, and then, throwing down their guns, dashed forward, claymore in hand, receiving and turning the enemies' bayonets on their targets, and dealing tremendous strokes on their hampered foes; if they were at too close quarters to wield the broadsword, they would do deadly work with dirk and pistol. Few of the stiff, formally-drilled troops of this time could withstand their swift and reckless charge. The 6. The few garrisons planted by William III. in the Highlands were powerless to hold such a people in check, and were prevented from working together to put down The Scotch disorder by the complete want of roads. risings, 1715-16. task of raising the clans in favour of the Stewarts was now intrusted to John Erskine, Earl of Mar, sometime Scotch Secretary to the Tory Government, but a man of weak and unscrupulous character, who had changed his front so often that he had won the nickname of "Bobbing John." On 1st August he attended King George's levee. Next day he hurried secretly to the Highlands, where, on 6th September, he raised the standard of James VIII. in Braemar. The clans of the Eastern and Central Highlands soon gathered together under his command, and, though an attempt to seize Edinburgh Castle failed, the whole country north of the Tay recognised the Stewart king. In the south, disgust at the Union made even Whigs careless of King George. Both there and in his Western Highlands John Campbell, second Duke of Argyll, "haughty, passionate, peremptory, gallant, and a good officer," vigorously upheld the fortunes of the House of Hanover. In the hills of southern Scotland, on 12th October, Lord Kenmure proclaimed the Stewart king at Moffat, in Dumfriesshire, and gathered a force of 200 horsemen, including the Earls of Nithisdale, Wintoun, and Carnwath. On 19th October they joined the Northumbrian insurgents at Rothbury. Mar had lingered aimlessly at Perth, while the Duke of Argyll's army was collecting; but he now sent Brigadier Mackintosh with nearly 2000 men to make a diversion in the south. Mackintosh's troops were ferried over the Forth in open boats, and their approach filled Edinburgh with terror. But the arrival of Argyll frightened them from attacking the city; and Mackintosh crossed Lammermoor, and soon joined Kenmure and Forster at Kelso. But the united forces marched purposelessly along the Cheviots, instead of turning to take Argyll in flank, or advancing boldly into England to attack the army that General Carpenter was gathering at Newcastle. At last it was resolved to invade Lancashire. The posse comitatus of Cumberland fled in panic before them, and on 9th November they reached Preston, where many of the neighbouring Catholic gentry joined them. But Carpenter was coming up in their rear, and General Wills, with another army, was advancing from Manchester. The bridge over the Ribble, which might have been defended, was abandoned by the folly of Forster, and, after a show of resistance, the helpless chief, and his mob of bad soldiers, surrendered at discretion on 13th November. Meanwhile Mar had been waiting idly at Perth, and Argyll had got together a fair-sized army at Stirling, while the Earl of Sutherland had secured the extreme north for the Government. At last, 10th November, Mar moved southward, and on the very day of the disaster at Preston the armies met on the Sheriffmuir of Menteith (near Dunblane). The Highland right, stung to madness by the death of Clanranald, charged with such fury that the left wing of the enemy was completely routed. Meanwhile Argyll, with his right wing, had driven the Jacobite left across the river Allan, but in the pursuit he abandoned his own defeated troops. Mar's sluggish lack of heart saved the Hanoverian army from complete defeat. Argyll held the field; the Stewarts of Appin, the Camerons of Lochiel, and many other Highland clans went home for a while. The landing of the Pretender at Peterhead, on 22d December, kept the rest together for a short time longer; but his followers lost all heart when they found that the tall, meagre, silent, melancholy prince had neither courage to lead them nor faith in his own cause. Argyll was now reinforced by 6000 good and faithful Dutch troops, and on 30th January the prince was compelled to give up Perth, Mar's old headquarters. On 4th February James and his general ran away from their followers at Montrose, and went back to France, where Bolingbroke was made the scapegoat of his failure. The Highland host melted away amidst the wilderness of Badenoch and Lochaber. Many prisoners had been taken at Preston, and seven noblemen were condemned as traitors; but of these only Derwentwater and Kenmure were executed. Nairn, Carnwath, Widdrington were let off. Nithisdale (through the devotion of his wife) and Wintoun escaped from prison. Forster and Brigadier Mackintosh were also captured and condemned, but managed to break out of gaol. Twenty-six of less note were hanged. 7. The country was still excited, and the Government, knowing that the unpopularity of the Stewarts rather than the popularity of the new dynasty had caused the The Septennial collapse of the rebellion, feared to risk a general Act, 1716. election in 1716. They accordingly repealed the Triennial Act of 1694, and passed instead the Septennial Act, increasing the length of Parliament to seven years, which is still the law of the land. The sitting Parliament continued its own existence under the terms of the new Act. This was denounced as highly unconstitutional by the Tories, but an Act of Parliament can do what it likes, and it would have been foolish to have had a new election when the country was so disturbed. The result of the Act was to make the House of Commons more independent of its constituents, and so render it easier for the Whig houses to manage Parliament, and keep power in their own hands. 1717-20. 8. Personal disputes between the different sections of the Whigs kept up some show of party government. And before long differences of policy made the quar- Whig schism of rels of rivals for office look respectable. In 1716 1717 and StanGeorge went to Hanover, and took Stanhope hope's Ministry, with him. In October they concluded a Triple Alliance with Holland and France. Townshend and Walpole denounced this as Hanoverian, resigned office, and joined George, Prince of Wales (who hated his father), in a furious opposition. In 1717 Stanhope became First Lord of the Treasury, with Sunderland and Joseph Addison (the famous essayist) as Secretaries of State, and John Aislabie aş Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1718 Addison retired and was succeeded by James Craggs, the younger, "a showy vapouring man," the son of James Craggs, PostmasterGeneral since 1715. Stanhope and Sunderland now exchanged their offices. The policy of the new ministers, both at home and abroad, was more energetic than that of Townshend. In 1719 they repealed the Act against Occasional Conformity and the Schism Act, which still remained as memorials of the High Church ascendency; but, fearful of offending the Church party, they refused to give more liberty to the Nonconformists, though Stanhope himself was willing to abolish the Test and Corporation Acts. But after 1727 an annual Act of Indemnity, relieving from all penalties those who had broken the law, gave the dissenters practical liberty, while avoiding an outcry. In 1719 the Government brought forward a Peerage Bill. This provided that only six peerages beyond the existing number of peers should be created, except that a new peerage might be established when an old one became extinct; it also changed the sixteen Scotch elective peers into twenty-five hereditary peers named by the Crown. The object of the Bill was to secure the independence of the existing peers, and to prevent their being swamped by lavish creations, such as those of the Tories under Queen Anne. It was therefore on the same lines as the Septennial Act, which aimed at giving greater freedom to the Commons. Its effect would have been to hand over the Government of England to a close ring of nobles and great landlords from which there would have been no escape but revolution. Fortunately the opposition of Walpole and the Tories ended in the bill being thrown out in the Commons, after it had easily passed the House of Lords. The Triple 9. The foreign policy of the Stanhope ministry was fixed by the Triple Alliance, to which it owed its origin. This was a union of England, Holland, and France to maintain the peace of Europe on the basis of the Treaty of Utrecht. Spain had got strength from the wise government of the Italian adventurer, Cardinal Alberoni, and was now bent upon winning back its old position in Europe. The personal rivalry of Philip V., King of Spain, and the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France for sickly little Louis XV., for the succession to the French throne had resulted in a coolness between the two kingdoms which Louis XIV. had hoped |