Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/520

506 armed by an act of George I., which had operated to strengthen the enemies of government, and bring them no friends. The friendly clans had, in obedience to it, given up their arms, and were helpless. The hostile, or Jacobite clans, had concealed, and thus retained theirs. The Jacobite clans were dividable into two classes:— the Camerons, Macdonalds of Keppoch, Clanronald, and Glengarry, who were now out with Charles, and those who had been out in 1715, the chief of whom were the Gordons, and the Macdonalds, and Macleods of the Isles, who now professed to be friendly. These last received a severe lesson in the former rebellion, and the clans who were out were not amongst the most powerful clans.

Since the rebellion of 1715, the population of the clans had greatly increased, but the means of existence had not increased with it. Poverty, therefore, deep and severe, prevailed throughout the Highlands. There were no resources of trade there—the people were averse to sea-faring life and to manufactures. Nothing was done by government to improve the condition of the mountaineers, whilst all other classes of the kingdom had been rapidly advancing in wealth and comfort. It was this grinding poverty which was now driving the hostile clans into the train of the invading Stuart, in the hope of plunder. All this had been foreseen and strongly represented to the English government, long before the outbreak. Seven years before, the able and patriotic Duncan Forbes had formed a plan for employing the Highlanders as soldiers in the continental wars which were then raging. This was an occupation perfectly in keeping with their genius and their ambition. Wherever they had been so employed in Flanders, they had proved themselves of the most intrepid and efficient character. In the recent battle of Fontenoy, they had shown themselves a match for the picked regiments of France. Here, then, was a mode by which the Highland pressure of population would be relieved, and the Highlanders converted into the most loyal subjects of the crown. Duncan Forbes hastened with this brilliant idea to the equally patriotic and able justice-clerk, Andrew Fletcher, lord Milton. Lord Milton was charmed with the idea. The lord-president, Forbes, wrote down his scheme, and Fletcher submitted it to the earl of Islay, then brother of the duke of Argyll, but, at the outbreak of the rebellion, duke himself. Islay hastened to town with it. Sir Robert Walpole declared that it was the most sensible and practical scheme that he had ever seen, and wondered that nobody had thought of it before, though, in fact, a plan very like it had been submitted to William III. in his time. A council was called to consider the lord president's plan, but there it was at once swamped. It was denounced as a scheme which the opposition in parliament would at once represent as a plan for extinguishing English liberty by a standing army of the Highlanders. Sir Robert shrunk at the very idea of this outcry. But there was a still more fatal obstacle to the adoption of the plan—it would at once extinguish the king's favourite practice of employing his own Hanoverians and the Germans. To secure Hanover and aggrandise it, both Hanoverians, Hessians, and other Germans, must be employed, and paid, and subsidised; and thus the Highlands of Scotland and the security of the realm were sacrificed to these German interests. Instead of five regiments of infantry, which the lord-president proposed should be raised, only one was formed, the forty-second, then called the Black Watch, which were chiefly raised from the Campbells and the clans favourable to the house of Hanover. Had the whole grand scheme been carried out—had the Highlanders of all clans and parties been brought into profitable and honourable service—the kingdom would have possessed a body of the bravest troops in the world, and troops most reasonably maintained. Invasion then, or rebellion, as Duncan Forbes truly observed, would have become an impossibility.

But even now, at the arrival of the young pretender, had the government actively sent arms to the well-affected clans, and invited them to join the troops of Cope, no such disgraceful scenes as took place could ever have occurred. In vain, however, did lord Milton urge that measure in earnest letters to the marquis of Tweeddale, the secretary of state in London for Scotland. The cool reply was, that the forces of Cope were amply sufficient, and the result was soon seen.

Still the patriotic Duncan Forbes and lord Milton continued their entreaties to the government to arm the friendly clans. The lord-president remained in the north about Inverness and Fort George, endeavouring to raise the friendly clans, and so that they might take the rebels in the rear. Lord Islay, now duke of Argyll, was anxious to come and lead out his clans, and all that bore the name of Campbell were ready to enrol themselves and fight for king George, if they were enabled to do it. But in vain did the lord-president and lord justice-clerk repeat their applications for muskets and bayonets. The duke of Argyll himself went up to London to second these applications in person. He complained of the grievous manner in which Scotland had been neglected, and urged that instant means should be forwarded to the friendly clans to enable them to support the government. He found the heads of other clans jealous of the supreme command being conferred on him. The dukes of Hamilton, Queensberry, Buccleuch, and Montrose; the marquis of Lothian, the earl of Marchraont, and lord Dumfries, had all their petty interests and jealousies to serve; and thus, betwixt the imbecility and selfishness of government, and the factions of a proud and jobbing aristocracy, Scotland remained prostrate and helpless.

The news of the invasion brought George from Hanover. He arrived in London the last day of August, at which time the young pretender was already festively entertained by lord Tullibardine at Blair castle; but he seemed to entertain no great alarm. He thought the forces of Cope were sufficient to compete with the insurgents, and lord Granville and his party did their best to confirm him in this opinion. On the 20th of September three battalions of the expected Dutch forces landed, and received orders to march north. But what contributed more than anything to the security of the kingdom, was the activity of the fleet. The seamen all round our coasts showed as much spirit and life as our soldiers had shown cowardice. Privateers as well as men-of-war vied with one another in performing feats of bravery. A small ship off Bristol took a large Spanish ship, bound for Scotland, with arms and money. Another small ship took the "Soleil," from Dunkirk, carrying twenty French officers and sixty men, to Montrose; and a small squadron of