ESSAYS. 
 
 Glasgow Saint Andrew Society. 
 
 1874.
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM RANKIN, 192 ARGVLE STREET, GLASGOW.
 
 UNDER the conditions of this year's Competition, Prizes fell 
 to be awarded for the two best Essays. Twenty in all were 
 presented, from various quarters, Scotland, England, and the 
 Colonies. The task of making a selection was one of no 
 small difficulty, partly, among other causes, owing to the 
 conflicting partialities of the writers. In this respect, how- 
 ever, the Adjudicators did not feel either entitled, or called 
 upon, to adopt the impressions, or indorse the animadver- 
 sions of particular Essayists; but rather to discriminate fairly 
 between the merits of the Essays, as combined historical and 
 literary productions. The two selected will be found to 
 differ widely from each other in the views maintained; but 
 they thus afford an opportunity of seeing both sides of the 
 historical picture. 
 
 G. FYFFE CHRISTIE, 
 President. 
 
 GLASGOW, October, 1874.
 
 THE 
 
 m txr 
 
 ITS RELATIVE LITERATURE. 
 
 AN ESSAY 
 
 iWILLMOTT DIXON, LL. B., 
 
 <>,.. 
 
 OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND OF THE INNER 
 TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. 
 
 " Nor wanted at their end 
 
 from tender hearts, 
 
 And those who sorrowed o'er a vanished race, 
 
 Pity, the violet on the tyrant's grave." Tennyson. Aylmer's Field. 
 
 JOHN MENZIES & COMPANY, 
 
 EDINBURGH & GLASGOW. 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & COMPANY, 
 LONDON.
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 As the limits of the present Essay do not admit of its being 
 encumbered with copious references to authorities, the 
 author thinks it desirable to give the following list of works 
 consulted in its compilation : 
 
 Memoirs of Lochiel Correspondence of Colonel Hooke 
 Jacobite Correspondence of the Athole Family The 
 Lockhart Papers The Culloden Papers Memoirs of the 
 Master of Sinclair Memoirs of the Master of Lovat 
 Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland Wad- 
 row's Correspondence Defoe's History of the Union The 
 Letters of Captain Burt Macpherson's Original Papers 
 Patten's History of 1 7 1 5 Rae's History of 1 7 1 5 Forbes's 
 Jacobite Memoirs of 1745 The Chevalier Johnstone's 
 Memoirs of 1745 Genuine Memoirs of John Murray of 
 Broughton Dr. King's Political Anecdotes Marchant's 
 History of 1 745 Henderson's ditto Boyse's ditto Home's 
 ditto. 
 
 In addition to these contemporary records of the Jacobite 
 Episode, the author has to express his indebtedness to the 
 following later works : 
 
 Thomson's Memoirs of the Jacobites Jesse's Memoirs of 
 the Pretenders Oliphant's Jacobite Lairds of Gask
 
 Vlll. PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Napier's Memorials of the Life and Times of Graham of 
 Claverhouse The Waverley Novels Tales of a Grand- 
 father Chambers' History of 1745 Gregory's History of 
 the Western Highlands Brown's History of the Highlands 
 Wright's History of Scotland Burton's History of Scot- 
 land from the Revolution Lord Russell's Memoirs of the 
 Affairs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht Buckle's His- 
 tory of Civilization and the Histories of Hume, Mahon, 
 and Macaulay. 
 
 With reference to the Ballad Literature of Jacobitism, the 
 author has consulted the Collections of Hogg, Ritson, 
 Cromek, Cunninghame, and Mackay.
 
 THE 
 
 Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 AND ITS 
 
 RELATIVE LITERATURE. 
 
 " Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur." VIRGIL, JE.n. I, 574. 
 
 ROMANCE seems to have claimed the Jacobite 
 Episode as its own, and has so fiercely resented 
 any encroachment upon its domains that History 
 has abandoned the field in despair. Even sober 
 students, who have approached the subject with 
 an honest desire for truthful inquiry and impar- 
 tial investigation, have been unable to resist the 
 magic spell, and have found themselves convert- 
 ed, against their will, from historians into ro- 
 mancers. They have seen every person and 
 every circumstance connected with this episode 
 through a glowing atmosphere of romance ; and
 
 2 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 traditions which would, under ordinary conditions, 
 have been scouted as poetical myths, have in 
 this case been accepted as grave and indisputable 
 historical facts. 
 
 But romance is not the only obstacle in the 
 way of the patient and honest seeker after truth 
 in this period of Scottish history. Another and 
 almost as formidable an impediment is parti- 
 zanship. Even now it is difficult to approach 
 the subject without feeling something of party 
 heat and something of party bias. What it 
 must have been when personal recollections 
 and experiences added tenfold bitterness to 
 these feelings, is not hard to imagine. It was 
 almost impossible for writers to take any middle 
 course between the extremes of rabid Jacobitism 
 and equally rabid Whiggism. And it is a 
 wearisome task wading through the pages of 
 extravagant eulogy or unmeasured invective, 
 according as the writer treats of friends or 
 enemies, which deface and obscure almost every 
 record of this interesting and eventful period.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 To the Jacobite, the inhabitants who peopled 
 Great Britain at that time were divided into 
 two classes the angels who followed the exiled 
 Stuarts, paragons of perfection, models of all 
 that is chivalrous, noble, and heroic and the 
 devils who held by the usurping Elector of 
 Hanover, monsters of iniquity and cruelty, 
 poltroons, knaves, and scoundrels of the deepest 
 dye. And, mutatis mutandis, the same holds 
 true of the Whig. There is no believing or 
 trusting either of them ; and all that the honest 
 historical student can do, is to follow Ovid's 
 advice, " Media tutissimus ibis" and hope that a 
 middle course will be nearer the truth than 
 either extreme. It is in this spirit that I have 
 essayed to treat the subject. If I have not 
 always been able to free myself from the bias of 
 political opinions, I have at least tried in the 
 main to be impartial and give each side a fair 
 hearing. That it is not always easy even to do 
 this, all who have studied the subject will admit ; 
 and they will bear me out, I am sure, in the
 
 4 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 assertion that the exasperating disregard of 
 truth, the reckless acceptance of tradition, and 
 the irrational love of romance, which are the 
 chief characteristics of most of the literature of 
 the Jacobite episode in Scottish history, are a 
 sore trial of human patience. 
 
 With this explanation of the aim of the present 
 essay, by way of preface, I shall proceed to sketch 
 briefly the history of the Jacobite episode, 
 dwelling chiefly on the causes which enabled 
 Jacobitism to retain so tenacious a hold upon 
 Scotland, reviewing some of the more prominent 
 of its social and political results, and touching 
 upon the literature, both contemporary and sub- 
 sequent, which it produced, and the influence 
 which that literature exercised over the senti- 
 ments of the Scottish people. 
 
 TIIK Revolution of 1688 was, on the whole, a 
 quiet and orderly affair in England ; men's 
 passions were not much excited ; the flight of 
 one king and the arrival of another were facts
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 accepted, to all outward appearance, with philo- 
 sophical calmness, not to say indifference, by 
 the large bulk of Englishmen. But it was far 
 otherwise in Scotland. A long course of wanton 
 and cruel persecution, of systematic tyranny and 
 organised oppression, had kindled feelings of 
 bitter hatred and resentment. The Scotch had 
 seen their national Church, dear to them as their 
 own lives, dishonoured and despoiled ; whilst a 
 Church which they hated and abhorred, a Church 
 associated in their minds with all that was idola- 
 trous, tyrannical, and odious, had been forced 
 upon them by sword and fire, by the rack and 
 the thumb-screw. They had seen hordes of 
 savage Highlanders brought down from their 
 mountain glens, at the express command of their 
 sovereign, and quartered upon the inhabitants 
 of those Western shires who had fought so 
 heroically for the faith delivered to them by 
 their fathers ; they had witnessed the barbarous 
 outrages and excesses which these ferocious 
 mercenaries had committed, in pursuance of the
 
 6 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 royal orders to devastate the country and harry 
 the people. They had felt the intolerable in- 
 solence, arrogance, and injustice of the Bishops 
 whom the Crown had set over them as legisla- 
 tors, councillors, and judges creatures who lent 
 themselves to every scheme for crushing civil 
 and religious liberty creatures swoln with pride 
 and eaten up with avarice, who arrogated to 
 themselves all temporal as well as all spiritual 
 power. With such grievances and sufferings 
 rankling in their memories, there can be little 
 wonder that the Scottish people hated Episco- 
 pacy with a deep and passionate hatred a 
 hatred which the King to whom they owed it 
 shared equally with his Bishops. They had no 
 grateful recollections of the Stuarts. James I., 
 Charles I., Charles II., had all done their fair 
 share towards laying up a legacy of hatred for 
 their line ; but it was left to James II. to eclipse 
 all the iniquities of his predecessors. The 
 most bloody and remorseless persecutor these 
 islands have ever seen, his barbarities towards
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 the hunted Covenanters were only matched by 
 the atrocities of Philip II. in the Netherlands. 
 For James personally enjoyed the spectacle of 
 human suffering ; it was a pleasure to him to 
 witness the infliction of the most horrible tor- 
 tures. And he had not even Philip's poor 
 excuse religious zeal ; for these cruelties were 
 perpetrated in behalf of a religion which in his 
 secret soul he really hated as much as that he 
 was persecuting. If English Protestants would 
 but candidly and honestly study the records of 
 Episcopal persecution in Scotland under the 
 Stuarts, they would, perhaps, be less bitter in 
 their invectives against Roman Catholic perse- 
 cutors they would certainly understand better 
 the feelings with which the Scottish nation then 
 regarded Episcopacy, and the deep - rooted 
 national aversion to it which has shown itself 
 so often since. 
 
 From the moment of James the Second's 
 accession till his flight in 1688, Scotland had 
 been subjected to a tyranny so cruel and so
 
 8 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 exhausting that, as Buckle truly remarks,""" it 
 would have broken the energy of almost any 
 other nation. But, tough as their own mountain 
 ash, the energy of Scotsmen is not to be easily 
 broken. And the moment that the news of 
 James's flight reached Scotland, the people 
 seemed to spring into life again, like a twig 
 which, long bent back, is at last loosed. They 
 felt the spirit of liberty surging in their veins 
 again, and with the memory of all that they had 
 suffered under the tyrant fresh upon them, it 
 was not likely that they would welcome such an 
 event without feelings of intense excitement. 
 
 Under the influence of these feelings the 
 Convention of the Estates of Scotland met on 
 the 4th of April, 1689, and declared that James 
 " hath forefaulted the right to the Crown, and 
 the throne is become vacant." There was no 
 legal fiction of abdication here, but a bold, blunt, 
 outspoken statement of facts which contrasts 
 favourably with the slavish and superstitious 
 
 * History of Civilization, vol. iii. chap. xxii.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 reverence for precedent which marked the actions 
 of the English Parliament, a feature of English 
 parliamentary procedure which however safe and 
 useful in the abstract, as a check upon rash and 
 reckless innovations, has been often carried, as 
 in this case, to absurd and unreasonable lengths. 
 And this manly expression of opinion was the 
 more creditable to the Scottish Parliament be- 
 cause it was attended with no little personal risk 
 to those who uttered it. For Dundee's dragoons 
 were clanking through the streets, and the Par- 
 liament House was within easy range of the 
 guns of the Castle which the " Gay Gordon " 
 still held for the fugitive monarch. The two 
 hostile factions were in much more immediate 
 danger of collision than in England. But the 
 vote was passed without any actual display of 
 violence, and James Stuart ceased to be King of 
 Scotland as he had already ceased to be King 
 of England. 
 
 There can be no question that the Revolution 
 was welcomed with sincere and hearty joy by
 
 io The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 the great mass of the Scottish people. They 
 had good reason to be joyful for such a signal 
 deliverance from the clutches of the worst tyrant 
 that had ever scourged their country. If there 
 was any sympathy at all for James in Scotland 
 at this time, it was a very lukewarm feeling, 
 and even in that form only existed among 
 those fanatical cavaliers with whom loyalty to 
 the House of Stuart was a family heir-loom, 
 the value of which they never dreamt of ap- 
 praising, but were content to accept it on the 
 strength of tradition, and cherish it with the 
 unquestioning faith of children. The wrongs 
 inflicted by the Stuarts had been too glaring to 
 admit of any extenuation, and they were too 
 fresh in the memories of all to' allow of any feel- 
 ing but that gratitude for the timely relief, which 
 was uppermost in men's minds. How then did 
 it come to pass that Scotland, which had more 
 reason to detest the Stuart dynasty than any 
 other part of the British Isles, and which wel- 
 comed the dethronement of that dynasty with
 
 and its Relative Literature. 1 1 
 
 such unequivocal signs of gladness and en- 
 thusiasm, should of all other countries have 
 become, par excellence, the refuge and home of 
 Jacobitism ? What produced this extraordinary 
 revulsion of feeling ? Was it really a national 
 reaction, or was it merely the movement of a 
 bold and clamorous minority, composed of dis- 
 appointed statesmen, selfish politicians, and a 
 few fanatical enthusiasts ? These are the ques- 
 tions which I shall endeavour to answer as fully 
 as the limited space at my disposal will allow. 
 
 After the Vote of Forfeiture had been passed 
 by the Scottish Parliament, the prospects of the 
 House of Stuart in Scotland were certainly not 
 encouraging, but they were not so utterly des- 
 perate as at first sight they may have appeared. 
 Of all the Scottish nobles, indeed, only three 
 remained faithful to James, but it must not 
 therefore be supposed that all the rest were 
 staunch supporters of the Revolution. Far from 
 it ; to quote the words of Sir John Dalrymple,"" 
 
 * Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland.
 
 1 2 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 they merely "waited for events in hopes and fears 
 from the old Government and the new, in- 
 triguing with both, and depended upon by 
 neither." And the three faithful nobles really 
 represented a far more certain and reliable source 
 of strength and trust, than the crowd of waver- 
 ing time-servers. These three were the nucleus 
 of the future Jacobite party, and they were, the 
 Duke of Gordon, Lord Balcarras, and Viscount 
 Dundee. The two first played but a secondary 
 and inconsiderable part in the events which 
 followed, but the third was the great central 
 figure of the first Jacobite rising, the life and 
 soul and hope of Scottish Jacobitism. But for 
 him William of Orange would have been peace- 
 ably proclaimed King of Scotland, and neither 
 hand nor voice would have been raised in de- 
 fence of James Stuart. Indeed, it is not too much 
 to say, that it was only the bold and energetic 
 action of Dundee at this critical moment which 
 kept Jacobitism from expiring in Scotland, and 
 made the rebellions of 1715 and 1745 possible.
 
 and its Relative Literatitre. 1 3. 
 
 Dundee was not a -man of original genius, but 
 he was gifted with a keen perception of the right 
 thing to be done at the right moment, and with 
 the necessary resolution and force of character 
 to carry out promptly his conceptions. He was, 
 an ardent and devoted admirer of Montrose, 
 whom, in many respects, he resembled, though 
 far inferior both in moral and intellectual qualities 
 to the great Marquis ; and it was the success of 
 that brilliant general at the head of an army of 
 Highlanders, which suggested to Dundee the 
 possibility of effecting a diversion in favour of 
 his royal master at this juncture, by an attempt 
 to raise the Highlands in revolt. 
 
 That " lying spirit " of romance, which is re- 
 sponsible for so much gross perversion of history, 
 for so many false notions and deplorable mis- 
 conceptions, has foisted upon the world no 
 falsehood that has obtained wider credence than 
 the famous fiction of Highland loyalty to the 
 Stuarts. We have been taught to believe that 
 these Highlanders, from the day they fought
 
 1 4 The Jacobite Episode m Scottish History 
 
 under Montrose, at Kilsyth, till the day they 
 fought under Murray, at Culloden, were the 
 staunch and devoted adherents, the leal and loyal 
 henchmen of the House of Stuart, and the sturdy 
 champions of divine right and hereditary suc- 
 cession. It is a picturesque and captivating 
 idea ; but unfortunately for those who have 
 grounded upon it conclusions favourable to the 
 Highland clans, it has no foundation whatever 
 in fact. The Highlanders cared as little for the 
 House of Stuart as for the House of Orange. 
 What little they knew of the Stuarts by experi- 
 ence, was not calculated to increase their affection 
 and respect for that dynasty. James VI. had 
 coolly planned their extermination, his successors 
 had indorsed the scheme, and it was not from 
 any want of vigorous efforts to carry it into 
 execution that it had failed. Of James VII., 
 indeed, they had some more pleasurable recol- 
 lections, for he had on one or two occasions 
 made them the instruments of his vengeance 
 upon the Covenanters, and they were naturally
 
 and its Relative Literature. 15 
 
 grateful for the opportunity of gratifying with 
 impunity, not only their predatory inclinations, 
 but also their revenge upon the despised and 
 detested Lowlanders, between whom and them- 
 selves there had existed a deadly feud and deep- 
 rooted hatred for centuries. But beyond this the 
 Highlanders had no reason whatever to cherish 
 any feelings of gratitude or affection for the 
 Stuarts* whose laws they had persistently defied, 
 and whose heavy chastisements they had fre- 
 quently suffered. To assert that there was any 
 innate loyalty to the Stuart family among the 
 H ighlanders is simply to betray sheer ignorance 
 of their habits, their customs, and their internal 
 government. They owned no authority, they 
 recognized no sovereignty but that of the chief 
 of the clan ; him they were bound to follow in 
 whatever enterprize he engaged. Whatever side 
 in a quarrel their chief, from policy or inclination, 
 chose to take, for that side they were bound to 
 fight without asking any questions ; for it was 
 to the chief only that they owed allegiance ; and
 
 1 6 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 not one of them but would have felt it the dead- 
 liest insult to be told that he was a subject of 
 any other king in Christendom. The predilec- 
 tions of the chiefs were invariably in favour of 
 the side which offered most opportunities for 
 plunder and revenge. They were at this time 
 a race of brawlers, murderers, and robbers, with- 
 out any of those chivalrous feelings which were 
 claimed for them at a later date, and which 
 were unquestionably developed as they advanced 
 in civilization. Fletcher of Saltoun who, like all 
 genuine Scotchmen of his day, despised and 
 abhorred the Highlanders as a race of worthless, 
 freebooters who were a disgrace to the country,, 
 thus pithily sums up his estimate of them " A 
 people who are all gentlemen only because they 
 will not work ; and who in everything are more 
 contemptible than the vilest slaves, except that 
 they always carry arms, because for the most 
 part they live on robbery." 
 
 At this early stage of the Jacobite movement 
 the leaders of the clans played fast and loose
 
 and its Relative Literature. 1 7 
 
 with both sides; and it was not until some 
 rash or careless step had irretrievably com- 
 promised him, that a chief definitely took sides 
 with either party. There was very little 
 romantic sentiment about the Highland chief. 
 He possessed a large share of the national 
 shrewdness, he knew how to make a good 
 bargain, and had a keen eye to the main 
 chance. He must be persuaded that the 
 advantage to be gained by espousing the 
 cause of King James, was decidedly greater 
 than that to be gained by espousing the 
 cause of King William, before he would 
 budge a step or strike a blow for the exiled 
 monarch. But once the chief was gained, 
 the clan followed as a matter of course; 
 they had no choice; the chief settled for which 
 cause they were to fight; it was not for them 
 either to dispute his commands or inquire 
 into his motives ; with the preliminary nego- 
 tiations they did not concern themselves, their 
 business was to obey the order of their chief,
 
 1 8 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 and fight just when and for whom he pleased.""" 
 When Dundee, therefore, resolved to set out 
 and rouse the Highlands to arms, it was not 
 because he expected to find more loyalty there 
 than in the Lowlands, but because he knew that 
 the clans were always ready for fighting and 
 plunder, and might therefore be more easily 
 and rapidly collected for a sudden movement. 
 Dundee had sufficient tact and eloquence to 
 induce the chiefs to associate the cause of the 
 Stuarts, (which simply on its own merits they 
 would have regarded with indifference,) with all 
 that they loved best revenge upon the clans 
 they hated, and a raid upon the Lowlands. On 
 these conditions they were ready to forget cer- 
 tain passages in their former relations with the 
 Stuarts they had a bond of union and sym- 
 pathy now in their common hatred of the existing 
 
 * A curious illustration of this feature of the clan system is to be found 
 in the conduct of the Eraser clan. In 1715, they fought on the Hanoverian 
 side, because at that time it suited the interests of their chief, the notorious 
 Simon, Lord Lovat, to take that side. In 1745, they fought on the Jacobite 
 side, because their wily and fickle leader saw fit to change his mind.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 19 
 
 government, which, whether Stuart or Orange, 
 was to the Highlander always odious as the 
 representative of law, order, and justice, three 
 abstractions which he cordially detested. 
 
 But the Highlanders, as the most prominent 
 actors in the Jacobite episode, have not only 
 been credited with a loyalty which they neither 
 understood nor professed, they have also been 
 credited most unjustly with all the prowess 
 which has made Scotland renowned for centuries 
 as a martial nation. Everywhere outside Scot- 
 land, Highlander and Scot have been taken as 
 synonymous terms; and, even now, I question 
 whether a very large section of Englishmen do 
 not make the same confusion, and, because there 
 is no very palpable line of demarcation at this 
 day between Highlands and Lowlands, conclude 
 that all inhabitants of Scotland, from the Solway 
 to the Orkneys, are and always have been of 
 the same race ; and that the great martial exploits 
 of Scottish history have all been achieved by the 
 ancestors of those kilted heroes who beat Cope
 
 2O The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 at Prestonpans and routed Hawley at Falkirk. 
 Ignorant romancers have fostered this delusion 
 by pictures of Bruce and Wallace, in kilt and 
 tartan, at the head of their plaided clansmen, 
 which, letting alone the fact that neither kilt nor 
 tartan existed till some two centuries later/'' is 
 as absurd an anomaly, to borrow Macaulay's 
 illustration, as to represent George Washington, 
 in his character of leader of the Americans, 
 brandishing a tomahawk and girt with a string 
 of scalps. The Highlanders were of a totally 
 
 * It has been the fashion to speak of the kilt or philabeg as the ancient 
 national dress of the Highlanders. Few, perhaps, are aware that the kilt, as 
 we now know it, is not of Scottish origin at all. The honour of its invention 
 is divided between two Englishmen an army tailor who accompanied Marshal 
 Wade's force to Scotland in 1719, and Thomas Rawlinson, overseer of some 
 iron-works in Glengarry's country. For more than a century previous to 
 this the tartan plaid had been the common garb of the Highlanders, but it was 
 all in one piece, wound in folds round the body, leaving the knees bare. It 
 was worn in much the same way as the Red Indian now wears his blanket 
 'its appearance was equally grotesque, and its condition equally filthy. English 
 people in 1715 and 1745 were horrified at the disgusting and revolting appear- 
 ance of the Highlanders, with their matted hair and beards, their unwashed 
 skins, and their greasy, vermin-covered blankets of tartan, their only article 
 of attire. Previous to the adoption of the tartan, which probably took place 
 about the close of the fifteenth century, the long loose saffron-coloured shirt 
 was the Highland garb.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 2 1 
 
 different race from those steel-clad spearmen of 
 the dales, whom Bruce and Wallace led to 
 victory before whose disciplined valour and 
 serried phalanx, the despised Highland savages 
 were scattered like chaff. The famous Scottish 
 heroes were Lowlanders, little if at all different 
 in race, manners, and speech, from their English 
 neighbours. Bruce himself was an English 
 baron, bred if not born in England; his father 
 was an English courtier, his grandfather an 
 English judge, and he would have scorned any 
 connection with the savage kernes of the High- 
 lands, who were never admitted to be Scots. 
 In behalf of the Lowlanders who have made 
 Scotland what she is, and to whom of right 
 belongs the glory of her ancient prowess, I think 
 it is but fair to restore to them the credit which 
 the Highlanders, as the heroes of the Jacobite 
 rebellions, have usurped. It does not in any way 
 detract from the reputation of the Highlanders 
 for valour a reputation nobly won and as nobly 
 maintained. But the Highlanders' renown dates
 
 2 2 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 no farther back than the time of Montrose, 
 while that of the Lowlanders can be proudly- 
 traced back to Bannockburn, and far beyond, 
 till it is lost in the mists of tradition. 
 
 In speaking of the spirit and sentiments of 
 the Highland chiefs when they joined Dundee 
 in 1689, 1 do not mean to assert that these were 
 the feelings which actuated them all through the 
 Jacobite episode. No doubt fifty years worked 
 a considerable change both in the sentiments 
 and the manners of the Highlanders, and many 
 of them entered upon the rebellion of 1 745 from 
 other motives than those I have described. On 
 this point I shall have occasion to speak in its 
 proper place, but enough has been said here to 
 show that loyalty to the House of Stuart was 
 certainly not the motive which led the clans to 
 take arms under Dundee. 
 
 It is a proof of Dundee's remarkable sagacity 
 and tact, that he, a Lowlander by birth and 
 breeding, a stranger and of a hated race, wholly 
 ignorant of the language and manners of these
 
 and its Relative Literature. 23. 
 
 wild mountaineers, should have succeeded in 
 gathering round himself all their military enthu- 
 siasm, and have persuaded them to accept him 
 as their leader. The very fact, however, of his 
 being a stranger gave him one great advantage 
 no clan felt aggrieved at serving under him, 
 no chief considered his dignity compromised, as 
 he would unquestionably have done had any 
 Highland chieftain, no matter what his rank or 
 power, attempted to take the command. The 
 rivalry of the various clans was carried to the 
 most absurd extremes ; there was as much 
 jealousy and sensitiveness among them on points 
 of precedence and etiquette, as among the court 
 ladies of Louis Quatorze. Dundee's tact was 
 invaluable in reconciling the differences which 
 arose from these petty rivalries, differences 
 which threatened a hundred times to turn the 
 swords of one half of his army against the other 
 half. This little resolute dark man, " Black 
 John of the Battles," as they loved to call him, 
 with the face so melancholy and beautiful in
 
 24 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 repose, so stern and cruel when roused to action, 
 had an influence over them which they themselves 
 felt to have something weird and uncanny about 
 it. They regarded him with a strange mixture 
 of admiration and superstitious awe. There is 
 something in the commanding intellect of a little 
 man which always has this effect upon brute 
 force, and it is a noteworthy fact that the great- 
 est generals the world has seen have been of 
 the same physical type, and have in consequence 
 wielded the same moral influence. That Dundee 
 should have kept together an army composed 
 of such discordant elements and such inflam- 
 mable materials for a single week, is a wonder 
 which increases our admiration of his tact the 
 more we study it; but that even he, with all his 
 tact and cleverness, could have kept such an 
 army together long enough to do any real or 
 lasting service to the House of Stuart, is more 
 than we can believe possible. It would have 
 melted away from him as a similar army had 
 melted away from Montrose, even in the hour
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 of his triumph. And even supposing it had not 
 been so; supposing all the great results, which 
 Dundee's sanguine admirers believed would 
 have ensued but for the abrupt close of his 
 career, had actually come to pass what would 
 the Stuarts have done with these victorious 
 Highlanders ? How could they have shown 
 their gratitude to these lawless warriors, with 
 due regard to the safety and order of their king- 
 dom and the security of their law-loving lieges ? 
 They would have found these wild and reckless 
 freebooters a terrible thorn in their side; they 
 would have been compelled at last to put down 
 their excesses with a strong and stern hand ; and 
 it would have been worse for the Highlanders 
 in the end, perhaps, than Culloden. 
 
 Dundee, however, kept his Highland army 
 together long enough to immortalize his own 
 name, and shed a ray of sentiment over the field 
 of Killiecrankie, which did more for Jacobitism 
 than the victory itself, for it gave it a memory 
 which in days to come was a sure spell to con-
 
 26 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 jure up Highland enthusiasm. The victory 
 itself, indeed, was not a brilliant one; and the 
 success, such as it was, must be attributed to the 
 impetuous rush of the clans, rather than to the 
 skilful dispositions of the general. But Dundee 
 gained that spurious fame which attaches to 
 death on the field of battle, and which is sup- 
 posed to be the highest glory that can crown a 
 soldier's career. It is hard to tell why it should 
 be so in this case especially hard for the 
 circumstances of Dundee's death were rather 
 ignominious than otherwise. And yet while the 
 cool and steady courage and splendid retreat of 
 Mackay are forgotten, the accident which gave 
 Dundee the honour of his death-wound will be 
 remembered as though it had been some noble 
 achievement of his own. 
 
 Of the character of Dundee it is not easy to 
 form a correct estimate. That he was a soldier 
 and a gentleman, a chivalrous and devoted 
 cavalier, I think there is good reason to believe; 
 but it is equally true that with these qualities ^
 
 and its Relative Literature. 27 
 
 were combined the hardness, the selfishness, and 
 the recklessness of human life, which were the 
 results, partly of a naturally stern disposition, 
 partly of long training as a mercenary in con- 
 tinental camps. Probably one half of the tales 
 told by the Covenanters of his cruelty are either 
 exaggerated or wholly untrue; but even making 
 due allowance for the rabid hostility and fanatical 
 hatred of the Covenanters, whose malignant and 
 persistent efforts to blacken his character by fair 
 means and foul have done their cause more 
 harm than good, his own letters show that there 
 are abundant grounds for the stigma of merciless 
 and cold-blooded cruelty which rests upon his 
 name. Many chivalrous efforts have been made 
 to cleanse his memory from these dark stains,'* 
 
 * Macaulay's strictures on Dundee have called forth three doughty cham- 
 pions. Professor Aytoun in a special note attached to his " Lays of the 
 Scottish Cavaliers," Mr. John Paget in his " New Examen," Mr. Mark 
 Napier in his " Memorials of the Life and Times of John Graham of Claver- 
 house," have all striven hard to clear the fame of their hero ; and a greater 
 than any of them has also taken up the cudgels in his behalf, though for 
 dramatic effect he once joined the other side. In a letter from Scott to 
 Southey there occurs this curious passage in reference to Dundee : " As for
 
 28 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 but I confess that all the eloquence and all the 
 arguments of his champions seem to me to have 
 failed to establish his innocence, although to 
 some extent they may have cleared his fame. 
 But while it is impossible to believe that he was 
 either the fiend that his fanatical enemies 
 paint him, or the Christian hero that his equally 
 fanatical admirers represent him, I think we 
 may fairly say of him, that with all his faults, 
 and they were neither few nor small, he had 
 most of the virtues of a cavalier of the best 
 type; and the cause of the exiled Stuarts, from 
 first to last, numbered among its followers none 
 abler, more gallant, or more devoted than John 
 Graham of Claverhouse. 
 
 my good friend, Dundee, I cannot admit his culpability in the extent you 
 allege; and it is scandalous of the Sunday bard (Wordsworth) to join in your 
 condemnation, ' and yet come of a noble Graeme ' ! I admit he was tant soil 
 feu savage, but he was a noble savage ; and the beastly Covenanters) against whom 
 he acted, hardly had any claim to be called men, unless what was founded on 
 their walking upon their hind feet. You can hardly conceive the perfidy, 
 cruelty, and stupidity of these people, according to the accounts they have 
 themselves preserved." This is not quite in harmony with the sentiments 
 expressed in "Old Mortality," but Scott himself admitted that he was in that 
 -instance carried away by his subject.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 With the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie the 
 first Jacobite rising may be said to have virtu- 
 ally ended. But before it actually closed it was 
 marked by one brilliant exploit on the other side 
 which it would be unfair to pass over in silence. 
 The memorable defence of Dunkeld by the Cam- 
 eronians stands unequalled as a military achieve- 
 ment in all the annals of the Jacobite wars. 
 They had been left in this lonely and unfortified 
 outpost, as they believed, from the same motive 
 which led Joab to place Uriah the Hittite in the 
 forefront of the battle. But so far from mur- 
 muring, they accepted the desperate situation 
 with grim delight. The same stern Puritan 
 spirit which had turned Marston Moor from a 
 defeat into a victory was here. It rose to fever 
 heat as one avenue of escape after another was 
 closed. The more hopeless their position 
 became, the higher rose the fierce fanatical joy 
 of battle. For hours they held their own against 
 tenfold odds, until, repulsed at all points, the 
 Highlanders fled in confusion. But the victory
 
 30 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 was dearly bought; the gallant young leader of 
 the Cameronians, William Cleland, who, had he 
 lived, would have rivalled the fame of Dundee, 
 was shot dead while stimulating his men by his 
 own noble example to prolong what seemed a 
 hopeless struggle, a death more glorious and 
 heroic than the great Jacobite leader's, though 
 it has found no sacer vates to give it a niche in 
 the temple of fame. 
 
 The ridiculous stampede of Cromdale, when 
 the Highlanders ran like sheep, and the Jacobite 
 generals only escaped capture by flying in ig- 
 nominious deshabille, the one without hat, coat, 
 or sword, the other in literally nothing but his 
 night-gown, brought to a close a war of which 
 the Jacobites had little reason to be proud. 
 
 William and his advisers were not slow to 
 read the lessons taught by this first Jacobite 
 rising. They saw that the Highlanders were 
 ready to take up arms at the beck and call of 
 any party who would promise them plunder and 
 pay, and that they would therefore be a per-
 
 and its Relative Literature, 3 1 
 
 petual source of danger and anxiety to the 
 Revolution Government if left open to the 
 overtures of the Jacobites. Had William been 
 unfettered by foreign complications, he would 
 probably have subjugated the Highlands at the 
 point of the sword, but he had other and more 
 urgent work for his army, and he was anxious, 
 therefore, to get the Highlanders off his hands 
 as soon as possible. Pacific measures promised 
 the speediest solution of the difficulty. Efforts 
 were accordingly made to gain over the chiefs, 
 and the direction which those efforts took showed 
 how low an opinion William held of Scottish 
 morality. Indeed, when dealing with Scotchmen, 
 whether Lowlanders or Highlanders, William 
 always acted on the principle that a bribe was 
 the best argument to convince a Scottish under- 
 standing.'"" In his instructions to Lord Melville 
 
 * He was not alone in his opinion of the venality of Scotchmen. Col. 
 Hooke, who was sent over by Lonis XIV., in 1705, to sound the Scottish 
 Jacobites, thus described them to his royal master : " Les Ecossais sont 
 pauvres et ils aiment 1'argent ; une somme considerable repandue a propos 
 gagnera les chefs." And again : "C'est une maxime en Ecosse de ne point
 
 32 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 as his High Commissioner in Scotland, he 
 openly countenanced, and not only counte- 
 nanced, but distinctly recommended a wholesale 
 system of bribery, and gave minute directions to 
 buy off leading men of the opposition with the 
 offer of state appointments or presents of money. 
 There was, no doubt, much in the conduct and 
 character of the influential Scotch nobles and 
 politicians of that time to warrant his holding 
 such an opinion. But William did not under- 
 stand the Scotch character; he did not take into 
 account the fact that their pride was stronger 
 even than their venality, and that nothing could 
 be more offensive to that pride than the blunt 
 and business-like way in which these dishonour- 
 able proposals were conveyed. Many of the 
 most grievous mistakes in the policy both of 
 William and of his successors towards Scotland 
 are to be attributed to this ignorance of the 
 national character of the Scotch. 
 
 perdre son poste lorsque Ton peut conserver quand le diable viendrois. " 
 Not very complimentary to the Scotch ; but then, Colonel Hooke was himself 
 a renegade Scotchman, and that may account for his bitterness.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 It was resolved, therefore, to bribe the High- 
 land chiefs, and the Earl of Breadalbane was 
 entrusted with ,20,000 for that purpose, with 
 directions to offer ,2,000 or a dignity under an 
 earldom to any chief whose allegiance it might 
 be necessary to purchase at so high a price. 
 Breadalbane, who, if we are to believe one of 
 his contemporaries,* was " cunning as a fox, wise 
 as a serpent, but slippery as an eel," was 
 strongly suspected of embezzling the larger por- 
 tion of this sum, and making threats and promises 
 serve the purpose of bribes among the Highland 
 chiefs. It is certain that he gave no account of 
 his disbursements ; and to all inquiries answered 
 coolly "the money is spent, the Highlands are 
 quiet, and this is the only way of accounting 
 among friends." 
 
 Not satisfied, however, with Breadalbane's 
 assurance of the loyal and peaceful disposition 
 of the Highlanders, the Government issued a 
 proclamation summoning all chiefs to take the 
 
 * Memoirs of the Secret Services of John Macky. 
 C
 
 34 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 oath of allegiance before January ist, 1692, on 
 pain of having " letters of fire and sword " issued 
 against them. Abundant time was allowed for 
 complying with the terms of the proclamation. 
 But many of the chiefs delayed their submission 
 as long as possible, in the hope that something 
 might occur to obviate the necessity of an act so 
 inimical to their marauding instincts and love of 
 independence. The most dilatory of all these 
 was the crafty old chief of Glencoe, who, in the 
 expectation of a fresh Jacobite movement put 
 off taking the oath until it was too late to do so 
 within the appointed time. The story of what 
 followed is too well known to need repetition 
 here. That it was the intention of William and 
 his ministers to make a signal example of any 
 who should fail to comply with the strict terms 
 of the proclamation, there can be no doubt. It 
 is equally certain that there was a general wish, 
 in which William participated,* that some of the 
 
 * In a letter from the Earl of Linlithgow to Breadalbane, published for 
 the first time in the Edinburgh Review, No. 213, there occurs this remarkable
 
 and its Relative Literature. 35 
 
 most obstinate clans would hold out, in order 
 that the tremendous punishment inflicted on 
 them might overawe the rest of the Highlands, 
 and render it unnecessary to keep a large force 
 there any longer. This was the broad and 
 general view of the matter taken by William and 
 his English ministers. But besides this, there 
 was an under-current of local jealousy and irri- 
 tation at work, and some plausible excuse was 
 wanted by Breadalbane, Dalrymple, and others, 
 for rooting out the Macdonalds of Glencoe, who 
 were regarded by their Lowland neighbours 
 with much the same feelings as those with which 
 the settlers in Oregon regard the Modoc Indians. 
 Indeed the action of William and his advisers, 
 and more especially of Sir John Dalrymple, 
 cannot be better understood than by calling to 
 mind recent""" events in America. Long before 
 the massacre which led to General Grant's edict 
 
 and significant passage: " But the last standers out may pay for all; and 
 
 besides, 1 know that the K does not care that some do it, that he may make examples 
 
 of 'them ." 
 
 * This was written in the Spring of 1873.
 
 36 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 of extermination against the Modocs, there were 
 men of high reputation men like General 
 Sheridan, who warmly maintained that the only 
 safe and prudent policy to pursue towards the 
 Indians was a policy of extermination. And 
 this was the opinion of all who had any experi- 
 ence of the Indians on the borders of the far 
 Western settlements. Yet no one accuses 
 General Sheridan of any private or personal 
 enmity against " Captain Jack," in persistently 
 advocating that ruthless policy and no one 
 accuses President Grant of gross inhumanity in 
 finally adopting that policy after the massacre 
 of General Canby and his fellow-commissioners. 
 And it seems to me just as unreasonable to 
 accuse Sir John Dalrymple of personal enmity 
 against Glencoe, or William of barbarous in- 
 humanity, because the one advocated, and the 
 other approved of a scheme to inflict signal 
 chastisement upon a gang of mountain-robbers. 
 With Dalrymple, it was a sincere belief that to 
 exterminate these Highland caterans was the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 37 
 
 only means of securing the peace and safety of 
 their Lowland neighbours. We find him in 
 his letters seriously and calmly arguing the 
 matter from this point of view. " I believe," he 
 says, on one occasion, " that you will be satisfied 
 it were a great advantage to the nation that 
 thieving tribe were rooted out and cut off." 
 This was no new sentiment. It can be traced 
 through the policy of all the later Scottish kings, 
 and it was a source of mortification and vexation 
 to them that they were unable to carry it 
 thoroughly into execution. James VI., who, 
 whatever his faults, has never been accused of 
 inhumanity, actually entered into a contract " to 
 extirpate that barbarous people." It was a 
 traditional feature in Scottish policy, and there 
 is therefore nothing surprising in finding it 
 advocated by Dalrymple. As for William, he 
 was too cold-blooded to care much by what 
 means a measure of expediency was carried out. 
 Of Glencoe's tardy submission, he probably 
 knew nothing ; of the base treachery of the
 
 38 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 catastrophe he is guiltless ; but that he knew 
 what his advisers meant by "extirpating" a 
 clan, when he put that unrestricted warrant into 
 their hands, the preceding contemporaneous 
 evidence leaves us no room to doubt. The 
 responsibility of the hideous and revolting 
 details rests solely with the executioners ; and 
 those whose admiration of Highland virtue 
 amounts to a species of fetichism, will do well 
 to bear in mind that this foul deed of treachery 
 and murder was perpetrated by Highlanders^ 
 and in accordance with a custom for which 
 Highland annals afford no lack of precedents.""" 
 At the same time there is good reason to doubt 
 whether we should ever have heard much, if 
 anything, of the Massacre of Glencoe, but for 
 the Jacobites and the personal enemies of 
 Dalrymple. To the former it was a godsend. 
 They seized upon it with avidity. It offered 
 
 * For instances of the perfidy which Highlanders were not ashamed to 
 avail themselves of in prosecuting their schemes of revenge, see an article in 
 the Quarterly Review, No. 28 (vol. 14), the author of which is believed to 
 have been Sir Walter Scott.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 39 
 
 far too good a chance of vilifying their opponents 
 to be neglected. It was paraded as a character- 
 istic act of the new king a foretaste of what his 
 subjects might expect under his mild paternal 
 rule. And so skilful was the use made of it, that 
 William's government never, succeeded in re- 
 moving the odium which it brought upon them, 
 whilst it was unquestionably of invaluable service 
 to the Jacobite cause by lending it the moral 
 support which it needed. Dalrymple's enemies, 
 too, and they were many and powerful, made 
 great capital out of this incident. They pounced 
 upon it, and clung to it with all the tenacity of 
 relentless malice. And there can be no doubt 
 that personal hatred and jealousy of the Secretary 
 of State, far more than any feelings of outraged 
 humanity, were at the bottom of the popular 
 agitation which brought about the subsequent 
 investigation. The Massacre of Glencoe stands 
 out prominently from other similar atrocities in 
 Scottish history, not because it was more treach- 
 erous and inhuman, but because it happened at
 
 40 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 a time when it was peculiarly useful to a 
 political party in the state, whose interest it was 
 to make the most of anything which, by the 
 force of rabid partisanship and unscrupulous 
 ingenuity, could be made to blacken the char- 
 acters of their opponents, and pave the way for 
 their own restoration to popular favour. 
 
 The indignation aroused by the Massacre of 
 Glencoe had hardly begun to subside, when 
 there came the Darien Scheme, surely the 
 wildest, most extravagant, and hopeless scheme 
 in which a nation, proverbial for its caution and 
 common sense, ever embarked. The story of 
 its miserable failure, and the terrible sufferings 
 of those hapless colonists left to perish on the 
 lonely isthmus, is familiar to all students of 
 Scottish history. For that failure England was, 
 whether justly or unjustly it would be out of 
 place to discuss here, held responsible, and feel- 
 ings of the bitterest animosity were roused 
 against the English Government. Everything 
 that tended to alienate the two countries was
 
 and its Relative Literature. 41 
 
 advantageous to the cause of Jacobitism, and it 
 was therefore only natural that the Jacobites 
 should use every means at their disposal to 
 foment the ill-feeling. The people of Scotland 
 at this juncture were in much the same frame of 
 mind as the shareholders of a company which 
 has suddenly collapsed. They had lost their 
 money, and they were fretful and angry, and 
 disposed to believe the very worst that could be 
 said of those to whom they attributed their loss. 
 The general depression of trade consequent upon 
 the failure of the Darien Scheme added fresh 
 bitterness to these feelings, and produced such 
 wide-spread discontent that on the death of 
 Queen Mary the Government party were 
 actually afraid, in the then temper of the Scot- 
 tish Parliament, to bring forward the question of 
 the Hanoverian succession, and that measure 
 was in fact never passed by the Parliament of 
 Scotland. This was one of the main reasons 
 for the opposition of the Jacobites to the Act of 
 Union. While Scotland was a separate king-
 
 42 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 dom, with a separate Parliament, they felt that 
 they were strong enough to prevent the Act 
 which extended the succession to the Electors of 
 Hanover from being carried ; and consequently 
 on the death of Anne, James VIII. would be the 
 only lawful King of Scotland ; his claim would 
 then be indisputable, because twofold ; the 
 merger of two distinct rights would give it 
 double strength, for the crown would be his by 
 the right of reversion, as well as by the right of 
 hereditary descent. It is well to understand this 
 clearly, because it gives the clue to the action of 
 the Jacobites at this period. 
 
 It was while this discontent and irritation 
 were still rankling in the hearts of the Scotch 
 that the project for the Union of the two coun- 
 tries was first broached. It was not, indeed, a 
 novel scheme ; for more than a century it had 
 been familiar to the thoughtful statesmen of 
 both countries, and had been regarded as an 
 event which must sooner or later take place, nor 
 had it ever been received with disfavour by
 
 and its Relative Literature. 43 
 
 those who had contemplated its consummation. 
 To William it had been one of the dearest wishes 
 of his heart, and in his very last public utterance 
 he earnestly commended it to the attention of 
 the legislature in both countries. Nothing can 
 be more certain than that the idea of Union in 
 the abstract was not distasteful to the Scotch. 
 But it was unfortunate that it should have been 
 brought prominently forward at a time when 
 the relations between the two countries were 
 such as to strengthen the hands of its enemies 
 and weaken the hands of its supporters. 
 
 The first negotiations for the Union were 
 begun in 1702, but the vigorous opposition 
 of the Jacobites rendered them unsuccessful. 
 Three years later they were renewed, and 
 in the interval the irritation and discontent 
 of the Scotch had subsided in a very remark- 
 able degree. This change, I think, may be 
 attributed to the fact that there had been a 
 lull in the Jacobite agitation, for it was that 
 organised agitation alone which had kept Scot-
 
 44 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 land in a state of ferment. The Jacobites had 
 been quiet from policy. It was generally be- 
 lieved that Anne was in favour of her nephew's 
 accession, and would, if not alarmed by any 
 violent demonstrations on the part of James's 
 adherents, exert all her influence to secure his 
 succession to the throne. It was therefore the 
 policy of the Jacobites not to make themselves 
 obnoxiously prominent, and, owing to this 
 policy, the land had rest, and the memory of 
 old grievances began to fade. Consequently, 
 when a proposal for the Union of the two 
 countries was again mooted, the bulk of the 
 people were prepared to accept it, and if they 
 did not support the measure with enthusiasm, 
 they at any rate viewed it with contentment. 
 Nor is there any reason to doubt that this state 
 of things would have continued, and that the Act 
 of Union would have been passed without any 
 excitement or violent display of feeling, had the 
 Jacobites only preserved the passive attitude 
 which they had of late assumed. But they were
 
 and its Relative Literature. 45 
 
 not sufficiently certain of Anne's support, nor 
 sufficiently assured of its value to risk the pas- 
 sing of an Act of Union, the first result of which 
 would be to make Scotland amenable to the 
 laws of the English Parliament, and render the 
 armies of England available for the defence of 
 Scotland. The strength of the English Whigs 
 would neutralize Jacobite influence in Scotland ; 
 and, if the Act of Union were once passed, there 
 would be no hope of preventing the Act securing 
 the succession to the House of Hanover from 
 being extended to Scotland. At all hazards, 
 then, Scotland must be kept a separate kingdom, 
 at any rate until the exiled Stuarts were again 
 firmly re-established. It was with mingled rage 
 and apprehension, therefore, that the Jacobites 
 viewed the tame acquiescence of the great mass 
 of the people in a measure which, if passed, 
 must deal a deadly blow to Jacobitism. But 
 they were determined that matters should not 
 long remain in this state. Prompt and vigorous 
 measures were taken to stir up the smouldering
 
 46 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 embers of half-forgotten wrongs, and revive the 
 old hostility to England. They were utterly 
 reckless what passions they inflamed, or what 
 excesses they encouraged, so long as their im- 
 mediate object was gained. Mischievous agi- 
 tators laboured to exasperate the people against 
 England. The memories of Glencoe and 
 Darien were raked up, and England's share in 
 them painted in the blackest colours. Every 
 class of society, every profession, every trade 
 was incited to oppose the Union by vehement 
 assurances that the measure would be ruinous 
 to the interests of each and all of them. All 
 that the bitter invective and rancorous abuse, 
 the artful and unscrupulous misrepresentation, 
 the gross and persistent lying of hired lampoon- 
 ers and pamphleteers could do to alienate the 
 Scotch from England, and exasperate them 
 against the Union, was done. And knowing, 
 as we do, how easily and with what little show 
 of reason popular demonstrations are got up in 
 our own day, there is surely nothing wonderful in
 
 and its Relative Literature. 47 
 
 the success which attended these efforts of the 
 Jacobites. They unquestionably did, by the 
 means I have described, create suspicion and 
 dislike of the Union, and persuade the thought- 
 less and ignorant that the object of the measure 
 was to sell Scotland to the English, and that, if 
 they accepted it, their laws, liberties, and estates 
 would for the future be at the disposal of an 
 English Parliament. 
 
 And yet, after all these exertions, their success 
 was only partial. Even when the agitation 
 against the Union was at fever-heat, the nation 
 was by no means unanimous in its dislike. The 
 majority of the people were still in favour of the 
 Union, though the minority were, as minorities 
 generally are, the more noisy and demonstrative, 
 making up in clamour for what they lacked in 
 numbers. There is a passage in Burke's " Re- 
 flections on the Revolution in France," which is 
 applicable to this as to most other popular 
 agitations, it is this " Because half a dozen 
 grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring
 
 48 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 with their importunate chink, whilst thousands 
 of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of 
 the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, 
 pray do not imagine that those who make the 
 noise are the only inhabitants of the field that, 
 of course, they are many in number, or, that, 
 after all, they are other than the little, shrivelled, 
 meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome 
 insects of the hour." 
 
 The opposition to the Act of Union in 
 Scotland was, therefore, almost entirely the work 
 of the Jacobite party, who felt that their last 
 hold upon Scotland was slipping from them, and 
 that a desperate effort was necessary to keep it. 
 And when, in spite of all their efforts, the great 
 measure was passed, it was they who, out of 
 sheer spleen and spitefulness, fabricated and 
 circulated the foul calumny which attributed the 
 successful issue of the measure to the bribery of 
 the Scottish Ministers a charge which, in an 
 age when political morality was at a low ebb, 
 was sure to find ready credence. There is
 
 and its Relative Literature. 49 
 
 absolutely no valid evidence to support the 
 charge, which rests mainly upon a list published 
 in the papers of George Lockhart of Carnwath, 
 a bitter and rabid Jacobite, who invariably 
 imputes the worst motives to all who are not of 
 his way of thinking. This list purports to give 
 the name of every Scotchman of importance 
 who was thought worth bribing, with the amount 
 paid to each by the English Government, and 
 Lockhart asserts that it is a genuine document 
 which accidentally fell into his hands. There 
 is no reason to question the genuineness of the 
 document; but the fallacy of the assumption 
 which Lockhart founded upon it, has been ably 
 and clearly exposed by a living historian,"" the 
 most impartial and trustworthy of all who have 
 written on the Jacobite Episode. The moneys 
 alluded to in this list were a loan of ,20,000, 
 requested and obtained from the English 
 Exchequer by the Scottish Government, to 
 pay arrears of salary due to officials, who were 
 
 * Burton, Vol. I., pp. 484-494. 
 I)
 
 50 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 inclined to be angry and discontented at the 
 delay. The application of the money was 
 rigidly investigated by that celebrated Tory 
 Committee which ruined Maryborough and sent 
 Walpole to the Tower, but they did not find 
 that the payments were misappropriated; and 
 we may be sure that if there had been the 
 slightest suspicion of bribery, they would have 
 smelt it out, and fastened upon it remorselessly. 
 Indeed, the list itself seems to me to contain the 
 refutation of the charge which has been founded 
 upon it, for it includes the names of some who 
 were notorious opponents of the Union, and 
 systematically voted against it. And besides, it 
 is a slur upon the reputation of Scotchmen 
 for shrewdness, to suppose that they would not 
 have made better bargains for the sale of their 
 honour and patriotism that a nobleman like 
 Lord Banff, for example, would have sold his 
 honour, his country, and his religion to boot, 
 for the ridiculous sum of 11 : 2s. ! And yet 
 such staunch Scotsmen as Sir Walter Scott, and
 
 and its Relative Literature. 5 1 
 
 Mr. Robert Chambers, have accepted this reck- 
 less charge, and have preferred to believe a 
 shameful calumny against their own country- 
 men, rather than forego the pleasure of indulging 
 their scorn and hatred of the Whigs ! A 
 singular and melancholy instance of judgment 
 warped by partisanship. 
 
 It was not until the Jacobites had tried every 
 other expedient in vain, that, as a last resource, 
 they turned to France, hoping that assistance 
 from that quarter would enable them to strike a 
 blow before the two kingdoms became actually 
 united, and one government had control over 
 the defence of both. Then commenced those 
 intrigues between the Scottish Jacobites and 
 the French Court, which raised so many san- 
 guine hopes destined to end only in misery and 
 despair. It is doubtful whether the French 
 Court was ever sincere in its support of Jacobit- 
 ism, or ever seriously desired its success. The 
 cause of the exiled Stuarts was a safe card to 
 play whenever it served the ends of French
 
 5 2 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 policy to distract, and harass, and perplex 
 English" statesmen, but I do not believe that any 
 one of the expeditions to which the French 
 government ostensibly gave its sanction was 
 ever really intended to succeed, and the false 
 encouragement which these successive feints 
 imparted to the Jacobite cause was mainly 
 instrumental in accelerating its ultimate ruin. 
 
 It has been often said that there never was a 
 more favorable opportunity for a great Jacobite 
 movement than at the time when the agitation 
 against the Union was at its height. It has 
 been asserted that Scotland would have risen 
 en masse to welcome back her exiled King, and 
 that the united efforts of English and Scottish 
 Jacobites would have carried the white cockade 
 in triumph to Whitehall. But this assertion is 
 based, I think, upon the grand mistake which 
 was made by the Jacobites all through the 
 Jacobite episode, viz. : that irritation and dis- 
 content against England meant sympathy with 
 Jacobitism. No doubt the Jacobites had by
 
 and its Relative Literature. 53 
 
 astute policy identified themselves with, all the 
 popular grievances, notably with this agitation 
 against the Union, and had done something 
 towards associating Jacobitism in the popular 
 mind with the assertion of national rights and 
 the preservation of national independence. 
 They were so far successful that there was a 
 great deal of Jacobitism talked in Scotland by 
 indignant opponents of the Union, who, in the 
 excitement of the moment, forgot all that they 
 had suffered from the Stuart dynasty. But 
 when it came to acting, it was quickly seen how 
 hollow was the Jacobitism of such professors. 
 At the prospect of an actual restoration of a 
 family which they had too good reason to dis- 
 trust and dislike, they took alarm at once, and 
 there were no deeds forthcoming to back up the 
 words spoken in moments of heated and gener- 
 ally vinous enthusiasm. Colonel Hooke, who 
 was sent over by Louis XIV., in 1705, to sound 
 the Scottish Jacobites, and report upon the pros- 
 pects of Jacobitism in Scotland, has left the
 
 54 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 minutest details of his mission, and the whole 
 tenour of his report is, that there was no earnest- 
 ness or heart in the Jacobite movement in 
 Scotland. He found the principal men back- 
 ward and timid. The great H ighland chiefs were 
 uncommonly shy even of being interviewed on 
 the subject of an armed rising, and absolutely 
 averse to joining in any such enterprize. The 
 eminent politicians and statesmen, to whom 
 Colonel Hooke had been directed as the leaders 
 of the party, he found wholly devoid of any real 
 interest in Jacobitism, which they merely used 
 as a political watchword to rally a party of 
 opposition against their parliamentary rivals. 
 There was no depth or sincerity in the great 
 mass of Scottish Jacobitism. And there can be 
 little doubt that the report which Colonel Hooke 
 (who, as his published correspondence proves, 
 was a shrewd and acute observer,) brought back 
 to his royal master, caused Louis XIV. to dis- 
 trust all the representations of Scottish Jacobites 
 in the future, and to be cautious of compromising
 
 and its Relative Literature. 55 
 
 himself by lending them any material aid. The 
 ultimate collapse of Jacobitism was due to false 
 representations on both sides. The Scottish 
 Jacobites were for ever sending to France exag- 
 gerated accounts of the favourable aspect of 
 Jacobitism in Scotland, in the hope of inducing 
 the French Court, on the strength of these 
 reports, to fit out a powerful expedition for an 
 immediate invasion; while the French Cabinet 
 was for ever sending to Scotland assurances of 
 speedy assistance, which had the effect of keeping 
 the Jacobites in a perpetual state of excitement 
 and anticipation, and which undoubtedly preci- 
 pitated the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Each 
 side was trying to dupe the other but, unfortu- 
 nately for the Jacobites, they failed to dupe, and 
 were duped instead. They believed the repre- 
 sentations of the French Court, whereas the 
 French Court was never for a moment deceived 
 by theirs. 
 
 Another broken reed upon which the Scottish 
 Jacobites leaned was the co-operation of the
 
 56 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 English Jacobites. And it is really extraordinary 
 how little pains they took to inform themselves 
 correctly of the spirit and the sentiments of the 
 Jacobite party in England. The two seem to 
 have been playing at cross-purposes, and neither 
 knew exactly what the other wanted. The 
 Scottish Jacobites wanted a repeal of the Union, 
 a national King, and a national Parliament ; and, 
 to obtain these objects, they were not averse to 
 a French invasion. The English Jacobites, on 
 the other hand, were in favour of the Union, 
 and desirous of seeing their hereditary sovereign 
 rule over the united countries, under one and the 
 same constitutional government, but nothing 
 would have induced them to sanction a French 
 invasion. They had, as Englishmen, an uncon- 
 querable aversion to the presence of a foreign 
 soldiery in the country, and in the event of an 
 invasion their patriotism would have proved too 
 strong for their Jacobitism."" This variance of 
 
 * A notable example of this feeling was afforded by the conduct of 
 Admiral Russell, at La Hogue ; the Englishman was stronger than the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 57 
 
 aims and difference of sentiments were fatal to 
 any united and concerted action. And yet, 
 although no attempt seems ever to have been 
 made to effect a compromise between these two 
 sections of the same party, and render concerted 
 action possible, both in 1715 and 1745 the 
 Scottish Jacobites took it for granted, with the 
 most extraordinary infatuation, that they had 
 the full sympathy of the English Jacobites, and 
 that the active co-operation of the latter would 
 follow as a matter of course. How unfounded 
 these expectations were, the history of the ex- 
 peditions into England in 1715 and 1745 clearly 
 proves. And in each case the complete disap- 
 pointment of those expectations was such a 
 sudden and unlooked-for blow, that the enterprize 
 collapsed at once. 
 
 These seem to have been the main causes of 
 the utter failure of the Jacobite movement, and 
 
 Jacobite in that gallant sailor, when it came to the push ; and all his loyalty 
 to the House of Stuart could not make him forget that he was opposed to the 
 natural enemies of his country, and that his first duty was to retrieve her 
 tarnished laurels by avenging the defeat of Beechy Head.
 
 58 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 they were causes which existed from the first,, 
 and might have been early removed had there 
 been any wise and able men among the advisers 
 of the House of Stuart. But there were none. 
 And it speaks volumes against Jacobitism, that 
 hardly a single able, sensible, practical man in 
 either country was found among its supporters. 
 Indeed, there seems to me to have been some- 
 thing amateurish about all the efforts of 
 Jacobitism. They were the attempts of dilettanti 
 insurrectionists, with no fixed plans and no defi- 
 nite ideas, enthusiasts without that hearty practi- 
 cality which can alone make enthusiasm a useful 
 quality. Jacobitism, in short, was a romantic 
 dream carried out by romantic dreamers. 
 
 The lukewarmness of the Scottish Jacobites, 
 of which Colonel Hooke had complained so 
 bitterly, was fatal to the success of the expedi- 
 tion of 1708, in many respects the best-timed 
 and most skilfully organised of all the Jacobite 
 expeditions. England was almost drained of 
 her regular troops by the continental war, and
 
 and its Relative Literature. 59 
 
 Scotland was practically undefended. Backed 
 by 3000 or 4000 French regulars, the Jacobites 
 might have scoured the country from end to 
 end, apparently, without meeting with a mo- 
 ment's serious resistance. Yet when Admiral 
 Fourbin with his little fleet reached Scotland, no 
 response whatever was made to the preconcerted 
 signals, and no encouragement whatever given 
 to effect a landing. The Scottish Jacobites saw 
 him come and saw him depart, knowing that 
 he had with him the King, to whom they profes- 
 sed to be devoted, and 4000 regular troops to 
 boot, and yet they made no sign/"' 
 
 * Mr. Chambers, in his History of Scotland, puts it thus : " In March, 
 1708, Fourbin arrived oft" the East coast with a considerable fleet, carrying 
 5000 men, and but for some mismanagement and the accidental appearance of the 
 British Fleet, under Admiral Byng, he would have landed with these troops r 
 and been probably joined by an immense number of followers." From this state- 
 ment we are led to imagine that the whole blame rested on Fourbin's shoul- 
 ders, and that none was due to the backwardness of the Scottish Jacobites. A 
 curious perversion of facts ! Equally curious is the statement that the appear- 
 ance of the English fleet was " accidental." Admiral Byng had for weeks 
 been watching the port from which Fourbin sailed. The temporary disper- 
 sion of his ships by a storm enabled the Frenchmen to get to sea, but the- 
 English Admiral within a few hours was on his track, and chased him so 
 closely right up the Frith of Forth that it was only by the superior sailing of
 
 60 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 But there was a cause for this faint-heartedness 
 among the Jacobites of Scotland. They had 
 signally failed to gain over the Presbyterians to 
 their side, and the Presbyterians were the back- 
 bone of the nation. Whatever success they may 
 have had with individuals, they found all their 
 attempts were vain to draw from the General As- 
 sembly of the Kirk a violent declaration against 
 the Union. And it is impossible not to admire 
 the dignity of the attitude assumed by the Scot- 
 tish Kirk at this crisis. In the midst of all this 
 passionate excitement and turbulent conflict, 
 she stood true to her principles ; no plausible 
 promises, no artful temptations, no appeals to 
 selfish interests, to national prejudices, to the 
 memory of past wrongs, could lead her to forsake 
 the first principles of her faith, and enter into 
 unholy alliance with her sworn enemies, Prelacy 
 and Popery. And the people were unquestion- 
 
 the French ships that they escaped, leaving one of their number in Byng's 
 hands. But Jacobite writers will never admit that English vigilance had any- 
 thing to do with the disconcertment of their plans.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 61 
 
 ably influenced by the attitude of their Church. 
 The fast appointed by the General Assembly to 
 avert the impending invasion, and the uniform 
 earnestness and solemnity with which it was 
 observed, proved beyond doubt the true temper 
 of the Presbyterians, and their unshaken loyalty 
 to the theory of the Revolution. Even the 
 Jacobites could not mistake or misrepresent such 
 a significant expression of opinion, and reluct- 
 antly they abandoned all hope of co-operation 
 from that quarter. 
 
 The action of the Presbyterians in 1 708 should 
 have taught the English Government the plain 
 lesson that they had no worse enemies in Scot- 
 land than the Episcopalians, and no stauncher 
 friends than the Presbyterians. Had they 
 profited by that lesson they would have been 
 spared much trouble and anxiety in the future. 
 But with infatuated folly they refused to accept 
 it, and allowed their prejudices against Noncon- 
 formists to overcome the dictates both of policy 
 and justice. The Presbyterian Church was ill-
 
 62 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 rewarded for her faithful loyalty. When the 
 fear of invasion had passed, she was wounded 
 in her tenderest part by the Acts of Toleration 
 and Abjuration, which cast a slur upon her 
 loyalty and wantonly trampled upon those sensi- 
 tive religious scruples which made the interfer- 
 ence of the State in her devotional services 
 seem nothing short of sacrilege and impiety. 
 And then, as if she had not been already 
 sufficiently hurt and humiliated, the hateful 
 Act of Patronage was forced upon her, reviving 
 a relic of Prelacy which she abhorred. All 
 these measures were characterised not only 
 by the grossest ingratitude and injustice, but 
 by an insolent disregard for their religious 
 sentiments and scruples, which was insufferably 
 galling to the Presbyterians. And the same 
 features marked all the policy of England 
 towards Scotland at this period. English 
 statesmen were at no pains to make themselves 
 acquainted with either the character or the insti- 
 tutions of the Scottish people. The ignorance
 
 and its Relative Literature. 63 
 
 of the country and its laws displayed by the 
 English Parliament was as extraordinary as it 
 was disgraceful. With that arrogant assumption 
 of superiority which is even yet a repulsive trait 
 in the English character, the Government took 
 it for granted that all existing Scottish institu- 
 tions must be inferior to those in vogue in Eng- 
 land, and that therefore the sooner they were 
 supplanted by English institutions the better. 
 On this principle, the collection of the taxes and 
 revenue dues, a sufficiently odious and unpopular 
 process in the best of hands, was not entrusted 
 to Scotchmen or conducted on the Scotch system, 
 but was handed over to English commissioners, 
 who were even more ignorant of the customs of 
 the country and the feelings of the inhabitants 
 than their employers, and who rode roughshod 
 over the national pride, and ran their heads at 
 every turn against the national prejudices. The 
 whole policy of England at this time was a tissue 
 of offensive acts offensively done, many of them 
 no doubt the result of ignorance, but ignorance
 
 64 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 so gross and culpable as to bear all the appear- 
 ance of deliberate insult. It is not wonderful 
 that under such circumstances Jacobite agitators 
 should have found little difficulty in persuading 
 the Scotch to believe that they were looked 
 upon as a subject people ; indeed, the wonder 
 rather is that under such treatment the whole 
 nation did not rise as one man and indignantly 
 repudiate the Union. 
 
 It is needless to say that the Jacobites were 
 not idle at this time. It was an established 
 principle of their policy that everything which 
 tended to widen the breach between England 
 and Scotland was a clear gain to the Jacobite 
 cause. They hoped to win to their own party 
 all who were irritated by English policy, by 
 impressing upon them that the only chance of 
 obtaining a redress of grievances and a relief 
 from burdens lay in the repeal of the Union and 
 the restoration of the House of Stuart. Jacobit- 
 ism now put on its brightest colours and most 
 engaging airs. All was concession and tolera-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 tion. Papists, Prelatists, Presbyterians, were 
 each and all to have everything they wanted, 
 and exist together as a happy family ; though 
 secretly promises were made to each that it 
 should be elevated at the expense of its rivals. 
 It was not a time to be scrupulous about ways 
 and means. The great thing to be achieved 
 was to make the people unanimous in demand- 
 ing a repeal of the Union. Let that be 
 accomplished, and then it could be judged how 
 far it was expedient to fulfil promises when the 
 object for which they had been made was 
 attained. 
 
 Such was the state of feeling in Scotland at 
 the accession of George I., and if hostility 
 towards England meant sympathy with Jacobit- 
 ism, then never had the Jacobites been more 
 powerful nor their prospects more hopeful. 
 
 The time had now come to test the real 
 strength of Jacobitism in Scotland, by calling it 
 into action. It was tried and found wanting, 
 
 for it had no real hold on the hearts of the 
 
 E
 
 66 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 people. There were a good many drouthy 
 creatures who could drink bumpers of burgundy 
 and stoups of usquebaugh without end to the 
 health of King James and the success of his 
 cause, but the exploits of these heroes began and 
 ended over the bottle. They would drink for 
 King Jamie with any man; but as to fighting for 
 him, that was quite another matter, with which 
 they had no concern. These pot-valiant Jaco- 
 bites represented no inconsiderable section of 
 the supporters of the House of Stuart, both in 
 England"" and Scotland, men who talked a great 
 deal of blustering treason with a braggadocio 
 
 * Patten has the following sarcastic allusion to these pot-valiant Jacobites 
 in his History of 1715: "Indeed that party (the High Church,) who are 
 never right hearty for the cause till they are mellow, as they call it, over a 
 bottle or two, begin now to show us their blind side j and that is their just 
 character, that they do not care for venturing their carcasses any farther than 
 the tavern j there indeed, with their High Church and Ormond, they make 
 one believe, who does not know them, that they would encounter the greatest 
 opposition in the world ; but after having consulted their pillows, and the 
 fumes a little evaporated, it is to be observed of them that they generally 
 become mighty tame, and are apt to look before they leap ; and, with the snail, 
 if you touch their houses, they hide their heads, shrink back and pull in their 
 horns. I have heard Mr. Forster say he was blustered into this business by 
 such people as these, but for the time to come he would never believe a 
 drunken Tory."
 
 and its Relative Literature. 67 
 
 air over their cups, but whose valour, like that of 
 Bob Acres, oozed out at the palms of their hands 
 when their heads were cool enough to appreciate 
 danger. The utter worthlessness of such adher- 
 ents was not discovered till the moment of 
 action. Nor was the real spirit of the" Presby- 
 terians ascertained until subjected to the same 
 test. Their bitterness against England they 
 had been at no pains to conceal, and up to a 
 certain point they had tolerated Jacobitism 
 because there was this common bond of union 
 between them. But when they saw Prelatists 
 and Papists advocating a repeal of the Union 
 more strongly than themselves, they felt there 
 must be something wrong about a .scheme which 
 enlisted the sympathies of their deadliest 
 enemies, and they at once relinquished their 
 opposition and renounced all connexion with the 
 Repeal movement. From the moment that the 
 Presbyterians saw that by helping Jacobitism 
 they would only be helping the cause of those 
 religious sects whose views they detested and
 
 68 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 abhorred, they never contemplated an alliance 
 with the Jacobites. They decided that it was 
 wisest to choose the lesser of two evils ; and 
 there could be no question that Protestant 
 George of Hanover, with all his shortcomings, 
 and with the Union to boot, was better than 
 Popish James Stuart with his retinue of priests 
 and prelates. 
 
 I have said that Jacobitism had at this time 
 no real hold upon the hearts of the people of 
 Scotland. The rising of 1715 might seem to 
 refute that assertion. And indeed it has been 
 generally stated that the Jacobite party in 1715 
 comprised a majority, not only as to numbers, 
 but as to property in Scotland. There is really 
 no ground for that statement. Of the great 
 landed proprietors, Argyll, Oueensberry, Mon- 
 trose, Sutherland, Roxburgh, Hopetoun, Tweed- 
 dale, Annandale, Rothes, Marchmont, Stair, 
 Buchan, Lauderdale, Torphicen, London, Had- 
 dington, were all of them at that time decided 
 Whigs, and favourable to the Hanoverian
 
 and its Relative Literature. 69 
 
 succession ; and of the smaller proprietors south 
 of the Forth, there were few who had not 
 attached themselves to the same party. The 
 Episcopalian gentry north of the Frith were, 
 indeed, generally inclined to the Jacobite cause; 
 but their tenants were not, and were only forced 
 by violent compulsion to join the Jacobite army. 
 The Lowland Scotch were universally opposed 
 to the cause they had had a little too much of 
 the Stuarts, and wanted no more of them. The 
 only real strength of the Jacobites lay in the 
 Highlands, which included hardly an eighth of 
 the population of Scotland. And even of the 
 Highland clans, it is a mistake to suppose that 
 all were Jacobites. There were many, such as 
 the Campbells, the Sutherlands, the Mackays, 
 the Rosses, the Monroes, the greater part of the 
 Grants and Forbeses, and on this occasion the 
 Frasers, who were on the side of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 There are those who describe the rebellion of 
 1715 as the outburst of a long-pent-up national
 
 70 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 spirit of Jacobitism. I have shown that this is 
 an utterly false view to take of it. The fact is, 
 that the rising of 1715 was not even really a 
 preconcerted measure. It was the rash act of a 
 single man, driven to desperation, smarting 
 under disgrace, conscious of detection, burning 
 for revenge. Let us glance for a moment at 
 the antecedents of the man on whose shoulders 
 rests all the responsibility of the rebellion of 
 
 I/IS- 
 
 John Erskine, Earl of Mar, had been the first 
 
 to bring the measure for the Union of the two 
 countries immediately before the Scottish Par- 
 liament. He had presented the draft of the 
 Act to appoint Commissioners to treat for the 
 Union. He had been himself made one of 
 those Commissioners, and had identified himself 
 with the Act of Union as one of its most en- 
 thusiastic supporters. As an acknowledgement 
 of his services, he had been made a Secretary 
 of State and Keeper of the Signet, with a special 
 pension attached. Add to this the fact that he
 
 and its Relative Literature. 7 1 
 
 came of an old Protestant family, and it is clear 
 that every incident of his career had stamped 
 him as a staunch adherent of the Revolution 
 party, the very last man to cast in his lot with 
 the Jacobites. But to the very bottom of his 
 false heart Mar was a traitor and a knave. 
 And even at the English court his services, 
 though they had gained him rewards, had failed 
 to procure him respect. He was distrusted, 
 and he knew it. He knew also, on the death 
 of the Queen, that his enemies would use that 
 distrust to poison the mind of the new King 
 against him. He made a desperate effort, 
 therefore, to forestall them, and persuade the 
 Elector of his loyalty and devotion before en- 
 vious tongues had maligned him. While George 
 was yet in Hanover, Mar wrote to him in these 
 terms : " Your Majesty shall ever find me as 
 faithful and dutiful a subject and servant as ever 
 any of my family have been to the Crown, or as 
 I myself have been to my late mistress, the 
 Queen." In order to impress the King with
 
 72 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 his power and influence in the Highlands, he 
 had also in his possession an address signed by 
 the principal chiefs in the Highlands, empower- 
 ing him to offer their entire allegiance to the 
 King. By what means he procured this docu- 
 ment it is hard to say. But there can be no 
 doubt that without a thought of the chiefs whom 
 he was thus compromising, he would have 
 played this card to serve his own selfish ends. 
 He was not, however, able to present it, and he 
 therefore reserved it for another purpose, which 
 was fast ripening in his mind. In less than a 
 year from that time, a disgraced, chagrined, and 
 disappointed man, he was at the head of those 
 clans in armed revolt against the sovereign to 
 whom he had professed such ardent devotion. 
 And one of the means which he had used to 
 inflame their passions and their pride, was this 
 very protestation and offer of allegiance, which 
 he assured them had been scornfully flung back 
 in their teeth by the English king. 
 
 Like Montrose and Dundee, Mar found no
 
 and Us Relative Literature, 73 
 
 difficulty in raising the Highlanders in rebellion. 
 They had no stake in the peace or prosperity of 
 the kingdom, and were, as usual, ready to fight 
 on any side which could secure the allegiance of 
 their chiefs. That allegiance Mar had taken 
 measures to secure, and by a forged commission 
 from James induced the Jacobites to believe that 
 he was their King's accredited agent and viceroy 
 in Scotland. 
 
 In order to understand the success of this 
 sudden movement of Mar, it must be borne in 
 mind that a short time previously a great scheme 
 had been planned by the Jacobites at home and 
 abroad for a simultaneous invasion of England 
 -and Scotland. Louis XIV. had promised the 
 assistance of a large force of French troops in 
 carrying out the scheme. The Duke of 
 Ormond was to lead the expedition against 
 England, and the Duke of Berwick that against 
 Scotland and as they were both generals of 
 some capacity, the Jacobites were sanguine of 
 success. But there were two obstacles in the
 
 74 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 way of an expedition leaving France, which the 
 Jacobites had not taken into their calculations. 
 The first was the English fleet, which was far 
 more vigilant and active than its enemies have 
 ever been willing to admit. The second, and 
 by far the most formidable, was in the very heart 
 of the French Court, in the person of John Dal- 
 rymple, Earl of Stair. The Whigs never did a 
 shrewder stroke of policy than when they sent 
 the Earl of Stair as ambassador extraordinary to 
 the French Court. His vigilance was marvellous, 
 his sources of information as infallible as they 
 were mysterious. No plot, however carefully 
 concealed, however warily planned, escaped his 
 watchful eye. To the Jacobites the knowledge 
 which he possessed of their most secret move- 
 ments and machinations seemed nothing short 
 of miraculous. He appeared to get wind of a 
 conspiracy almost before the conspirators them- 
 selves had quite made, up their minds that they 
 were going to conspire. His system of espi- 
 onage was perfect. The secret of it has never
 
 and its Relative Literature. 75 
 
 been thoroughly divulged, but we know that 
 much of his information was procured by the 
 treachery of ladies who were in the counsels of 
 the Jacobite party. Among these, Mrs. Trant 
 and Mdle. Chausseraye were afterwards noto- 
 rious, though neither of them was at this time 
 suspected by their own party. Stair himself 
 was the model of a diplomatist ; it is doubtful 
 whether he has ever been equalled ; it is certain 
 that he has never been surpassed. Courteous, 
 subtile, vigilant, resolute, too honest to be bribed, 
 too courageous to be intimidated, too shrewd to 
 be over-reached, it is impossible to overrate his 
 influence upon French policy. So minute and 
 accurate was his knowledge of every court in- 
 trigue, that the French Cabinet was literally 
 over-awed ; and his presence in Paris at this 
 juncture did more to keep France neutral than 
 all the fleets of Rooke, and all the prestige of 
 Marl borough. He had full and early informa- 
 tion of this great invasion scheme, and long be- 
 fore the expedition was ready to sail, the British
 
 76 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Government was in possession of complete 
 details as to its design and destination. A vig- 
 orous and energetic remonstrance was at once 
 forwarded to the French Government, who felt 
 themselves compelled to disavow the expedition, 
 which was consequently rendered abortive. 
 
 Now, Mar was perfectly aware of the failure 
 of this scheme ; he knew, too, what excitement 
 and preparation it had caused among the Scottish 
 Jacobites. Before these effects had quite died 
 away he resolved to strike a blow, for he knew 
 not when so splendid an opportunity of avenging 
 himself on the English Government might again 
 present itself. His own personal influence in 
 the Highlands was considerable; and, backed by 
 a forged commission from James, he was con- 
 fident that in the existing temper of the chiefs 
 it would be irresistible. The result proved that 
 he was right. The Jacobites had not yet wholly 
 abandoned their attitude of expectancy they 
 were ready to act, and when Mar presented 
 himself among them with his forged credentials,
 
 and its Relative Literature. 77 
 
 and his announcement of the approach of the 
 promised succours from France, they took it for 
 granted that the original scheme had been re- 
 vived and was to be carried out in its entirety. 
 This delusion Mar fostered by the most un- 
 scrupulous and daring falsehoods, and the ad- 
 herents of the Stuarts rallied eagerly round his 
 standard. And so, this one man, prompted 
 solely by mortified pride, and selfish disappoint- 
 ment, and personal resentment, plunged the 
 whole country into a civil war, and risked the 
 lives and properties of thousands in a cause for 
 which he had not one atom of affection, and 
 which he regarded only as an instrument to 
 further his own purposes. 
 
 The Pretender knew nothing of this insurrec- 
 tion until it was in full swing it was too late 
 then to declare that it had been commenced 
 without his sanction ; and besides, as it promised 
 to be successful, his advisers thought it politic 
 to overlook Mar's deception, and condone the 
 forgery of the commission by issuing a fresh
 
 78 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 one, which was secretly substituted for the 
 forged document. Yet there can be little doubt 
 that if the enterprize had not worn such a rosy 
 hue at the commencement, they would have 
 repudiated it altogether, and left Mar to bear 
 all the odium of the failure. As it was, they 
 not only countenanced it, but took to themselves 
 the credit of having originated it, an assertion 
 which none but Mar could contradict, and that 
 only by criminating himself. 
 
 In a comparatively short time, Mar had col- 
 lected the largest army that ever marched under 
 the banner of the exiled Stuarts. But it had 
 not been collected without difficulty. Recruits 
 were only to be obtained in many cases by- 
 severe compulsion. The " Cross of Fire," in- 
 deed, had been sent through the Highlands 
 after the gathering at Braemar, but it had lost 
 its magic power, apathy had chilled the spirit of 
 the Gael, the dread symbol no longer drew the 
 plaided warriors from lonely mountain-side and 
 sheltered glen in haste to the muster-place.
 
 & J. &M 
 
 . 
 and its Relative Literature. 79 
 
 Other less romantic, but more efficacious, meas- 
 ures had to be resorted to on this occasion ; what 
 these were may be gathered from the following 
 letter of Mar to his bailiff at Kildrummie : 
 " Particularly, let my own tenants in Kildrummie 
 know, that if they come not forth with their best 
 arms, I will send a party immediately to burn 
 what they shall miss taking from them. And 
 they may believe this only a threat but, by all 
 that's sacred, I'll put it in execution, let my loss 
 be what it will, that it may be an example to 
 others." Press-gangs from one clan were em- 
 ployed to kidnap recruits from another, and thus 
 the ranks of the Jacobite army were filled. The 
 prisoners taken afterwards at Preston declared 
 at their trial that they had been driven like 
 cattle to take arms, and that they had no option 
 whatever in the matter. In fact, they served as 
 little by choice as French conscripts or British 
 pressed-sailors. It was the same in 1745. 
 Marchant says, " At Dundee, the Duke of 
 Perth killed two of his own farmers for refusing
 
 8o The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 to rise at his command ; and the Lord Ogilvie 
 was very cruel to every one who denied him for 
 the same reason." These are specimens of the 
 gentle persuasion required to induce the loyal 
 Jacobites of the Highlands to take arms for their 
 beloved Sovereign ! After this, who can say 
 that even in the Highlands Jacobitism had any 
 hold on the affections of the people? Under 
 such circumstances there is little cause for won- 
 der in the fact that Mar succeeded in collecting 
 a large army, and still less cause for wonder that 
 his soldiers should have deserted by hundreds 
 whenever they had a chance. 
 
 It is only justice to Mar to admit that though 
 he was solely responsible for the rising of 1715, 
 he was quite aware of his own incapacity as a 
 leader, and would have gladly given up the 
 command to any one who would have taken it 
 off his hands. But, strange to say, no one coveted 
 the distinction of commanding the Jacobite 
 army. The Duke of Atholl refused the prof- 
 fered honour point-blank ; the Earl of Seaforth
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 delayed his arrival to avoid it ; the Marquis of 
 Huntley allowed his religion to be pleaded as a 
 bar without a murmur, and indeed, probably 
 himself suggested the disqualification. And so, 
 Mar was forced to take the command of the 
 movement, which his own selfishness, and reck- 
 lessness, and petulance, had called into being. 
 We have no record of his personal feelings, but 
 it is hardly too much to imagine that they were 
 akin to those with which the hero of Mrs. 
 Shelley's wild romance viewed the monster 
 which his own hands had created. 
 
 And meanwhile, what were the temper and 
 attitude of the great bulk of the Scottish people ? 
 They were essentially loyal to the House of 
 Hanover. In the presence of immediate danger, 
 they remembered that freedom, and security, and 
 toleration, were blessings not likely to result from 
 a restoration of the Stuarts. The spirit which 
 animated them showed itself in the Appeal of 
 the Edinburgh Association, where almost for 
 the first time in the history of the period we
 
 82 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 find the benefits of the Revolution calmly and 
 sensibly recognised. A short extract will serve 
 to illustrate its character: "Can we without 
 horror remember the unparalleled cruelties we 
 met with when a Popish interest and faction had 
 the ascendant ? Can we forget the remarkable 
 deliverance God made for us in breaking the 
 yoke of the arbitrary and tyrannical government, 
 by the great King William, in the late glorious 
 Revolution ? " And much more in the same 
 strain, showing that Scotchmen did at last ap- 
 preciate the blessings of the Revolution. The 
 effect of the appeal was instantaneous. In every 
 town there sprung up a body of loyal men ready 
 to take arms for the House of Hanover. Edin- 
 burgh had her Associated Volunteers, Glasgow 
 her Burgher Guard, Dumfries its Company of 
 Loyal Bachelors, and Greenock and Paisley 
 were not behind hand in contributing their quota 
 of citizen soldiers. There was not a single town 
 or burgh of any size that did not give such 
 practical proofs of its loyalty as these. Had
 
 and its Relative Literature. 83 
 
 England taken advantage of this burst of 
 enthusiasm, and given it timely encouragement, 
 I believe Scotland would alone and unaided 
 have crushed out the rebellion. But such a 
 policy did not commend itself to the wisdom of 
 English statesmen. The ministry, still ridicu- 
 lously prejudiced against Nonconformism in 
 every shape and form, looked with cold disfavour 
 upon this ebullition of Presbyterian loyalty. 
 They feared that it would clash with other 
 interests, and his Majesty was therefore advised 
 to answer the loyal address of the Edinburgh 
 Association with an intimation that sufficient 
 measures had already been adopted to secure the 
 defence of the cozmtry, and that he wished to save 
 his loyal subjects fiirther trouble and expense! 
 Now, as it was notorious that there were not at 
 that moment three complete regiments of regular 
 troops in Scotland, and that England herself 
 was not in a position to scrape together a regular 
 army half the size of Mar's, the absurdity of this 
 statement was patent to every Scotchman, and
 
 84 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 the insult which it conveyed was seen and felt 
 at once. As might have been expected, a sensi- 
 tive and high-spirited nation was indignant and 
 disgusted at conduct so cold, so unsympathetic, 
 so ungrateful and there was never again the 
 same readiness displayed to make sacrifices or 
 take arms for the House of Hanover. 
 
 It is not necessary to dwell upon the military 
 features of the affair of 1715. The mere fact 
 that Argyll, with a force of scarcely 3000 men, 
 was able to hold his own against an army of 
 upwards of 16,000 men, is sufficient proof of the 
 incapacity of the Jacobite leaders. But even their 
 incapacity could hardly have deprived them of 
 complete success had the forces under Macintosh 
 and Forster advanced to join Mar instead of 
 pursuing their mad and infatuated march into 
 England. Argyll, thus caught between two fires, 
 must have been crushed, and all Scotland would 
 have been at their feet. What the result would 
 have been in that case is of course only matter 
 for vague conjecture; but such a success might
 
 and its Relative Liter atiire. 85 
 
 have procured them the assistance of France, so 
 long promised, so long withheld, and the whole 
 current of events might have been changed. 
 But " the Gods willed otherwise." 
 
 It was in the full expectation of finding the 
 whole of Scotland in the hands of his victorious 
 generals that James, deceived by the glowing 
 rhapsodies of Mar, landed in his kingdom shortly 
 after -the fatal disasters of Preston and Sherriff- 
 muir. His first sight of the shattered rem- 
 nants of Mar's dispirited and retreating army 
 dashed those hopes to the ground. It was a 
 cruel and unexpected blow, and James suc- 
 cumbed to it at once. He showed too plainly 
 by his looks that he despaired of his cause ; and 
 his presence, instead of raising, most effectually 
 damped the spirits of his followers. 
 
 At no time was his personal appearance pre- 
 possessing. The thin frame, enfeebled by dissi- 
 pation the languid air the dull sodden eye 
 were not the characteristics of a hero. James 
 did not possess a single quality calculated to win
 
 86 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 the hearts of his Scottish subjects. He was a 
 bigot and a coward. He had no sympathy with 
 his British lieges, and he showed that he had 
 none. If George I. was a German, James was 
 a Frenchman in heart and soul, and the one was 
 not more a foreigner in spirit than the other. 
 As licentious as Charles the Second,* the Pre- 
 tender had none of the Merry Monarch's bon- 
 hommie. His profligacy was dull and stupid. 
 It had not even that false and meretricious 
 attractiveness which vice sometimes has when 
 allied to a genial temperament. It required no 
 very deep student of physiognomy to perceive 
 that this stolid and sensual face was not the face 
 of a generous Prince. And yet this was the 
 
 * ''The heir of one of the greatest names, of the greatest kingdoms, and 
 of the greatest misfortunes in Europe, was often content to lay the dignity of 
 his birth and grief at the wooden shoes of a French chambermaid, and to 
 repent afterwards (for he was very devout), in ashes taken from the dust pan. 
 *Tis for mortals such as these that nations suffer, that parties struggle, that 
 warriors fight and bleed ! A year afterwards gallant heads were falling, and 
 Nithisdale in escape, and Derwentwater on the scaffold ; whilst the heedless 
 ingrate for whom they risked and lost all was tippling with his seraglio of 
 mistresses in his petite maison of Chaillot." Thackeray, Esmond.
 
 and its Relative Literature, 87 
 
 man of whom Mar had told his Highland fol- 
 lowers " Without any compliment to him, and 
 to do him nothing but justice, set aside his being 
 a prince, he is really the finest gentleman I ever 
 saw." Lying was constitutional with the Earl, 
 he gave way to it on the slightest occasion, and 
 so he proceeded to dilate on "the good pre- 
 sence," the " fine parts," the affability and sweet 
 temper of this paragon of princes, whom he 
 declared " to be too good for his subjects ; to 
 have him, is more than they deserve ! " Even 
 this piece of flattery, however, was outdone by 
 the Episcopal clergy of Aberdeen, who presented 
 an address to the Pretender on his arrival in 
 their city, in which they had the effrontery to 
 utter this astounding falsehood : "Your princely 
 virtues are such that, in the opinion of the best 
 judges, you are worthy to wear a crown though 
 you had not been born to it ! " Could the force 
 of flunkey ism go further ? The bluff High- 
 landers, who were at least honest in the expres- 
 sion of their opinion, made no attempt to conceal
 
 88 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 their disappointment and disgust at the unkingly 
 appearance of their King. They set great store 
 on physical gifts. They expected a man they 
 found an automaton/" 
 
 Had the Duke of Argyll pressed the Jaco- 
 bites with any degree of vigour after the battle of 
 Sheriff-Muir, there can be little doubt that the 
 Pretender would have fallen into his hands, and 
 the Rebellion would have been summarily stamp- 
 ed out instead of being allowed to die a lingering 
 death. And such a stern suppression would 
 probably have rendered the rising of '45 impos- 
 sible. But Argyll was a thoroughly fickle and 
 selfish politican ; he could not make up his mind 
 to devote himself honestly to any one side or 
 party. He thought that Jacobitism might, per- 
 haps, have sufficient vitality left in it yet to make 
 it worth his while to keep on good terms with 
 its supporters. His dilatory and vacillating 
 
 * The Highlanders, struck with James's cadaverous looks and want of 
 animation, asked repeatedly whether he was not an automaton. See 
 " Account by a Rebel Officer at Perth:''
 
 and its Relative Literature. 89 
 
 movements, therefore, were prompted by trea- 
 sonable motives. And of this the Government 
 was so well aware, that when the Rebellion was 
 at an end they showed how little they attributed 
 the result to any conduct of his, by disgracing 
 him, and depriving him of his appointments a 
 punishment which he richly merited. 
 
 So ended, with the ignominious flight of James 
 and Mar, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, an 
 enterprize as feebly executed as it was rashly 
 conceived. 
 
 The conduct of the Government after the 
 suppression of the Rebellion has met with much 
 severe censure on the ground of its cruelty. I 
 think the charge is both unjust and undeserved. 
 Not more than thirty persons in all, including 
 the Earl of Derwentwater and Lord Kenmure, 
 were executed. That there was not much real 
 vindictiveness against the rebels may be gathered 
 from the general feeling of relief which per- 
 vaded the country at the news of the Earl of 
 Nithisdale's escape, a feat which he would
 
 9O The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 probably never have accomplished without the 
 connivance of his gaolers. The King himself 
 could not conceal his satisfaction when the 
 announcement was made to him, but exclaimed 
 heartily that " It was the best thing a man in 
 his condition could have done." The number 
 of escapes from prison was too great to have 
 been the effect of accident. It was generally 
 felt that it would not be politic to shed too much 
 blood and yet to pardon all the offenders would 
 only give encouragement to rebellions in the 
 future. The conduct of the Government, so far 
 from being vindictive and bloodthirsty, displayed 
 as much mercy and moderation as was consistent 
 with the safety of established institutions and the 
 vindication of the rights of the people. 
 
 The alarm and excitement of the Rebellion 
 were succeeded in Scotland by a calm, during 
 which Church matters chiefly occupied public 
 attention. In this season of tranquillity the pro- 
 sperity of the country advanced with gigantic 
 strides. Yet, underlying all this appearance of
 
 and its Relative Literature-. 91 
 
 contentment, there was a current of discontent, 
 daily acquiring fresh strength from new griev- 
 ances, which were the offspring of a condition 
 of peace and wealth. The great Lowland land- 
 owners had found it more profitable to convert 
 their estates into immense pastures for cattle 
 than to allow them to remain split up into small 
 arable farms. To effect this change they had 
 to eject a large number of small farmers, to make 
 room for their enormous herds; and the ejected 
 farmers in consequence suffered great distress, 
 which in many cases, there is reason to believe, 
 was purposely aggravated by Jacobite landown- 
 ers, in order to goad the farmers into fury and 
 raise a spirit of discontent favourable to the 
 promotion of Jacobite schemes. Riots ensued,* 
 and though they were easily suppressed, they 
 left a sore feeling in the country, which accounted 
 for the apathy with which the Lowland peasantry 
 and gentry, in 1745, regarded the progress of 
 the Jacobite arms and the danger which threat- 
 ened the institutions to which they had hereto-
 
 92 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 fore been loyal. Then there was the Malt-Tax 
 agitation in the large towns the resolute and 
 systematic resistance to the payment of revenue 
 dues, which turned the whole nation, with the 
 honourable exception of Glasgow, into a smug- 
 gling community and, arising out of this, the 
 famous Porteous riots, which stirred the passions 
 of the people, and roused a good deal of the 
 old animosity against England. All these things 
 were so many helps to Jacobitism, and the Ja- 
 cobites judiciously availed themselves of them. 
 But meanwhile there had been growing up in 
 the country a spurious form of Jacobitism, which, 
 as distinguished from political and practical, I 
 may call sentimental or romantic Jacobitism. 
 In later years it wholly supplanted the other, 
 and was professed by those whose political prin- 
 ciples were utterly opposed to the doctrines of 
 genuine Jacobitism. As I shall have to deal 
 with the subject more in detail, when consider- 
 ing the ballad-literature of Jacobitism, I will only 
 say here that it owed its origin to those satirical
 
 and its Relative Literature. 93, 
 
 and pathetic ballads, and was founded on a 
 sentiment of pity. Pity of itself, however, is not 
 a sufficiently powerful form of sympathy to 
 induce men to launch out into active measures; 
 and the Jacobites, who had built great hopes 
 upon the wide-spread diffusion of this sentimen- 
 tal Jacobitism, found this to their cost found 
 that they had mistaken a shallow sentiment for 
 a settled creed. I attribute both the success 
 and the failure of the Rebellion of 1 745 to the 
 existence of this sentimental Jacobitism, and the 
 false hopes which it excited. Without the 
 enthusiasm which it inspired among those whose 
 sympathies and principles were already Jacobite, 
 that expedition would never have been possible; 
 but at the same time the deceptive promise of 
 deeper loyalty and devotion which it gave, lured 
 the Jacobites to their ruin. It is a remarkable 
 and significant fact, that with all the enthusiasm 
 which his appearance excited, Charles Edward 
 was never at any time able to gather under his 
 standard even half the number of men that had
 
 94 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 followed Mar in 1715. No better proof than 
 this is needed to show that Scottish Jacobitism 
 was a sentiment and not a principle. 
 
 In making this assertion I do not forget that 
 there were some families, both in Scotland and 
 England, in which the " Jacobite tradition " was 
 an abiding principle, which neither lapse of time 
 nor change of circumstances could destroy ; it 
 was a strange fanatical enthusiasm, not amen- 
 able to reason, not to be defended by logic, but 
 so strong and so earnest that those who held it 
 would, without a moment's hesitation, under any 
 circumstances, and at any time, have given up 
 life and lands home, and health, and liberty, 
 for the sake of the House of Stuart. 
 
 As to the real feelings of the great bulk of 
 shrewd and sensible Scotchmen, I have seen 
 them nowhere more soberly and clearly set forth 
 than in a letter written in 1 745 (at the very time 
 when Charles Edward was blockading Edinburgh 
 Castle, and issuing manifestos from Holyrood), 
 by Mr. Craik, a Dumfriesshire laird, to the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 95 
 
 young Earl of Nithisdale, from which I quote 
 the following extract : " The present family," 
 he says, " have now reigned over us these thirty 
 years ; and though during so long a time they 
 may have fallen into errors, or may have com- 
 mitted faults (as what Government is without ?), 
 yet I will defy the most sanguine zealot to find 
 in history a period equal to this in which Scot- 
 land possessed so uninterrupted a felicity in 
 which liberty, civil and religious, was so univer- 
 sally enjoyed by all people, of whatever denom- 
 ination nay, by the open and avowed enemies 
 of the family and constitution or a period in 
 which all ranks of men have been so effectually 
 secured in their property. Have not trade, 
 manufactures, agriculture, and the spirit of indus- 
 try in our own country extended themselves 
 further during this period, and under this family, 
 than for ages before ? Has any man suffered 
 in his liberty, life, or fortune, contrary to law ? 
 Stand forth and name him if you can. Though 
 the King's person, his family, his government,
 
 96 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 and his ministers have been openly abused a 
 thousand times in the most scurrilous and re- 
 proachful terms, could it ever provoke him to 
 one arbitrary act, or to violate those laws which 
 he had made the rule of his government ? Look 
 into the reigns of the Jameses and the Charleses, 
 and tell me whether these divine and hereditary 
 princes were guided by the same spirit of mild- 
 ness and forgiveness." There we have fairly 
 represented not only the sentiments of Scotch- 
 men, but also the actual condition of Scotland. 
 
 But while the Lowlands had thus increased in 
 wealth and prosperity, the Highlands had re- 
 mained stagnant the inhabitants were at least 
 a century behind their neighbours in civilization 
 they had no idea of utilizing their natural re- 
 sources and advantages, but were dependent 
 upon fishing and the humblest forms of agricul- 
 ture for subsistence. Hence the abject poverty 
 of the Highlanders; which was not confined to 
 the lower classes, but extended even to the 
 greatest nobles. To such shifts were they driven
 
 and its Relative Literatitre. 97 
 
 to obtain money, that one nobleman, whose 
 name was a tower of strength in the Highlands, 
 derived by far the larger portion of his revenues 
 from a gambling-house which he had the privilege 
 of keeping in London, whilst another owned and 
 occasionally served in a glover's shop in Ayr. 
 So that there is no lack of precedents for modern 
 Scottish noblemen desirous of sending their 
 sons " into business." It is hard for us now to 
 conceive the absolute poverty of these great 
 Highland Chiefs many of whom scarcely knew 
 what it was to possess as much as ten shillings 
 at one time. It was this poverty, pervading all 
 classes, which made the Highlanders, from the 
 chief to the gillie, hail any new adventure with 
 delight as a possible means of repairing their 
 desperate fortunes. And this practical considera- 
 tion won more recruits for the Stuarts than any 
 sentiments of chivalry or romance. At the same 
 time it is only just to add, that it enhances 
 tenfold the fidelity, and devotion, and chivalrous 
 
 honour of the Highlanders towards their fugitive 
 
 G
 
 98 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Prince with ^30,000 upon his head, to remember 
 how great and strong were the temptations both 
 to high and low to betray him. The reward of 
 treachery would have enriched a whole clan for 
 ever. And though fear was, perhaps, the 
 strongest element in a Highlander's fidelity, yet, 
 giving both to fear and superstition their full 
 due, there is a residuum of nobleness and high- 
 minded generous feeling left, which it is impos- 
 sible not to admire ; and that heart must be callous 
 indeed which does not feel some thrill of sym- 
 pathetic pride in a quality which so signally 
 adorns and elevates our common human nature. 
 I do not believe in the innate loyalty to the 
 House of Stuart which enthusiastic and fanatical 
 Jacobites claim as a feature of the Highland 
 clans, I think it never had any existence but in 
 the imaginations of writers who knew very little 
 of the real temper and habits of the Highlanders; 
 but I do believe in the simple, sincere, and single- 
 hearted spirit of chivalry and honour which kept 
 them faithful to a fallen prince and a ruined
 
 and its Relative Literature. 99 
 
 cause, and which has given the Jacobite 
 Episode of 1 745 a romantic interest that Time 
 will never lessen nor critical investigation 
 destroy. 
 
 It would be superfluous to dwell upon the 
 events of 1745, seeing that they have been 
 celebrated by the pens both of historians and 
 romancers, though I confess it is often difficult 
 to decide where history ends and romance 
 begins, for the two have generally gone hand in 
 hand. In looking at the results of 1745, how- 
 ever, it must be remembered that though far 
 more prolific in events than the rebellion of 
 1715, it was not full of such deep significance 
 and importance to the Constitution. The rebel- 
 lion of 1715 was the test and trial of the 
 Hanoverian succession ; the Stuart dynasty 
 ended in Anne; it was to be seen whether the 
 country would really accept a King who was a 
 foreigner, and whether Whig principles would 
 stand the strain upon them. There was no such 
 significance or importance about the affair of
 
 ioo The Jacobite Episode in Scottis/i History 
 
 1 745. The temper of the people had already- 
 been tried, and proved to be, if not hostile to 
 Jacobitism, at least wholly indifferent to it. No 
 one who knew the forces at the disposal of the 
 English Government the moral force which lay 
 in the passive contentment of the people with 
 their existing institutions the physical force 
 which lay in vastly superior armies ever thought 
 for a moment that the success of the Jacobite 
 raid was within the range of possibility. Lazy 
 indifference or idle curiosity represented the 
 general attitude of the great mass of the people 
 in England,""" and there was a disposition to let 
 the matter go on unchecked for a while, to see 
 what would come of it, so confident was the 
 Government of being able to crush the rebellion 
 whenever it chose to exert itself. The throne 
 of England was never for one moment in danger, 
 and had not the Jacobite leaders wisely resolved 
 on a retreat when they reached Derby, there 
 can be little doubt that not a single man of 
 
 * See Letter from Gray to Walpole in the latter's published 'correspondence.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 101 
 
 their army would ever have left England alive. 
 This was the opinion and belief of the Jacobite 
 chiefs themselves, with the sole exception of 
 Charles himself, who, with the foolish infatuation 
 and hot-headed impetuosity of a school-boy, 
 urged an advance upon London. The Chevalier 
 de Johnstone, who was with the Jacobite ar-my 
 as aide-de-camp, both to the Prince and Lord 
 George Murray, and whose opinions on military 
 matters are always entitled to weight, says 
 plainly, " If we had continued to advance to 
 London, and had encountered all the troops of 
 England, with the Hessians and Swiss in its pay, 
 there was every appearance of our being imme- 
 diately exterminated, without the chance of a 
 single man escaping. Bravery, even when car- 
 ried the length of ferocity, cannot effect impossi- 
 bilities, and must necessarily yield to numbers." 
 There is a further contrast between 1715 and 
 1745 in this circumstance, that, while in the 
 former the tardy appearance of the Pretender 
 was distinctly detrimental to the cause, in the
 
 1 02 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 latter the presence of the Prince was the chief 
 reason for the temporary success of the move- 
 ment. For there can be no doubt that nine- 
 tenths of the enthusiasm which greeted Charles 
 Edward was a tribute paid to his personal 
 attractions, and not to the cause which he repre- 
 sented. Canny burghers and tender-hearted 
 dames wished "God-speed" to the young Prince, 
 whose " bonny " face and gracious manners took 
 their sympathies by storm, though beyond good- 
 wishes they were too prudent and cautious to 
 venture. And, indeed, Charles had every 
 physical gift of a popular leader. Handsome, 
 amiable, high-spirited, of striking appearance, 
 and singularly fascinating manners, he had also 
 the address to turn these natural endowments 
 to the very best advantage. He laid himself 
 out to captivate every one, and he succeeded. 
 He flattered the vanity, he appealed to the pride, 
 of Scotchmen of all classes. And, enchanted by 
 such condescension from a Prince, the thought 
 never occurred to them that this was all a piece
 
 and its Relative Literature. 103 
 
 of clever acting a necessary adjunct to the 
 role which he had undertaken, and the character 
 which he had assumed. His success was natur- 
 ally greatest among the women, he danced with 
 them, he smiled upon them and forthwith they 
 were devoted Jacobites. And historians have 
 quite overlooked, I think, the importance of 
 their influence upon his fortunes. It is difficult 
 to overrate the power which the women of a 
 country possess when they are animated, as in 
 this case, by one strong and common sentiment. 
 An eloquent but paradoxical modern writer has 
 stated his opinion that all war is woman's fault ; 
 that at any moment she might put an end to it 
 with less trouble than she takes every day to go 
 out to dinner^ and that if every lady in the upper 
 classes of civilized Europe would simply vow 
 that while any cruel war proceeds she will wear 
 black, a mute's black with no jewel, no orna- 
 ment, no excuse for or evasion into prettiness 
 no war would last a week.'" And looking at the 
 
 * * Ruskin. " Crown of Wild Olive."
 
 1 04 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 results of women's influence.. recorded in history, 
 I do not think there is nearly as much extrava- 
 gance and exaggeration in that statement as in 
 most of Mr. Ruskin's utterances. Be this as it 
 may, there can be no doubt that feminine 
 influence had a very powerful effect in paving 
 the way for Charles Edward's success in Scot- 
 land. Lord-Advocate Forbes recognised that 
 influence, and complains bitterly of it. Speaking 
 of 1745, he says, in one of his letters, "All 
 Jacobites, how prudent soever, became mad; all 
 doubtful people became Jacobites; and all bank- 
 rupts became heroes, and talked of nothing but 
 hereditary right and victory; and, what was 
 more grievous to men of gallantry, and if you 
 will believe me, much more mischievous to the 
 country, all the fine ladies, if you will except one 
 or two, became passionately fond of the young 
 Adventurer, and used all their arts and industry 
 for him in the most intemperate manner." What 
 Charles Edward afterwards owed to the heroism 
 and devotion of a woman every child knows, and
 
 and its Relative Literature. 105 
 
 yet this man, who was more indebted to women 
 than any other man living, perhaps, could write 
 thus of them in his later years " As for men, I 
 have studied them closely, and were I to live 
 till fourscore I could scarcely know them better 
 than I do; but as for women, I have thought it 
 useless, they being so much more wicked and 
 impenetrable " ! Such was the gratitude of a 
 Stuart ! 
 
 Of the personal character of Charles Edward, 
 putting aside these outward graces and attrac- 
 tions, there is not much to be said that is 
 favourable. But it would be unfair to pass any 
 judgment upon his character, without taking 
 into consideration the surroundings amidst 
 which he had been brought up. The moral 
 atmosphere of that mock-court at Rome would 
 have been fatal to the growth of any young 
 life. Meddlers of all kinds, ruined soldiers, 
 broken-down statesmen, shifty priests, sur- 
 rounded the two boys then growing up to an 
 inheritance of false hopes and idle great-
 
 1 06 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 ness."" There they were taught to cherish absurd 
 and extravagant notions of the royal prerogative 
 and the divine right of kings. And the result 
 was, that Charles Edward never felt that grati- 
 tude for the services rendered him by his 
 followers in Scotland which they expected and 
 deserved, because it never occurred to him that 
 they were doing anything more than their duty. 
 He accepted the sacrifices made in his behalf 
 as his right, and he could not see that any par- 
 ticular credit attached to acts which were in his 
 view the simple duties which a subject owed 
 to his sovereign. Hence the charge of ingrati- 
 tude against him. But it would be a thankless 
 task to dwell upon all his faults. Superficially 
 he was a high-spirited and amiable young man- 
 impetuous and sanguine, but with not one of the 
 solid qualities of a leader or a ruler. He was 
 essentially a weak man, a creature of impulse. 
 Not a single exploit in the Jacobite Episode of 
 
 * See a graphic description in Mrs. Oliphant's " Historical Sketches of 
 the Reign of George II.," from which these details are taken.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 107 
 
 1 745 can be traced to any skill or daring of his 
 or to any spark of military dash, invention, or 
 genius on his part. Whenever he interfered he 
 did mischief. It was he who proposed, and, 
 against the advice of all his wisest counsellors, 
 insisted upon the march into England. When- 
 ever his wilful obstinacy was opposed, he knew 
 that he had but to cast a taunt of cowardice in 
 the teeth of the oldest Highland chief to scatter 
 all his prudence and judgment to the winds, 
 and he meanly and ungenerously availed him- 
 self of this weapon whenever the wiser counsels 
 of his veterans clashed with his own impetuous 
 schemes. When he was unable to carry his 
 wild project of advancing upon London from 
 Derby, he behaved like a spoiled child deprived 
 of a toy. He was by turns reckless, sullen, and 
 passionate. From that time he displayed no 
 manliness, no fortitude, nor any single great or 
 good quality. His character could not stand the 
 searching test of adversity, and, unfortunately, 
 he had a more than ordinary share of that bitter
 
 1 08 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish Plistory 
 
 medicine. Without accepting any of the ex- 
 treme charges against him, and leaving out of 
 sight his miserable end, I cannot see how any 
 candid critic of his character can for a moment 
 endorse the eulogies of those who maintain that 
 he was the best of all the Stuarts, and that, had 
 he come to the throne, his virtues as a monarch 
 would have transcended those of any of his 
 predecessors. These are the foolish exaggera- 
 tions of prejudiced and fanatical partizans, and 
 I see nothing in the character of Charles 
 Edward, as fairly portrayed by the hands of 
 unbiassed limners, to lead me to regret for one 
 moment that he never ascended the throne of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The young Prince having been the life and 
 soul of the enterprize of 1745, it naturally 
 collapsed as soon as he withdrew from it. But 
 there were many who believed that Culloden 
 was far from a decisive battle, and that had the 
 Prince presented himself at the gathering of 
 Highlanders, which took place shortly afterwards
 
 and its Relative Literature. 109 
 
 at Ruthven, he might have continued the struggle 
 with no small chance of success. It is certain 
 that the Highlanders were terribly disappointed 
 at his declining to listen to their earnest entreaty 
 to come and put himself at their head, and, with 
 sullen reluctance, dispersed to their homes, vow- 
 ing that for the second time they had been 
 abandoned by a Prince at the crisis when his 
 presence was most needed. Of the cruelties 
 which stained the victory of Culloden, so much 
 has been said that it would be idle to say more. 
 Leaving a wide margin for exaggeration, they 
 were still inexcusable, though probably not worse 
 than those which usually mark the suppression of 
 a rebellion very little, if any, worse for example 
 than those inflicted upon the Sepoys after the 
 Mutiny of 1859. The Duke of Cumberland 
 was indeed a strict martinet, and had been 
 brought up in a stern school, but he was not the 
 ferocious fiend which his enemies have repre- 
 sented him. His heart was not impervious to 
 generous and tender sentiments, though he
 
 1 1 o The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 certainly had few of these to spare for the rebels. 
 But then there was a cause for this sternness. 
 He knew that it was the intention of the rebel 
 generals, had they been victorious, to show no 
 quarter to the English troops, for Lord George 
 Murray's orders for the day fell into his hands, 
 and they were as follows: 
 
 " It is His Royal Highness's positive orders 
 that every person attach himself to some corps 
 of the army, and remain with the corps night 
 and day until the battle and pursuit be finally 
 over, and to give no quarter to the Electors troops 
 on no account whatsoever. This regards the foot 
 as well as the horse. The order of battle is to 
 be given to every general officer, and every 
 commander of a regiment or squadron. It is 
 required and expected of each individual in the 
 army, as well officer as soldier, that he keep the 
 post he shall be allotted; and if any man turn 
 his back to run away, the next behind such man 
 is to shoot him. Nobody, upon pain of death, to 
 strip the slain or plunder until the battle is over.
 
 and its Relative Literatzire. in 
 
 The Highlanders to be kilts, and nobody to 
 throw away their guns. 
 
 (Signed), GEORGE MURRAY, 
 Lieutenant- General." 
 
 There has never been any satisfactory ex- 
 planation of this order from the Jacobite point 
 of view, nor have there been any proofs adduced 
 to support the assertion that it was a forgery. 
 And the marked difference in the conduct of 
 the Royal troops before and after Culloden, is 
 favourable to the theory that the exasperation 
 caused by this revelation of the intentions of the 
 rebels prompted many of the excesses perpe- 
 trated by the English soldiery after their victory. 
 It is not the only instance of Jacobite cruelty 
 to be met with in the annals of Jacobitism. 
 The devastation of Auchterarder in 1715, the 
 abandonment of the garrison of Carlisle in 1 745, 
 the deliberate proposal of a Scottish gentleman 
 of high rank to cut off the thumbs of all the 
 prisoners taken at Falkirk, in order to incapaci-
 
 ii2 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 tate them from holding muskets, are not very 
 creditable to the humanity of those concerned 
 in them. 
 
 In considering the ruthless measures adopted 
 by the Duke of Cumberland in stamping out 
 the Rebellion, it must, however, be remembered 
 that to him the Jacobites were merely rebels 
 taken in arms against their lawful sovereign. 
 In his eyes they were not invested with any of 
 that romantic heroism with which a later age 
 has credited them. They were just common- 
 place insurrectionists, and nothing more; and it 
 is unreasonable to expect that a victorious 
 general, who has just overcome a determined 
 resistance, should regard his enemies with that 
 generous appreciation which is only possible to 
 the dispassionate critics of a subsequent genera- 
 tion. And it must also be remembered that it is 
 peculiarly characteristic of the Jacobite insurrec- 
 tions, and the incidents connected with them, 
 that they have been viewed through the coloured 
 light of feelings arising since their extinction,
 
 and its Relative Literature. 113 
 
 instead of in that cold light of truth which at 
 the time surrounded the deeds done and the 
 men who did them. 
 
 The judicial executions which supplemented 
 Cumberland's rigorous measures have also been 
 subjected to the harshest criticism, which is not 
 wholly undeserved. But the arguments adduced 
 in favour of greater clemency are certainly not 
 such as to convince us that the English Govern- 
 ment was transgressing the bounds of reasonable 
 severity. Take the following as an example : 
 " Men so true to an ill-fated cause would have 
 been faithful to any engagements which required 
 them to abandon their efforts in that cause, under 
 the influence of gratitude for clemency, but too 
 imperfectly understood in those turbulent and 
 merciless times." ' The sophistry of that argu- 
 ment is patent. If really faithful to the cause, 
 such men would have died rather than have dis- 
 owned it. If they had renounced it, would not 
 the fact that they had been faithless to one cause 
 
 * Thomson's " Memoirs of the Jacobites." 
 II
 
 1 1 4 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 under pressure of circumstances, render their 
 fidelity to another suspicious ? But men like 
 these would have given no pledge to bind them 
 to abandon the cause which they had served so 
 devotedly, would it then have been wise or safe 
 to set them free without any guarantee of their 
 abstaining from all insurrectionary movements 
 in the future?"" The experience of 1715 gave 
 a direct answer in the negative. 
 
 But it is not on the inglorious triumph of 
 Culloden, nor on its dark and bloodstained 
 sequel, that our thoughts dwell in contemplating 
 the episode of 1745. It is rather on that gallant 
 
 * " No government can extend to defeated insurgents the privilege of pri- 
 soners of war, without opening the way to continued insecurity and causing 
 more public misery than the utmost severity can create. The security which 
 nations have against the turbulent dispositions of their neighbours is, that they 
 cannot be assailed by isolated collections of individuals; the State itself must 
 make war. But if a government were to treat all the individual subjects who 
 disturb its order with the etiquette ~due to nations making war with it, all 
 guarantee for internal tranquillity would vanish. No diplomatic interchanges, 
 no consultations of other powers, no formal government arrangements and 
 preliminaries would be necessary. Whenever interest or passion excited them 
 with sufficient force, bands of the people would rise against any government, 
 however beneficent, if the alternative were success or a treaty without punish- 
 ment." Burton, Vol. II., pp. 207-8. 
 
 " The rebel who bravely ventures has forfeited his life." Gibbon.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 115 
 
 young hero who forms its central figure on his 
 brief and meteoric course the short fourteen 
 months of glory in which his sun shone so 
 brightly, only to be wrapped in clouds before its 
 noon, and to set in darkness and disgrace. Nor 
 do I envy the man whose heart denies all 
 sympathy to the outlawed Prince wandering, 
 hunted, and forlorn, through the wild western 
 islands or whose imagination cannot realize the 
 mournful pathos of the exile's last farewell, as 
 with tearful eyes and bursting heart he takes his 
 last look at the land of his hopes the scene of 
 his dazzling and romantic triumph while the 
 little vessel bears him away from it for ever, to 
 close a bright career in the pursuit of sordid 
 ends and the indulgence of ignoble vices. 
 
 It has been my object in the present essay 
 rather to trace the feelings and sentiments of 
 the Scottish people, and show their bearing 
 upon political events, than to give any connected 
 narrative of historical incidents. And I should,
 
 1 1 6 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 therefore, be omitting a very important feature, 
 were I to conclude without some remarks on 
 the literature of the period, where it is but 
 natural to look for the best reflex of the national 
 sentiments. I shall confine myself to the 
 literature which illustrates those sentiments, and 
 pass over the purely historical chronicles which 
 the period produced. 
 
 And, first, there are the personal records of 
 those who were actors in these events, to whom 
 we are indebted for an insight into the charac- 
 ters of the prominent men of the time, and the 
 motives which prompted their actions. Of 
 these, the limited space at my disposal will only 
 allow me to touch upon a few of the most 
 important. Taking them in order of time, I 
 notice first the Memoirs of Lochiel. These 
 Memoirs, supposed to have been written by Sir 
 John Drummond, supply much interesting and 
 valuable information as to the early period of 
 the Jacobite episode. They are the history of 
 an epoch as well as the record of the career of
 
 and its Relative Literature. 1 1 7 
 
 a great man. For Ewen Cameron, the subject 
 of them, was that famous Lochiel of whom 
 General Monk wrote in his despatches, " No 
 oath shall be required of Lochiel to Cromwell, 
 but his word to live in peace "; he was Dundee's 
 right hand in 1689, and he survived to witness 
 the rising of 1715. These memoirs of his life 
 and times, therefore, embrace the whole of the 
 first portion of the Jacobite episode; and they 
 are remarkable not only for the light they throw 
 upon the career of a chieftain who, take him for 
 all in all, had no equal either in ability or in- 
 fluence among all his Scottish contemporaries, 
 but also as giving sketches of the characters of 
 most of the leading men in Scotland at that 
 time, sketches drawn from personal observation, 
 and, though necessarily biassed, yet on the 
 whole commendably moderate in tone. 
 
 Very different are the Lockhart Papers, by 
 George Lockhart, of Carnwath, a most pro- 
 nounced, and I might almost say, fierce Jacobite, 
 the character of which may be surmised from the
 
 1 1 8 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 fact that it was their author's intention that they 
 should not be published until after his death, 
 when public feeling should have calmed. down, 
 and when the disclosures which they contained 
 could hurt no one. But the manuscript was lent 
 to a faithless friend, who gave it to a public 
 scrivener to "transcribe, and the latter kept back a 
 copy which he sold to a publisher. They were 
 published. in 1719, and, to Lockhart's dismay, 
 this outspoken expression of opinion, with all its 
 bitter criticisms and severe strictures, burst like 
 a thunderbolt upon friends and foes alike, and 
 created consternation and commotion every- 
 where. The style of the Papers is caustic and 
 incisive, full of happy and often brilliant touches 
 of satire and irony. They are marked, too, by 
 a fair and candid tone, except when the authors 
 of the Union come under the writer's scalpel. 
 Then his wrath and indignation are too much 
 for his judgment. Indeed, he confesses as 
 much. "'Tis true," he says, "my indignation 
 against the betrayers of my country is so great
 
 and its Relative Literature. 119 
 
 I never could nor will speak or write otherwise 
 of them; but, when it does not induce me to 
 deviate from the truth, on so provoking a 
 subject I may be granted that grain of allow- 
 ance which you know is never refused losing 
 gamesters." That allowance I am sure all 
 readers, whatever their political opinions, will 
 be ready to grant in consideration of the amuse- 
 ment and information which the Papers afford 
 them. 
 
 The Memoirs of the Master of Sinclair cover 
 the same period, and are of a somewhat similar 
 type, but with the bitterness and satire intensi- 
 fied tenfold. To such extreme lengths does the 
 author carry his acrid sarcasm, that Sir Walter 
 Scott, although he supplied an Introduction and 
 Notes to the Memoirs, was deterred from pub- 
 lishing them lest the malignant and scathing 
 criticism of contemporaries should even then 
 give pain to persons still living, and the Memoirs 
 consequently remained unpublished till 1858. 
 They abound in graphic and sarcastic pictures
 
 1 20 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 of the depravity, meanness, profligacy, and 
 treachery, which were the most prominent 
 characteristics of the times. The Master of 
 Sinclair had been chief of " The Grumblers," as 
 they were called, in Mar's camp, and upon Mar 
 he pours all the vials of his wrath and bitterness. 
 Indeed, the persistent malignity of his attack 
 defeats its object, and there was surely no need 
 to devote so much energy and earnestness to 
 the task of painting Mar in blacker colours than 
 those in which he appeared to all who knew him. 
 Like Lockhart, the Master rages with impotent 
 fury against the Treaty of Union he calls it 
 Mar's first and greatest political crime, "the 
 blackest and atrociousest of crimes, never to be 
 forgiven by God Almighty, and I think ought 
 never to be forgiven and impossible to be for- 
 gotten by men." It is a characteristic of these 
 Memoirs, and indeed of all the contemporary 
 records of personal experience and opinion, that 
 they contain a complete exposure of the motives 
 and conduct of the men who figured in the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 121 
 
 Jacobite intrigues, and by introducing us to the 
 actors, and enabling us to hear what they have 
 to say of one another, utterly disperse those 
 notions of the singleness of purpose, the dis- 
 interested devotion, and the untarnished honour 
 of the Jacobite leaders which romancers have 
 striven to inculcate. From the revelations here 
 given we find that the chief object of a public 
 man of those days was to find out which side it 
 would best suit his own ends to belong to 
 for the time being, and that he would go to 
 extreme shifts of meanness and treachery to 
 assure himself on this important point. The 
 ordinary vision of a Jacobite hero, chivalrous and 
 self-sacrificing, vanishes into thin air when we 
 are thus let behind the scenes. But what the 
 Master of Sinclair tells us of his contemporaries 
 must be taken cum grano salis, for his own 
 antecedents will not bear close investigation. 
 His two so-called duels with the brothers Schaw 
 were murders, pure and simple, and there is 
 plenty of contemporary evidence to show that
 
 122 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 he was ruthless, vindictive, ferocious, and malig- 
 nant His sketches of his fellow-rebels are 
 trenchant and clever; but when he describes them 
 as a collection of knaves and cut-throats, worse 
 than the riff-raff that followed David to the Cave 
 of Adullam, one is inclined to say, that, if it were 
 so, they could hardly have had a fitter com- 
 panion than the Master himself, whose portrait 
 I think is pretty correctly hit off in the following 
 stanza of a contemporaneous ballad : 
 
 The master with the bully's face, 
 
 And with the coward's heart, 
 Who never failed, to his disgrace, 
 
 To act a coward's part. 
 
 The Cidloden Papers are another important 
 contribution to the literature which really re- 
 flects the manners and sentiments of the period. 
 They are a collection of documents selected and 
 arranged from papers discovered in Culloden 
 House, the family mansion of the Forbeses, in 
 1812, and consist chiefly of correspondence 
 ranging over the period from 1625-1748. The
 
 and its Relative Literature. 123 
 
 later portion, containing the correspondence of 
 Duncan Forbes, Lord Advocate, is the most 
 interesting, enriched as it is by letters from Sir 
 Robert Walpole, the Dukes of Newcastle and 
 Argyll, Lords Hardwicke and Mansfield, 
 Speaker Onslowe, General Oglethorpe, and 
 many others in England, besides all the famous 
 men in Scotland without exception. Not the 
 least valuable item in their contents are the 
 Memoranda of Duncan Forbes himself, repre- 
 senting a view taken on the spot of a period of 
 Scottish history and manners the features of 
 which are well worthy to be retained, although 
 the last links which bound it to our own age 
 are now dissolved. But here, as in the Memoirs 
 already referred to, the most important feature 
 is the clue which these letters afford to the 
 motives which prompted the Highland chiefs to 
 join the Pretender. So far from being actuated 
 by heroic and affectionate loyalty to an exiled 
 and suffering race of kings, it is abundantly 
 clear that the great majority were directed by
 
 124 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 principles just as selfish, and by views just as 
 personal, as ever guided men in the most pru- 
 dently conducted concerns of business. Under 
 the light of these letters, the ideal gallantry of 
 the Highland chiefs melts into plain, ordinary 
 political selfishness or ambition. But while 
 lairds and lords cut but a poor figure, the char- 
 acter of Duncan Forbes shines out in its true 
 lustre. It is indeed a noble picture of a Scottish 
 patriot that we have here presented to us one 
 who preferred his country's rights to any party 
 in the State, and who, while acting as the steady 
 friend of government and order, could yet come 
 boldly forward as the earnest and eloquent media- 
 tor for his misguided fellow-countrymen, when 
 the punishment proposed seemed to him greater 
 than justice required or their crime deserved. 
 There was no scheme for promoting the welfare, 
 the progress, and the prosperity of the country 
 that did not owe its success to the help of 
 Duncan Forbes. There is no character in 
 Scottish history, from the Revolution to the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 125 
 
 Rebellion of 1745,* of which Scotsmen of all 
 parties have more reason to be proud. A man 
 of generous and ardent sympathies, a gentleman 
 of stainless reputation and unsullied honour, a 
 patriot pure and disinterested, a statesman of 
 consummate wisdom, of liberal principles, of 
 enlightened understanding, such is Duncan 
 Forbes as we have him revealed to us in the 
 Culloden Papers. 
 
 With the exception of some portions of the 
 Culloden Papers, there is a singular dearth of 
 personal testimony as to the events, the senti- 
 ments, and the motives of 1745. The histories 
 of Home, Marchant, Boyse, and Henderson, 
 indeed, embody scraps of personal experience 
 and narratives of events by eye-witnesses, but 
 they give little real information of any kind as 
 to the feelings and sentiments prevailing in the 
 country, and least of all any honest contemporary 
 criticism of men and measures. In this respect 
 they are quite colourless, for such was the 
 peculiar temper of the time, that it was not safe
 
 126 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 to be too plain-spoken on either side. Home's 
 History of the Rebellion is a remarkable 
 instance of this cautious reserve. Impartiality 
 was the professed aim of every writer, but I 
 confess my faith in Mr. Samuel Boyse's "Im- 
 partial History of the Rebellion" was some- 
 what shaken by the ominous appearance of the 
 title-page, which contains a flattering portrait of 
 the Duke of Cumberland, with the legend, 
 " Ecce Homo " ! And as for Mr. Henderson, 
 his sensitiveness and delicacy render him so 
 susceptible of anything likely to hurt Hano- 
 verian prejudices, that he does not even venture 
 to give the Pretender's name in full when he 
 thinks it would be offensive; and when nar- 
 rating the scene at Balmerino's execution, he 
 modestly and discreetly veils the awful treason 
 of the stout Earl's last exclamation, by the use 
 of blanks and dashes, thus, " God save K 
 
 J s an d all his R 1 F y"! 
 
 It is a relief to turn from such colourless and 
 insipid narratives to the racy pages of the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 127 
 
 Chevalier de Johnstone, whose Memoirs of the 
 Rebellion of 1745 are characterized not only by 
 considerable literary talent, but by candour, 
 impartiality, and shrewd observation. The 
 Chevalier is an outspoken critic, he is never 
 afraid to say boldly and bluntly what he thinks. 
 He had a high opinion of Lord George Murray, 
 and he says so. He had a poor opinion of 
 Prince Charles Edward, and he says so. " Had 
 Prince Charles," he says, " slept during the whole 
 of the expedition, and allowed Lord George 
 Murray to act for him, there is every reason 
 for supposing that he would have found the 
 Crown of Great Britain on his head when he 
 awoke." And again, "All that we can say is, 
 that the Prince entered on this expedition rashly 
 and without foreseeing the personal dangers to 
 which he was about to expose himself; that in 
 carrying it on, he always took care not to expose 
 his person to the fire of the enemy, and that he 
 abandoned it at a time when he had a thousand 
 times more reason to hope for success than when
 
 128 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 he left Paris to undertake it." For thus daring 
 to express an opinion adverse to the Prince, the 
 Chevalier, who had special opportunities of 
 forming a correct opinion on this point, having 
 acted as aide-de-camp both to the Prince and 
 Lord George Murray, has been called to severe 
 account by such Jacobite writers as Sir Walter 
 Scott, Mr. Robert Chambers, and Lord Mahon.* 
 And because his opinion does not tally with their 
 preconceived ideas of their darling Prince, they 
 have besmirched his fame with foul imputations 
 and done their best to throw discredit upon 
 every statement in his Memoirs. Nevertheless, 
 I think the Chevalier will hold his own as the 
 fairest and ablest critic of the Rebellion of 1745* 
 I may say in passing, that the Episode of '45 
 has been singularly rich in chroniclers of a later 
 date. Sir Walter Scott, Mr. Chambers, and 
 Lord Mahon, may be said to have fairly ex- 
 
 * I have alluded to Earl Stanhope by his older title, because it is the one 
 by which he is best known as a historian ; and I have classed him as a Jacobite 
 writer because, whatever his proclivities on other occasions, in his treatment 
 of the Episode of '45 his bias and leaning are too plain to be mistaken.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 129 
 
 hausted the subject from a Jacobite point of 
 view. Mr. Chambers's History is the most 
 valuable of these contributions as an antiquarian 
 record, inasmuch as it incorporates and pre- 
 serves a number of old local and personal tradi- 
 tions which would otherwise most likely have 
 been suffered to die out or become so distorted 
 by oral repetition as to be practically valueless. 
 But the pronounced Jacobite sympathies of all 
 these writers will always render their works liable 
 to the charge of unfair partiality, and will never 
 suffer them to take rank as history. The fact is, 
 that any writer with warm sympathies and a 
 vivid imagination, is in danger of being biassed 
 in favour of Jacobitism, unless he has judgment 
 equal to the control of his feelings. For Jaco- 
 bitism is peculiarly rich in episodes which 
 appeal to generous and poetic sentiment. It 
 has enlisted all. the poets and romancers on 
 its side, and they have done more to falsify 
 history than any amount of patient and honest 
 investigation can ever wholly undo. And I
 
 1 30 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 cannot help feeling that it is Mr. Burton's want 
 of imagination which constitutes his greatest 
 claim to be listened to with respect and deference 
 as the historian of this period; whatever his 
 history for this reason may lack in picturesque- 
 ness, it gains in fidelity and truthfulness. 
 
 But it is time now to turn to by far the most 
 important branch of the literature of the Jacobite 
 Episode its ballads. Never was any period 
 in the history of any country so rich in this 
 species of literature as the Jacobite period in 
 Scottish History. There is no event of any im- 
 portance, from the Revolution to the battle of 
 Culloden, which has not its commemorative 
 ballad, often two or three. Of the adventures 
 of Charles Edward in 1 745 there is not a single 
 incident, no matter how minute, that has not 
 been preserved in verse. Every alternation of 
 hope and despair is chronicled in song. And 
 the history of the Jacobite Episode may be 
 traced with far more clearness and minuteness 
 in this continuous series of ballads than in any
 
 and its Relative Literatiire. 131 
 
 professedly historical work which has ever ap- 
 peared or probably ever will appear. But this is 
 not the only nor the greatest merit which the 
 Jacobite Ballads possess. They are effusions of 
 real passion the faithful and graphic expression 
 of emotions which inspired those who composed 
 them, and found an echo in those who listened 
 to them. Moreover, their intrinsic literary ex- 
 cellence as lyrical compositions is not their least 
 remarkable feature. For the Jacobite ballad 
 writers were true poets they knew how to 
 appeal to the hearts of their hearers in strains 
 which moved pity, or wrath, or laughter, or scorn, 
 or enthusiasm, according as the writer wished 
 the subject to affect those for whom he wrote. 
 And many, perhaps most, of these ballad-writers 
 were of the humblest origin ; for there is a 
 depth of romantic and poetical feeling in the 
 lower ranks of the Scottish people, which one 
 would look for in vain amongst the same class 
 in England. And the Jacobites seemed to 
 have enjoyed a monopoly of this poetic senti-
 
 132 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 ment. If the sound principles were all on one 
 side, all the good poetry was on the other; for 
 it would be hard to find more tame and spirit- 
 less, productions than those of the Whig bards. 
 But wit is generally on the losing side in politics 
 and the successful ballad is very seldom the 
 accompaniment of the successful cause. This 
 is even more true of the satirical than of the 
 sentimental ballad. It has been well said, that 
 the satirical Muse thrives only in opposition, 
 and the Government which provokes the bitter- 
 est satire is generally the most long-lived. All 
 the exquisite poetry, and humour, and invective 
 of the Jacobite Muse were powerless to shake 
 the stability of the Whig monarchy. Yet it 
 would not be correct, on that account, to assume 
 that the influence attributed to this pathetic and 
 satirical literature of Jacobitism has been exag- 
 gerated. It was unquestionably a power, and 
 a very effective power, in the country. The 
 memories of Jacobitism, chequered as they were, 
 and with little of glory in them, were full of
 
 and its Relative Literatiire. 133 
 
 that pathos and sadness which afford the poet 
 his best subjects, and work more powerfully 
 upon the sympathies and feelings of an imagina- 
 tive and simple people, than all the achieve- 
 ments of successful renown. It was these 
 ballad-writers who made Jacobitism capable of 
 inspiring that dangerous sentiment of pity, 
 which has done more to bolster up many a 
 weak and worthless cause than the arms of its 
 supporters. And the Jacobite ballads are 
 peculiarly rich in such moving appeals. In the 
 ballads of no other age or country is there to be 
 found so much genuine and touching pathos. 
 It would be impossible to overrate the influence 
 which the wild plaintive minstrelsy, embalming 
 the memories of 1689, 1715, and 1719, had 
 upon the susceptible Celtic nature of the High- 
 landers. There was a fascination about the 
 new ideas thus associated with the old familiar 
 melodies, which took a strange hold upon the 
 Highland fancy. For the Jacobite minstrels 
 were quick-witted enough to perceive that the
 
 1 34 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 surest way to make their ballads popular, was 
 to wed them to the music of those beautiful and 
 simple national airs, which charmed even the 
 Saxon ear of Dryden. It was fortunate, per- 
 haps, that this influence produced its strongest 
 effects after the last hope of a successful rebel- 
 lion had been quenched at Culloden. For the 
 sixty years which succeeded 1745, Scotland was 
 more thoroughly Jacobite in her sympathies 
 than she had ever been when there was a 
 chance of Jacobitism being successful. There 
 arose then that romantic, ideal, or sentimental 
 Jacobitism, of which I have already spoken, 
 which had no connection with the principles of 
 the Stuart Government. Indeed, had a restor- 
 ation been effected, those principles would have 
 effectually destroyed all the romance with which 
 the ballad-writers had succeeded in investing a 
 forlorn and hopeless cause. But, as it was, 
 there could be no danger in chanting the dirge 
 of a dead dynasty. All the poetry and romance 
 of Scotland clustered round Jacobitism. " The
 
 and its Relative Literature. 135 
 
 Muses are all Jacobites," said Burns and his 
 own happiest lyrical efforts, as well as those of 
 Scott, and Hogg, and Cunningham, were in- 
 spired by imitation of the ballads of '45. 
 
 But it is time to examine some of the features 
 of these Jacobite ballads. It is unfortunate that 
 we have no sure test of the genuineness of a very 
 large number which have been admitted into 
 published collections. For where there is any 
 doubt of their being contemporary effusions, 
 their value, as expressions of popular feeling, is 
 very much lessened. Indeed, their only value 
 is as reflections of the emotions and passions and 
 sentiments of the time when the events to which 
 they refer occurred. We may admire the poet- 
 ical beauty of the imitations of later writers, for 
 example, some exquisite ballads of Lady Nairn, 
 but they have no historical interest. The 
 Ettrick Shepherd was an indefatigable coiner 
 of these spurious Jacobite ballads, which he 
 palmed off upon the public as genuine produc- 
 tions. There is one admirable song which
 
 136 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 appeared in his " Jacobite Relics," and which for 
 slyand characteristic Scotch humour is unrivalled, 
 
 " Donald's gane up the hill hard and hungry; 
 Donald comes down the hill wild and angry," 
 
 to which he subjoins this note, " A capital old 
 song, and very popular." And yet will it be 
 believed, the old rascal concocted the song 
 himself, and afterwards, when he was taxed with 
 the offence, admitted it and boasted of it! How 
 many more such spurious ballads and songs may 
 still be passing for genuine, it is impossible to 
 say. But when we find Shenstone's "Jemmy 
 Dawson," and Swift's " Verses on the Union," to 
 say nothing of Campbell's " Lochiel," and no 
 end of songs by Burns, admitted into collections 
 of "Jacobite Ballads," it is impossible to tell 
 when we have got hold of a genuine old Jacobite 
 ballad and when we have got hold of an ingen- 
 ious imitation. A weeding process is strongly 
 needed, if there were only some one qualified to 
 undertake the task. I hope the publishers of
 
 and its Relative Liter at^lre. 137 
 
 the new edition of Jacobite songs and melodies 
 will endeavour to secure the services of an editor 
 who will set himself honestly to the task of 
 separating the genuine from the spurious. 
 
 In the hands of the Ettrick Shepherd, and 
 some other dishonest politicians of his day, the 
 Jacobite ballads were made to serve a political 
 purpose which it would be impossible to censure 
 too harshly. There was a party in the State at 
 that time animated by a rabid hatred of popular 
 principles ; they disliked a free and rational 
 government; they would rather have seen a king 
 unfettered by a parliament, a judge unchecked 
 by a jury, and a press free only to praise the 
 stronger side. To promulgate such doctrines 
 openly was not safe; so the advocates of these 
 measures ventilated their views by disguising 
 them under sympathy with and eulogy of the 
 Jacobites, and by stamping with every mark of 
 opprobium and ridicule the great men to whom 
 we owe our present Constitution. Hogg iden- 
 tified himself with this movement, and his
 
 138 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 " Jacobite Relics " are disfigured by notes full of 
 personal and political invective. 
 
 Such were some of the illegitimate uses which 
 the Ballads were made to serve. Of their 
 legitimate effects in raising a sentimental sym- 
 pathy with Jacobitism, I have already spoken. 
 There are few, probably, who are not, even at 
 this day, familiar with the effect of a plaintive 
 and pathetic Jacobite song rendered by a 
 woman's voice. It is wonderful what pathos an 
 expressive singer can throw into one of those 
 sweet lyrics bewailing the misfortunes of Charlie. 
 It must be a hard heart that is not melted by 
 the melancholy strain. It must be a dull spirit 
 too that is not kindled into enthusiasm by the 
 martial air and stirring words of " Bonnie Dun- 
 dee." We feel the effect of such melodies even 
 now what must they have been when every 
 incident was fresh in the memories of men and 
 women who had felt all the excitement of '15 
 and '45 ? We can hardly wonder at the effects 
 of such a ballad as " The King shall enjoy his
 
 and its Relative Literature. 139 
 
 own again," or " Carle, an' the King come," 
 which are said to have done more to re-animate 
 the hopes of the Stuarts than all the promises 
 of the French Court, and all their own tem- 
 porary successes in arms or intrigue."'' But I 
 have often heard it said that, powerful and 
 telling as these spirited and pathetic ballads are 
 when they have the advantage of a woman's 
 sweet voice to give them their most winning 
 charm, their effect is not to be compared with 
 that produced by one of the fiercely satirical 
 ballads, rendered with proper force, and energy, 
 and emphasis. To hear an old Scottish lawyer, 
 after his second bottle of port, pour forth the 
 whole savageness of his soul in the mingled 
 satire and blasphemy of that wonderfully power- 
 ful, but horribly grotesque ballad, " Cumberland 
 and Murray's Descent into Hell "- 
 
 * It is only fair, however, to state that there were some ballads produced 
 on the Whig side, which had an almost equally remarkable effect on popular 
 feeling. Thomas, Marquis of Wharton, the author of the famous song of 
 " Lillibulcro," used to boast, and not without reason, that with this one song 
 he had " sung a king out of three kingdoms."
 
 1 40 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 "Ken ye whaur cleekie Murray's gane? 
 He's gane to dwell in his lang hame," 
 
 this, I have been told, was something still more 
 characteristic, national, and exciting. 
 
 But in considering the influence of these bal- 
 lads, it must never be forgotten that the object 
 of all such effusions is to distort and exaggerate. 
 They are not to be trusted as strictly faithful 
 pictures of men or manners. Voltaire, speaking 
 of the tendency of such literature in his time, 
 says " II y a encore une grande source d'erreurs 
 publiques parmi nous et qui est particuliere a 
 notre nation. C'est le gout des vaudevilles. 
 On en fait chaque jour sur les personnes les plus 
 respectables et on entend tous les jours calom- 
 nier les vivans et les morts sur ces beaux fonde- 
 mens. Ce fait (dit on) est vrai, c'est une chan- 
 son qui 1'atteste." Voltaire was mistaken, how- 
 ever, in supposing that this was a peculiarity of 
 the French nation, or, if it were so when he wrote, 
 it did not long continue to be. There can be 
 no question that the tendency of these Jacobite
 
 and its Relative Literature. 141 
 
 ballads, as of all other such compositions, is to 
 burlesque the characters and the events they 
 celebrate. It would be dangerous therefore to 
 accept them as being anything more than indi- 
 cations of the temporary current of popular 
 feeling, while at the same time it would be un- 
 wise to disregard them altogether. For, as John 
 Selden sententiously puts it,'"" " Though some 
 make light of libels (lampoons), yet you may see 
 by them how the wind sits; as take a straw and 
 throw it up into the air, you shall see by that 
 which way the wind is, which you shall not do 
 by casting up a stone. More solid things do 
 not show the complexion of the times so well 
 as ballads and libels." It has been urged against 
 Lord Macaulay, that he has carried this theory 
 to excess. " Give Macaulay,"t says a recent 
 writer, " an insulated fact or phrase, a scrap of 
 a journal, or the tag end of a song, and on it, 
 by the abused prerogative of genius, he would 
 construct a theory of national or personal char- 
 
 * Selden, ' Table-Talk. " f Paget, " New Examen."
 
 142 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 acter which should confer undying glory or in- 
 flict indelible disgrace." And indeed so frequent 
 is this habit with Macaulay, that it has added 
 greatly to that general distrust of his accuracy 
 and impartiality which has been steadily growing 
 among historical critics, and will soon oust him 
 from the place he now falsely holds as a faithful 
 and truthful historian. It is safer and wiser 
 therefore to accept Voltaire's maxim rather than 
 Selden's. 
 
 Any statement of the influence and effects of 
 Jacobite literature upon Scotland would be 
 incomplete without an acknowledgement of the 
 work done in this direction by the author of 
 " Waverley." It is of course impossible for us 
 now to appreciate that remarkable novel as it 
 was appreciated sixty years ago, when there were 
 persons still living who had spoken with fugitives 
 from Culloden, and had heard the rebellion 
 discussed at many a fireside by those who had 
 a deep personal interest in the rebels. It is 
 still, and must have been more then, the charm
 
 and its Relative Literature. 143 
 
 of " Waverley," that its characters and descrip- 
 tions are vivid and lifelike, drawn from living 
 originals. This was the cause of its marvellous 
 popularity. And it is fortunate for literature 
 that the national feeling was caught up and 
 impersonated while there was yet something of 
 it alive to warm the sympathies of the novelist. 
 But " Waverley " had a twofold influence. Jaco- 
 bitism had so long been a tabooed subject, kept 
 out of sight as a thing fraught with some 
 mysterious danger to the Constitution, that 
 people were startled to find that it was now a 
 matter of history that it need no longer be 
 banished from contemplation, but might be 
 freely discussed and sympathized with, without 
 any fear of consequences. Sir Walter Scott first 
 roused English people to the conviction that 
 Jacobitism was a harmless memory of the past, 
 and it at once became the fashion. Here was a 
 romance in their very midst which they had all 
 this while been neglecting. The rest is well 
 known. The Highlands swarmed with pilgrims
 
 1 44 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 eager to pay their tribute of admiration at the 
 shrine of Charles Edward and Flora MacDonald. 
 From that time friendlier feelings sprang up 
 between Scotchmen and Englishmen, for they 
 had one common object of admiration. From 
 that time, too, a closer and more cordial relation- 
 ship arose between Lowlanders and High- 
 landers. They discovered that they possessed 
 cherished memories in common, that they were 
 sons of the same dear mother-land, and that 
 the name and fame of Scotland were as dear to 
 the one as to the other. 
 
 " Thus the whirligig of Time brings in his 
 revenges." The Union, which was the bete noir 
 of one party, and Jacobitism, which was the 
 bete noir of the other, have both had their share 
 in making Scotland what she is, a rich, prosper- 
 ous, happy, and independent country. We 
 have lived to see the royal descendant of 
 George I. build herself a stately mansion in the 
 very heart of those Highlands which were the 
 dreaded home of Jacobitism, but which she now
 
 and its Relative Literature. 145 
 
 loves better than the Herrenhausen, better than 
 her noblest English palace, and where she is 
 loved with an affection as sincere, and served 
 with a loyalty as devoted, as were ever vouch- 
 safed even to " Bonnie Prince Charlie." 
 
 I 2
 
 THE 
 
 [atxAtte TIpra&s * 
 
 Jl 
 
 ITS RELATIVE LITERATURE. 
 
 AN ESSAY 
 
 BY 
 
 J. LOGIE ROBERTSON, M.A 
 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 Give me the making of a country's songs, and let who will make its laws. 
 
 JOHN MENZIES & COMPANY, 
 EDINBURGH & GLASGOW. 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & COMPANY, 
 LONDON.
 
 . 

 
 THE 
 
 J acobite Rpisode in Scottish History 
 
 AND ITS 
 
 RELATIVE LITERATURE. 
 
 "Give me the making of a country's songs t and let tv/io "will make its 
 
 THE Jacobite Episode in Scottish History ex- 
 tends over a period of about sixty years, from 
 1688 to 1746. Within these limits is confined 
 the actual struggle of a party devotedly attached 
 to the declining House of Stuart, and bitterly 
 opposed to the introduction of an alien dynasty. 
 It was a period of great agitation, affecting more 
 or less every individual in the country, and kept 
 alive by the very varying fortunes which now 
 gladdened with hopes, and now embittered with 
 losses, the parties engaged in the struggle. 
 Indeed, so sharp was the conflict, and waged
 
 150 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 with such determined animosity on both sides, 
 that it would have been impossible for a passive 
 spectator to predict the ultimate issue, and it 
 even now surprises the reader of Scottish his- 
 tory to find that matters terminated as they did. 
 The Stuart or Jacobite party lost when they 
 were apparently on the eve of winning: their 
 hopes, frequently dimmed, never extinguished, 
 seemed, perhaps, on a general survey of the 
 events of the period within which the actual 
 struggle was pent, to become brighter accord- 
 ing as the struggle enlarged its area, thus 
 demanding a closer and more numerous atten- 
 tion, and in proportion as it continued its course, 
 thus exciting a determination to end it, and an 
 absorbing interest as to how it would end. 
 And it was just when the expectations of the 
 losing side appeared on the point of realization, 
 that they suffered a full and final eclipse. 
 
 But, apart altogether from the excitement of 
 the struggle as consequent upon the various 
 phases through which it passed, there were
 
 and its Relative Literature. 151 
 
 certain elements in the struggle, from its very 
 commencement, when it was as yet only pro- 
 spective, that tended to create an all-engrossing 
 interest in the national mind. The subject of 
 dispute was one in which there could hardly be 
 any neutrals. One of two sides must be taken, 
 and a compromise was impossible. The divis- 
 ional line between the two parties was clear and 
 well denned. It was not made merely on 
 ecclesiastical grounds, on political grounds, or 
 on individual grounds. That is too narrow a 
 view to take of the question upon the settlement 
 of which a whole nation split. No doubt these 
 various grounds of differences had their in- 
 fluence in deepening the rancour of the conflict- 
 ing parties. But the prime question of differ- 
 ence was, Are we to have a Stuart to reign 
 over us ? It was, in other words, Jacobitism 
 or N on- Jacobitism. And from this, the original 
 or central question in dispute, sprung other 
 differences, based upon the character, religion, 
 and political measures of the unfortunate sov-
 
 152 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 ereign in whose reign the seeds of revolution 
 were sown. These smaller differences centred 
 in the primal one, and affected it in various 
 ways. They were not all ranged on the same 
 side. So that it is not strictly correct to regard 
 the wars that sprang up around the question of 
 Jacobitism or Non-Jacobitism, as being waged 
 between Papists and Protestants, Tories and 
 Whigs, or adherents to the persons of the 
 Stuarts and those that were not so. Papists 
 and Protestants were found on the same side, 
 in very different proportions, it is true; Whigs 
 and Tories were banded together against Whigs 
 and Tories ; and those that had no love or 
 respect for the person of James II., or of his 
 son, "the Pretender," leagued with those that 
 had. In short, the prime question, the settle- 
 ment of which occasioned the long and per- 
 sistent sixty years' struggle, must be regarded 
 in its broadest feature as one involving an 
 abstract idea of right. And this idea may be 
 stated thus, the regal jurisdiction of the coun-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 153 
 
 try is at all times the right of the direct lineal 
 descendant of the last hereditary monarch. 
 This idea is everywhere familiar in the famous 
 expression the divine right of kings. It is the 
 same idea which the poet chieftain of Strowan 
 has thrown into verse 
 
 " The laws of God and man declare 
 The son should be the father's heir." 
 
 This, then, was the great argument of the 
 Jacobite party; and it is evident that it admits 
 of only one answer, belief or denial. In the 
 settlement of the question, which its enunciation 
 demanded of every intelligent person, the nation 
 was divided almost to a man.' Every individual 
 was to decide for himself; neutral party there 
 could not well be. In the decision of the ques- 
 tion, however, there were naturally many whose 
 minds were influenced by the character, manners, 
 beliefs religious and political, conduct, and even 
 personal appearance of the sovereign in whose 
 reign the question was propounded, and of his 
 opponent, the head of the party who denied the
 
 154 Th e Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 divine right of kings, and advocated parlia- 
 mentary government. 
 
 In this way the struggle was one of very 
 mixed elements. And the apparently incongruous 
 mixture for the most part added fury to both 
 sides. There were, no doubt, persons who 
 believed in the doctrine of hereditary right, and 
 who, nominally at least, sided with the Jacobite 
 party, and who yet viewed with disgust the 
 papistical and despotic tendencies of the sovereign 
 to whom they believed they justly owed alle- 
 giance. Such men could bring only half of their 
 hearts to the Jacobite side, and by their cold 
 and reluctant proffer of service exert a deterrent 
 or damping influence upon others who looked 
 to them for example. But many of these could 
 ill bear the unsatisfactory position of one who is 
 only half pledged to the party among whose 
 ranks he nominally arrays himself. They either 
 allowed the grand idea of divine right to swallow 
 up every other consideration, and then lent their 
 weight to the cause of Jacobitism; or they were
 
 and its Relative Literature. 155 
 
 driven to Jacobitism, and entirely committed to 
 it, heart and body, by the taunts of "renegade'" 
 or "apostate," flung at them by their political or 
 ecclesiastical confreres of the non- Jacobite ranks. 
 We do find that such was the case: we find that 
 Tory and Papist were employed synonymously 
 with Jacobite in the heat and din of the struggle; 
 but it must not be forgotten that there were true 
 Protestants and honest Whigs on both sides, and 
 that the prime division of the country was by 
 vote on the question, king hereditary or king 
 parliamentary ? 
 
 From this brief glance of the struggle in its 
 origin and in its progress, it will be evident how 
 complete and fierce the agitation of the nation 
 was. The extent and thoroughness of the 
 agitation, however, can be fully measured and 
 estimated only by a reference to the contempor- 
 aneous literature that sprang up amidst the 
 storm of the Jacobite dissensions. The period 
 of active Jacobitism was one of warfare, not 
 merely of swords but of pens ; and the influence
 
 156 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 of the latter in giving edge and weight to the 
 former must not be forgotten. Confining our 
 attention, meanwhile, to the literature of the 
 time as bearing upon the extent and nature of 
 the agitation in the country, we observe, as the 
 first thing to catch our notice, the enormous 
 quantity of it, and its exclusively controversial 
 and satirical character in both prose and verse. 
 Its voluminousness is a remarkable feature, and 
 in itself indicates the absorbing interest of the 
 questions which required such extensive discus- 
 sion. It would appear that the mind of the 
 nation had been so roused and concentrated 
 upon one idea, the idea of Jacobitism pro and 
 con, that the consideration of every other topic 
 foreign to this was firmly excluded. The 
 stream of Scottish Literature, which first began 
 to sparkle out so unmistakeably in the time of 
 John Barbour, which gained such accessions of 
 strength and volume in the age of William 
 Dunbar and David Lindsay, and which was still 
 further increased by the nameless but romanti-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 157 
 
 cally beautiful tributaries of later ballads and 
 songs, would seem about this time to have 
 been stayed, dammed up, or turned aside. It 
 was untasted by the generation of the early part 
 of the eighteenth century. That generation 
 dug out a literature for themselves, a big 
 muddy pool, with, however, many clear freshets, 
 somewhere near the main stream and only in 
 trickling contact with it. In other words, the 
 period in Scotland from about 1688 to 1746 was 
 not a time fitted for the production or the study 
 of pure literature. That requires leisure and 
 fastidious pruning. This was a time of action, 
 of unpremeditated thought and impulsive 
 word. It was a time of business. There was 
 no holiday in which to while away the hours in 
 the study of past literatures, or in the deliberate 
 planning and leisurely executing of some care- 
 fully chosen literary subject. The blood was 
 coursing too fast through the heart of the nation 
 to admit of either contemplative study or refined 
 production. Things had to be said and done
 
 158 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 quickly, and there was hardly room for thought. 
 Yet the pen was too influential an instrument to 
 be left lying neglectedly, as if it were only de- 
 signed for peaceful scenes and gala days. It 
 had already done good work, palpable work, 
 for Scotland, in the pamphleteering days of the 
 Charleses. Its aid was therefore required, 
 and it was used without stint; and often, very 
 often, to chronicle the fierce thought newly- 
 sprung in the heart, in both ecclesiastical pam- 
 phlet and satirical ballad. 
 
 Satirical literature flourishes in times of 
 debate and dissension, and is then always per- 
 sonal. From this circumstance, and the fact 
 that the literature of Jacobitism is enormously 
 large, important conclusions may be deduced. 
 
 It is with communities as it is with individuals. 
 The former are aggregates of the latter. Both 
 have characters, and the characters of both may 
 be read in the same way. We read the character 
 of an individual in private life by his conversation 
 and conduct; an author's book furnishes us with
 
 and its Relative Literature. 159 
 
 a key to his character; and by its literature we 
 look into the character of a community, a nation, 
 or a period. It must be premised here, and it 
 is an admission that all will allow, that a man's 
 character is formed by what most continuously 
 and constantly occupies his thoughts; and that 
 whatever a man thinks most about, he must 
 speak most about. If this be true of an indi- 
 vidual in a general way, it is much more worthy 
 of reliance when spoken of as regards a com- 
 munity. For a community is less capable of 
 playing the impostor than an individual: it is 
 composed of elements that act less harmoniously, 
 less in concert with each other than the mental 
 faculties of an individual may; and is, therefore, 
 as it were, unavoidably compelled honestly to 
 reveal its character. 
 
 The chances of being able correctly and 
 readily to read the character of a community 
 are much increased when the prevailing form of 
 its literature is the satirical. This is obvious. 
 Satire begets satire. It is personal in its attacks
 
 1 60 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 and in its replies. We thus hear both sides, and 
 so can form a tolerably correct opinion. At the 
 same time, it is often unsparing in its revelation 
 of its author's own character. In his satire the 
 author not seldom shews his own weaknesses, 
 meannesses, passions, feelings, hopes, resolutions. 
 His exposure of the enemy against whom he 
 has levelled his satire may be incorrect, of 
 himself it is not so. A man is in earnest when 
 he is angry; and the angry satiric muse reveals 
 at once his anger and his earnestness, in other 
 words, his character. 
 
 But further, it has been said that what an 
 author thinks most about, he must write most 
 about; and vice versa. As in the voluminous- 
 ness, therefore, of an author's works, so in that 
 of the literature of a community, we have another 
 means of arriving at a correct notion of its 
 character. 
 
 Now, the literature born of Jacobitism is a 
 well-defined one, wholly cut off from, and un- 
 tinged by antecedent literatures; it is, further, in
 
 and its Relative Literature. 1 6 1 
 
 a very marked degree the offspring of contem- 
 porary events, and, to use an expressive phrase, 
 "bristling" with personal allusions; and, in the 
 third place, it is very voluminous, indeed so 
 much so, even in the department of poetry, that 
 hundreds of the ballads which it so largely 
 includes have been neglected by enthusiastic 
 collectors. 
 
 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History is 
 thus abundantly and faithfully mirrored in the 
 Satirical Songs and ballads which appeared con- 
 temporaneously with the persons and events of 
 which they treat. We may, therefore, study 
 Jacobitism through the medium of these ballads. 
 
 It would be no very difficult matter to arrange 
 the Jacobite ballads in chronological order. 
 From the freshness and minuteness of detail 
 with which they chronicle the passing events to 
 which they allude, one would be at little loss to 
 set them in their proper sequence of production, 
 although the authors are mostly unknown and 
 no date is affixed to any of them. Indeed, so
 
 1 62 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 full are they of historical allusions, that a very 
 complete narrative of the main features, and 
 many of the minor details, of the great Jacobite 
 struggle can be gathered from their perusal. 
 They are most numerous and interesting at 
 those central points in the course of the struggle, 
 around which Jacobitism was naturally at its 
 fullest activity. These central points are the 
 Accession of the Prince of Orange, the Battle 
 of Killiecrankie, the Glencoe Butchery, the 
 Darien Expedition, the Death of William III., 
 the Act of Succession, the Union, the Corona- 
 tion of George I., "the Fifteen," and "the 
 Forty-five," with their accompanying circum- 
 stances respectively. A noticeable feature in 
 the narrative of the events of the Jacobite 
 episode, as told directly or incidentally in the 
 Jacobite ballads, is the absence of all abuse on 
 the part of the metrical satirists in connexion 
 with the names of Queen Mary and Queen 
 Anne. The name of the latter is frequently 
 mentioned, but never in the vituperative style
 
 and its Relative Literature. 163 
 
 which the writers assume when dealing with 
 William and the Georges: she is warned, and 
 described in a satirically familiar strain, but 
 there are no gross allusions or coarse exaggera- 
 tions of a personal or social nature, which the 
 writers knew well how to fabricate when speak- 
 ing of the male sovereigns who occupied the 
 abdicated Stuart throne. Mary is scarcely, if 
 ever, mentioned. Whether the Jacobites had 
 adopted the motto of making no war against 
 women, or whether they tolerated the sovereignty 
 of Queen Mary and Queen Anne as being more 
 nearly related to the exiled House, it is difficult 
 to judge, and, probably, both reasons influenced 
 them to forbearance. 
 
 The narrative of the struggle, as gleaned 
 from the Jacobite songs and ballads, is- briefly 
 as follows: The Revolution was quietly accom- 
 plished in Scotland, partly owing to the skill 
 with which the welcomers of the Prince of Orange 
 had laid their plans, and partly owing to the total 
 want of Jacobite activity in England. Notwith-
 
 1 64 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 standing the absence of any opposition, how- 
 ever, when William was proclaimed King he 
 was acknowledged liege lord by only a faction 
 in Scotland. There were scattered throughout 
 the country smouldering embers of discord, 
 which awaited only the breath of the Viscount 
 of Dundee to fan them into a blaze. This man, 
 of whose character we have such conflicting 
 accounts, was at least fearless and energetic in 
 the cause he had adopted. He is the central 
 figure in the early part of the Jacobite struggle. 
 By the force of his own genius he drew around 
 him a body of devoted Highlanders, whose 
 espousal of the Jacobite interest is an anomaly 
 requiring explanation. The main body of 
 Highlanders who gathered around him followed 
 the command and example of their chieftains, 
 and these were influenced in favour of the 
 exiled House by at least two considerations: 
 in the first place, Argyll, the personal foe of 
 many of them, was an adherent of the Prince of 
 Orange, whose establishment on the throne
 
 and its Relative Literatiire. 165 
 
 wpuld restore the power, territorial and political, 
 which Argyll had lost in the preceding reign; 
 and this return of power would be at their cost 
 and to their danger. In the second place, the 
 policy of the Prince of Orange, manifest from 
 the first, was to promote peace and commerce 
 in the country by the suppression of the danger- 
 ous feudal power held by the chieftains, and 
 by an equable and rigid administration of 
 the laws throughout the entire country. This 
 was the aiming of a blow, likely to prove fatal, 
 at that warlike mode of life, prevalent in the 
 Highlands from time immemorial, by which the 
 clans maintained their existence. Peace and 
 commerce were inimical to those whose lives 
 were spent in feuds and maraudings, and whose 
 constant and almost sole profession was that of 
 arms. Conscious of this, conscious also of his 
 own adaptive and inspiring genius, and with the 
 great name of Montrose to conjure by, Dundee 
 had little difficulty in raising a sufficient body of 
 Highlanders, at the head of whom he met
 
 1 66 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Mackay, the general commissioned by the Scot- 
 tish Convention to frustrate his plans. The 
 battle of Killiecrankie ensued, a complete vic- 
 tory to the Jacobite cause, but without any 
 except a momentary significance, as Dundee 
 fell in the action. 
 
 We gather from the various ballads descriptive 
 of this engagement many interesting historical 
 details. First of all, there is noted the superior 
 position occupied by the Highlanders, and the 
 difficulty experienced by Mackay's troops in 
 charging uphill the descending foe : 
 
 " Clavers and his highlandmen 
 
 Came down upon the raw;" 
 and 
 
 " The Solemn League and Covenant 
 Came whigging up the hills." 
 
 The activity of the clansmen is struck off in the 
 verse, 
 
 " O'er bush, o'er bank, o'er ditch, o'er stank, 
 She flang amang them a'." 
 
 It was a hand-to-hand conflict, such as the 
 41 durk "-armed clansmen loved, favourable for
 
 and its Relative Literature. 167 
 
 the display of individual exploits. The " bauld 
 Pitcur " "Pitcurius heroicus Hector Scoticanus" 
 is especially celebrated for his deeds of 
 daring. On the winning side, however, there 
 were cravens. A body of Irish auxiliaries, in 
 the uniform of the deposed King James, fled to 
 the hills while the battle was raging. They are 
 not spared by the Jacobite satirist. Hanging, 
 in his opinion, would be too good for them ; for, 
 if they had " bent their brows " like the Scottish 
 Celts, an allusion to the fierce determination 
 with which the Higlanders are wont to rush to 
 the onset, they would have "saved their king" 
 and compelled the flight of William. But there 
 were cravens, too, among the troops of Mackay; 
 and the Scottish metrical satirist is especially 
 derisive on the hare-heartedness of the " Mogan 
 Dutch," when " Maclean and his fierce men 
 came in amang them a'." Satire, however, is 
 not always truthful, and must not be taken as 
 affording a correct account of the subject of its 
 play. Conscious, or unconscious of the falsity
 
 1 68 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 of his statement, and, perhaps, as much the 
 latter as the former in the turbid times in which 
 he wrote, the contemporary Jacobite satirist of 
 the battle of Killiecrankie accuses Mackay of 
 personal cowardice during the engagement: 
 " O fie, Mackay," he says, 
 
 " What gart ye lie 
 I' the bush ayont the brankie ? " 
 
 Mackay 's honour as a brave and skilful general 
 requires no advocacy. At the same time, it may 
 be quite true that he kept out of the melee of 
 the fight; but this conduct, as the commanding 
 officer, he was not only warranted but obliged 
 by a sense of duty to adopt. 
 
 On the death of Dundee, General Cannon 
 was commissioned by King James to maintain 
 his cause in Scotland. Never was more un- 
 happy choice of a commander made. He 
 lacked the genius of his predecessor in dealing 
 with the fiery-spirited Gaels. His camp was a 
 scene of almost uninterrupted insubordination. 
 The chieftains quarrelled with him and with each
 
 and its Relative Literature. 169 
 
 other, and daily left his diminishing army. The 
 final disaster was at Cromdale, where he allowed 
 himself to be entrapped and surprised in bed. 
 The Jacobite cause was not again supported in 
 Scottish field till a quarter of a century had 
 passed. 
 
 About two months after the affair at Crom- 
 dale, the battle of the Boyne was fought 
 in Ireland. King William's departure from 
 England to assert his supremacy in Ireland is 
 described in one of the ballads. He is styled 
 " Willie Wanbeard," and is depicted as setting 
 forth on his expedition armed with a " boortree " 
 gun and a " shabble," and as conducting himself 
 on the voyage in a most undignified way through 
 an attack of sea-sickness. The war in Ireland, 
 it is well known, was prolonged for a year after 
 the defeat of James's army at the Boyne; and 
 to support his claims under this reverse, their 
 own leader being dead, several Scottish Jacobite 
 gentlemen who had fought at Killiecrankie 
 now volunteered their services on Irish soil.
 
 1 70 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Disaster still attended the arms of the Jacobites 
 in Ireland; and, on the capitulation of Limerick, 
 they chose to go into a voluntary exile with 
 their master, rather than enjoy the comforts of 
 peace and domestic happiness in their native 
 land. This chivalric behaviour is referred to in 
 the ballad: 
 
 " It was a' for our richtfu' king 
 
 We left fair Scotland's strand, 
 It was a' for our richtfu' king 
 We e'er saw Irish land;" 
 
 " He turned him richt an' round about 
 
 Upon the Irish shore; 
 An' ga'e his bridle-reins a shake, 
 With, Adieu for evermore ! " 
 
 Nothing in the whole history of Jacobitism 
 can more forcibly illustrate the devotion and 
 fidelity which marked the adherence of the 
 Stuart party to the side of hereditary monarchy, 
 than the conduct of these gentlemen, upwards 
 of a hundred in number, and by far the majority 
 of them Protestants, in cheerfully exposing
 
 and its Relative Literatiire. 171 
 
 themselves to the hardships of exile, foreign 
 service, scanty means, loss of social position, 
 starvation, sickness, and even death; and all 
 this, that they might not be better off than their 
 master, and might not be chargeable to his 
 foreign friends. 
 
 In the lull of the Jacobite storm, which fol- 
 lowed the defeat and dispersion of the High- 
 landers among the " Haughs " of Cromdale, 
 government was taking active steps for the pre- 
 servation of peace in Scotland. In 1690, the 
 clans were broken up, the oath of allegiance 
 from the chieftains enforced, forts established in 
 the Highlands, and a system of espionage 
 organized throughout the country. These 
 measures, while they still further weakened the 
 power of the Highlanders, increased the hatred 
 of the Jacobites against the prevailing govern- 
 ment; and then, as if to fill the cup of their 
 wrath to the brim, came the Massacre of Glen- 
 coe and the disasters of the attempted Scottish 
 colonization of Darien. These calamities
 
 172 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 evoked throughout the length and breadth of 
 Scotland the bitterest expressions of aversion 
 and hatred to the person of King William. 
 Even the Lowland Whigs, most of whom were 
 well-affected towards the sovereignty of the 
 Prince of Orange, gave utterance to their 
 displeasure and discontent in threats and ex- 
 ecrations, for both the calamities were viewed 
 as national, the unfortunate affair of Darien 
 particularly rankling in the breasts of the peace- 
 fully-inclined trading Lowlanders. The death 
 of the king was accordingly the signal for a 
 jubilant outburst of Jacobite feeling. The 
 mole, as the remote agent of his death, was 
 toasted as "the little gentleman in the velvet 
 coat." In the satirical ballad of this date (1702), 
 entitled ''Willie Winkie's Testament," the king 
 is represented as being afraid to face death with 
 the memory of Glencoe and Darien on his 
 conscience. Father Tennison is his confessor, 
 receiving his last words at his bedside, and is 
 being implored by the despairing monarch in
 
 and its Relative Literature. 173 
 
 broken English to remove from his mind the 
 recollection of 
 
 " All de curses of de Scot, 
 Dat dey did give me wonder veil 
 For Darien and dat Macdonell. 
 O take dem off mine hands, I pray ! 
 I'll go de lighter on my vay." 
 
 He is further figured as being desirous of coop- 
 ing up the Scots within their own country, 
 excluding them from the privileges enjoyed by 
 the English in matters social and commercial, 
 and cramping all their efforts of national devel- 
 opment and colonial enterprise. It will annoy 
 and vex him, even in his grave, to learn that 
 they are a successful and flourishing people: 
 
 " Keep de Scot beyond de Tweed, 
 Else I shall see dem ven I'm dead." 
 
 In another party-song of the same period, 
 William is erroneously charged with having 
 urged on to his ruin the young Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, who suffered for rebellion early in the 
 reign of James II. He is accused of flattery,
 
 1 74 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 falseness, and duplicity in the matter of Mon- 
 mouth's death, 
 
 " Wi' the waggin' o' his fause tongue 
 He gart the brave Monmouth dee." 
 
 But this charge is quite devoid of proof. It 
 was, however, apparently the prevailing opinion 
 among the disaffected, and would doubtless 
 tend still further to give emphasis to the current 
 expression in which they spoke of him as "a 
 fause an' a foreign loon." 
 
 All through the latter half of King William's 
 reign and the whole of Queen Anne's, the 
 Jacobite party expended their activity in toast- 
 ing the exiled family, circulating bad reports of 
 Whiggish government, and above all, in en- 
 deavouring to turn the popular feeling into 
 Jacobite channels by means of pamphlets and 
 songs; while their leaders exerted their utmost 
 in striving to oust from places of influence in 
 the State their Whig opponents, or in plotting 
 and caballing in secret. In these attempts they 
 were for the most part unsuccessful, yet always
 
 and its Relative Literature. 175 
 
 encouraged to increased exertion by the tempt- 
 ing nearness to success to which they sometimes 
 attained. An undoubted success was at last 
 deemed to have been achieved when, in 1 704, 
 the Act of Succession was, as the poet of the 
 event describes it, " kicked out by a vote " in 
 the Scottish parliament. This result was 
 brought about by a coalition of parties. The 
 cementing bond of union between them was the 
 common determination to have the same com- 
 mercial privileges extended to Scotland which 
 obtained in England, or to be an indepen- 
 dent community and have a sovereign of their 
 own. This Act of Security, as it was called, 
 was the outward and palpable expression of 
 the national discontent with respect to the 
 Darien failure. It gave unbounded joy to the 
 Scottish Jacobites, who now began to anticipate 
 the return, of the Stuarts to their ancient king- 
 dom of Scotland. The time was ardently looked 
 forward to "when the king should come o'er 
 the water"; and many an earnest prayer was
 
 176 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 prayed for life to be prolonged to see the day 
 when " the king should enjoy his own again." 
 Heaven was implored to send propitious gales 
 to hasten his glad approach. But whatever 
 inclemencies of weather should intervene, only 
 let him at least be restored, they prayed, to the 
 love and loyalty of his devoted subjects : 
 
 " Then blaw ye east, or blaw ye west, 
 
 Or blaw ye ower the faem, 
 O bring the lad that I lo'e best, 
 And ane I daurna name ! " 
 
 Shortly after this, the tone of the Jacobites is 
 changed to one of lamentation. The Union of 
 the Parliaments was accomplished in 1707. 
 The strain is now, 
 
 " Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame, 
 
 Fareweel our ancient glory, 
 Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name 
 Sae fam'd in martial story ! " 
 
 The nation is spoken of as having been " sold." 
 The transfer of the national rights is attributed 
 to " a parcel of rogues." The " rogues " are all 
 mentioned, and wickedly satirized in the ballad
 
 and its Relative Literature. 177 
 
 of the Awkward Sq^lad. They are called de- 
 ceivers, turn-coats, traitors, and worse. The 
 satire is especially bitter against the Earl of 
 Stair. He is styled a vulture to his country; 
 and all the evils that, in the Jacobite estimation, 
 ever befell Scotland since the Revolution, are 
 attributed to him. He was the prime instigator 
 of the massacre of the poor Macdonalds; and 
 now, by his influence in procuring the Union, 
 he has sold his country for gold. In another 
 satire on the same subject, Stair is alluded to as 
 the "wonderful" bridegroom to whom Scotland is 
 to be unwillingly wedded. Among other names 
 conspicuous in the ballads about the Union, that 
 of the Earl of Mar is held up to public scorn. 
 
 The Jacobites, however, were not quite dis- 
 pirited. They had sent for the Chevalier Saint 
 George, the son of the late dethroned monarch, 
 in whom their hopes and wishes now centred. 
 He was then residing at Paris, acknowledged by 
 the French sovereign as the king of Great Bri- 
 tain, and waiting for a fit opportunity of stretch-
 
 178 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 ing forth his arm to claim his rights. He was 
 spoken of by the Government party as " The 
 Pretender," from the circumstance that, at his 
 birth, the absurd idea of a spurious origin was 
 circulated throughout the country. Amply pro- 
 vided by the French king with arms, ammuni- 
 tion, money, and a fleet, he set out for the ancient 
 kingdom of his ancestors, and arrived in the 
 Firth of Forth just a couple of days after the 
 appearance in the same firth of the English 
 squadron sent to defend the coasts. He avoided 
 an engagement, and coasting northwards at- 
 tempted a landing at Inverness. Contrary winds, 
 however, were against him, and he was driven 
 back to France. And thus ended disastrously 
 an attempt which, if it had been, undertaken in 
 favourable weather, would have secured a land- 
 ing, and without doubt the possession of at least 
 Scotland. 
 
 The latter half of Queen Anne's reign was a 
 period of intense excitement to the Jacobite 
 party. Pamphlets and satirical songs were rife,
 
 and its Relative Literature. 1 79 
 
 and fomented the ever-growing excitement. The 
 queen herself was never abusively handled in 
 these popular satires, we have seen ; on the con- 
 trary, there are occasional references which seem 
 to point to the fact of the queen being herself a 
 Jacobite. It was believed she was at heart a 
 Tory ; it was whispered that she had given aud- 
 iences to the Chevalier; it is certain that latterly 
 in her reign the Tories were in possession of 
 nearly all influential offices of state, and that 
 just a week before her death they had prepared 
 a plan which would deprive every Whig in the 
 country of situations of trust and power, as well 
 in the army as at the court. Her sudden death, 
 however, paralyzed their plans ; indecision mark- 
 ed the policy of the leading Jacobites at court; 
 the Whigs acted with promptness and vigour, 
 and, before the Jacobites had time to oppose an 
 effectual resistance, the Elector of Hanover was 
 in London. He had accepted with alacrity a 
 crown which he hardly expected ever to wear. 
 He is represented in the famous ballad of The
 
 1 80 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Wee German Lairdie as quite absorbed in the 
 petty matters of his own quiet principality, and 
 scarcely troubling his mind, since the death of 
 his mother Sophia, about matters in Great Bri- 
 tain: 
 
 " When we gaed to bring him hame, 
 He was delvin in his kail-yardie." 
 
 A great deal of talking and resolving was in- 
 dulged in, especially in England, on the accession 
 of the Hanoverian prince. In Scotland the peo- 
 ple were not so demonstrative, but more deter- 
 mined upon action. They were still greatly dis- 
 satified with the Union: it was a national griev- 
 ance, indeed; and of this fact the Jacobites were 
 not slow to avail themselves in fomenting a re- 
 bellion. As the Jacobite feeling became hotter, 
 it became more national, more Scottish; it sought 
 to -identify Jacobitism with the preservation of 
 the ancient realm of the Jameses. There began 
 to be manifested a tendency to revive the old 
 historical feelings of jealousy and enmity towards 
 England. The national memory, in the songs
 
 and its Relative Literature. 1 8 1 
 
 of this date, is pointed backwards to the times 
 of Wallace and the Bruce. The past glories of 
 the country are made to live again : 
 
 " See Edward, their king, take his heels in a flight, 
 Nor e'er look behind, but in Berwick alight; 
 In an old fishing-boat he bade Scotland good-night, 
 O the broad swords," &c. 
 
 And now England must be met with the same 
 determined valour in her state attempts to an- 
 nihilate Scotland. Scotland must regain her 
 independence. And the combined causes of 
 national independence and hereditary monarchy 
 are artfully interwoven: 
 
 " Our king they do despise 
 
 Because of Scottish blood; 
 
 But ere Brunswick sceptre wield, 
 
 We'll do or die in field, 
 
 But never never yield 
 
 To serve a foreign brood." 
 
 This tendency, however, to make the struggle a 
 national one w^as not general to the country. It 
 occasionally cropped up, but only among the 
 ranks of the extreme Jacobites; and is to be 
 
 M
 
 1 8 2 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 regarded as the expression of their willingness 
 to see the industries of the country they loved 
 so well injured and ruined, its strength over- 
 matched, and its independence risked, rather 
 than witness the old Scottish coronation-chair 
 filled by other than a Stuart. 
 
 To combine the scattered energies of the 
 Jacobites, there came down from London, whence 
 he had been driven by the coldness, suspicion, 
 and actual aversion manifested towards him by 
 the newly-crowned king, the unscrupulous but 
 skilful and ambitious Earl of Mar. He came 
 down to Scotland with nearly half a million of 
 pounds, which he had been most expeditious in 
 collecting, and after he had concerted measures 
 with certain Jacobite leaders for a rising on the 
 Borders to take place simultaneously with his 
 own projected gathering of the Highland clans. 
 The object of Mar's errand to Scotland was not 
 long in spreading over the land. It was hailed 
 with exuberant delight by every honest Jacobite; 
 and Mar's participation in the framing of the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 183 
 
 detested Union, as explained by himself, was 
 overlooked or forgotten. Great achievements 
 were predicted from his movements in the High- 
 lands. Success appeared to be still within grasp. 
 Accordingly we find the songs of the period 
 even more plentiful, and more daringly outspoken 
 in their language, from anticipated victory, than 
 any that had yet appeared. The person, char- 
 acter, and past life of King George, are keenly 
 and unspairingly assailed. He is charged with 
 the crime of murder: 
 
 " At hame, in Hanover, he killed in cold blood, 
 A pretty young Swede," 
 
 an accusation which was substantially true. He 
 is pictured as a coarse profligate, addicted to 
 the open indulgence of the most sensual vices. 
 He is described as "a pilfering bandit." In his 
 Testament, part of his wardrobe is thus cata- 
 logued, 
 
 " Ane auld black coat, baith lang an' wide, 
 Wi' snishen barken'd like a hide, 
 A skeplet hat, and plaiden hose, 
 A jerkin clarted a' wi' brose."
 
 184 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 And so on, in satirical strains that, while they 
 confessedly caricature, at the same time utterly 
 unking the subject of their attack. 
 
 There is further proof of the anticipated suc- 
 cess cherished by the Jacobites, in the tone of 
 perfect security and carelessness with which, 
 about this time, they published their treasonable 
 ideas. A song of this date, which appears to 
 have been eminently popular in its day, thus 
 boldly breaks out, 
 
 " Come, let us drink a health, boys, 
 
 A health unto our king; 
 We'll drink no more by stealth, boys, 
 
 Come, let our glasses ring ; 
 For England must surrender, 
 To him they call Pretender; 
 God save our faith's defender, 
 
 And our true lawful king." 
 
 The work of the Earl of Mar in behalf of the 
 exiled Stuarts, and his raising of the clans, are 
 kept no secret. " Hey for Bobbing John," goes 
 one of the songs, alluding to Mar, 
 
 " And his Highland quorum ! . . .
 
 and its Relative Literature. 185 
 
 Many a sword and lance 
 
 Swings at Highland hurdie; 
 How they'll skip and dance 
 
 O'er the bum o' Geordie ! " 
 
 Far from making the rebellion a secret, the 
 Jacobites even challenge the Government party 
 to a trial of strength : 
 
 " But wad ye come, or daur ye come, 
 Afore the bagpipe an' the drum, 
 We'll either gar ye a' sing dumb, 
 Or ' Auld Stuarts back again.' " 
 
 Still further to raise the Jacobite hopes of suc- 
 cess, the fruit of an alliance with the famous 
 Charles XII. of Sweden, came in the shape of 
 a promise of aid in men and ammunition; and 
 even the " mysterious " Czar, as reads the 
 ballad in which both he and the "valiant 
 Swede" are toasted, is expected to assist in 
 the restoration of the "Auld Stuarts." 
 
 The plan which Mar had selected for the 
 gathering of the clans was the then common 
 pretext of a hunting-match. Accordingly, there 
 met at Braemar all the disaffected noblemen
 
 1 86 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 and gentlemen whom the Earl had taken care 
 to invite, and thus was obtained an opportunity 
 of planning in concert for the overthrow of the 
 Guelph dynasty. Among those who were 
 present at this gathering, the ballads particularly 
 mention the Marquises of Huntly and Tulli- 
 bardine; the Earls of Southesk, Errol, Traquair, 
 and Seaforth; Viscounts Kilsyth and Kenmure; 
 Lords Rollo, Strathallan, Nairne, and Oliphant; 
 and among the Highland chieftains, Glengarry, 
 Glenderule, and Auldubair, besides very many 
 others of various ranks and conditions. It was 
 resolved by the assembled Jacobite chiefs to 
 take the field. . The Chevalier was expected 
 soon to arrive, and, in the meantime, prepara- 
 tions went on. The Highlands were traversed 
 by bodies of armed men, " plaided and plumed," 
 and all marching to the warlike strains of the 
 bagpipe, from various quarters to the central 
 rallying point of Braemar. The Chevalier s 
 Muster-Roil enumerates many of the clans that 
 made their appearance in answer to the sum-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 187 
 
 mons of Mar. The numbers continued to 
 increase till fully ten thousand men were in the 
 field. The standard of rebellion was then flung 
 abroad on the mountain breezes, but an ominous 
 event happened at the ceremony, which appears 
 to have been remembered by the more super- 
 stitious of the Jacobites. The event is cele- 
 brated in the lines of the song, 
 
 " But when our standard was set up, 
 
 So fierce the wind did blaw, 
 The golden knop down from the top 
 Unto the ground did fa'." 
 
 Government, meanwhile, was not idle. The 
 Duke of Argyll was in Scotland, and rousing 
 his clansmen and the Lowland Whigs to a sense 
 of their danger. Unaided almost, he managed 
 to collect an army of about three thousand, and 
 secured a strong position of watch and defence 
 at Stirling. Mar, long delaying to strike the 
 blow for which he was so well prepared, was 
 now in the neighbourhood of Sheriffmuir, wait- 
 ing for the co-operation from the south of
 
 1 88 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Viscount Kenmure and the Earl of Derwent- 
 water, and for the arrival of the Chevalier to 
 head the campaign. His want of despatch, 
 which allowed Argyll to seize the gate between 
 the Highlands and the Lowlands; his ignorance 
 of the clansmen, whose courage rose with acti- 
 vity and fell proportionately with inaction; his 
 cowardice, which prevented him from facing an 
 army trebly outnumbered by his own; and his 
 total incapacity to manoeuvre large bodies of 
 men in the field, all combined to produce the 
 disgraceful check which he sustained on Sheriff- 
 muir, and which virtually quelled the rebellion 
 for thirty years. 
 
 The Jacobite satirists did not spare the 
 pusillanimity of certain of the rebel chiefs on 
 this occasion: 
 
 " Whether we ran or they ran, or we wan or they wan, 
 
 Or if there was winnin' at a', 
 There's no man can tell, save our brave general, 
 Who first began rinnin' at a'." 
 
 The ballads of the period describe the battle
 
 and its Relative Literature. 189 
 
 with great minuteness, and with remarkable 
 fairness to both sides. Those individuals who 
 showed courage on either side are impartially 
 commended, and the cowardice and flight of 
 others are as faithfully ridiculed. The Marquis 
 of Huntly is especially unfortunate in having 
 fallen into the hands of a rhyming satirist whose 
 sympathies are evidently with the Grants, the 
 hereditary rivals of the Gordons. We must 
 regard From Bogie Side or The Marquis Raide 
 as the song of a rival clan glad of an oppor- 
 tunity to accuse their neighbours of a dishon- 
 ourable defeat, and greatly magnifying it in the 
 accusation. There appears to have been de- 
 cided cowardice, however, in the precipitate 
 flight of Huntly from the battle-field. It is 
 alluded to in various songs of the times, be- 
 sides occupying a prominent place in the satir- 
 ical ballad of From Bogie Side. In the lament 
 of O my King, the writer exclaims, " I would 
 not be in Huntly's case, for honours, lands, an' 
 a';'' and, in a succeeding verse, he is openly
 
 1 90 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 charged with having betrayed the Stuart cause, 
 not so much out of cowardice as out of treach- 
 ery. Seaforth is included in the charge; and, 
 although the general tone of the lament is one 
 of sad denunciation of the conduct of the rene- 
 gade lords, yet the writer cannot deny himself 
 the luxury of an occasional satirical sting : 
 
 " I wish these lords had stay'd at hame 
 And milked their minnie's ewes." 
 
 A remarkable feature of the battle was the 
 total rout of the left wing on both sides. Hence 
 arose those conflicting rumours of the issue of 
 the conflict which prevailed for some time after 
 the engagement was over, and which are em- 
 bodied in the contemporaneous metrical descrip- 
 tions of the battle. The " chase " is at one time 
 represented as having gone to the north, or 
 Perth-ward, at another time as having gone to 
 the south, or Stirling-ward. Both accounts are 
 true, and easily reconcileable. The flight of the 
 left wing of Mar's forces is attributed to the 
 treachery of one Lawrence Drummond, a spy
 
 and its Relative Literature. 191 
 
 in the pay of Argyll and acting as aid de camp 
 to Mar, who galloped to Hamilton, the com- 
 mander of the left wing of the insurgents, with 
 orders contrary to what he had received from the 
 generalissimo. Mar's instructions were to attack 
 instantly and with vigour, as the right wing had 
 already encountered the enemy and were achiev- 
 ing a victory. The order delivered by the aid 
 de camp was to withdraw, as defeat appeared to 
 be impending. By the delivery of this order a 
 panic was created in the ranks of the insurgent 
 left, and when the enemy pressed them they fled 
 ignominiously from the field. Drummond, sub- 
 sequently in the day, crossed over to the side of 
 Argyll. His conduct is severely exposed and 
 condemned by the song- writers of the day : 
 
 " Then Lawrie the traitor, who betray' d his master, 
 
 His King, and his country, an' a', 
 Pretending Mar might give orders to fight (flight?) 
 
 To the right of the army awa'. 
 Then Lawrie, for fear of what he might hear, 
 
 Took Drummond's best horse, and awa'; 
 'Stead o' going to Perth he crossed the firth, 
 
 Alongst Stirling bridge and awa';
 
 1 9 2 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 To London he pressed, and there he professed 
 
 That he behaved best o' them a'; 
 An' so, without strife, got settled for life, 
 
 A hundred a year to his fa'. 
 In Borroustounness he resides with disgrace 
 
 Till his neck stand in need o' a thraw; 
 An' then in a tether he'll swing frae a ledder, 
 
 An' go aff the stage with applau'." 
 
 Carnegie of Phinaven is satirized in the same 
 songs, despite the activity and enterprize he had 
 shewn on former occasions in rousing his coun- 
 trymen, at Amalree and elsewhere, in favour of 
 the Jacobite interests. He is described as 
 possessing the genius of an excellent recruiting 
 officer, but as being totally unqualified for the 
 position of a fighting officer. In the disguise of 
 a piper, and relying upon the Jacobite songs 
 already circulating through the country, he had 
 little difficulty in gathering a body of men pledged 
 to the Stuart cause; but at Sheriffmuir he was 
 among the most faint-hearted of the fugitives. 
 He is ranked as "even" with Seaforth and 
 Huntly. 
 
 Almost simultaneously with the suppression
 
 and its Relative Literatiire. 193 
 
 of the Rebellion in the north, the Border Rising, 
 headed on the Scottish side by Lord Kenmure, 
 came to a disastrous end. The first of the 
 Jacobite Border ballads of historical note appears 
 to be Kenmiires on an' awa. As before arranged, 
 the south Scottish Jacobites were re-inforced by 
 a body of about two thousand Highlanders, sent 
 to their assistance by Mar, under the guidance 
 of the brave and daring veteran of Borlam, 
 Brigadier Macintosh. He had boldly crossed 
 the Firth of Forth in open boats in face of the 
 Government fleet, had captured Leith, frightened 
 the Whig citizens of Edinburgh, crossed the 
 Lammermuirs to Dunse, and joined Kenmure 
 near Kelso. The plan he proposed to the 
 border leaders was to co-operate directly with 
 Mar's forces in Perthshire by marching to Stirling 
 and enclosing Argyll between two fires; but his 
 policy was, unluckily for the Jacobite interests, 
 over-ruled; he was induced to add his forces to 
 the insurrectionary army of Derwentwater and 
 Foster, then mustered on the English side of the
 
 1 94 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Border; and so shared in the misfortunes and 
 ruin of that ill-managed campaign which termin- 
 ated in the disgraceful surrender of Preston. 
 The ballads connected with these border events 
 are loud in the imputation of cowardice and 
 treachery against Foster, and in their admiration 
 of the courage and military honour of " Old 
 Macintosh," as he is commonly styled. 
 
 After the disasters at Sheriffmuir and at 
 Preston, and in spite of the arrival of the 
 Chevalier, the insurgent army dispersed; and 
 executions and imprisonments followed. The 
 fortunes of the Stuarts were about this time at 
 their lowest ebb. Every step in " the Fifteen " 
 had been so badly timed that the Chevalier was 
 fain to go back again to France and wait for 
 another tide which should lead to fortune, but 
 which never again offered so favourably. 
 
 The Jacobites in Scotland, in the meantime, 
 sought to keep alive the feeling of discontent 
 with the House of Guelph, by lampoons on the 
 government, and personal attacks of a satirical
 
 and its Relative Liter atiire. 195 
 
 and calumnious nature upon the reigning family. 
 A good deal of their energy also found vent in 
 bitter accusations and recriminations of each 
 other. At last their tone appeared to change, 
 as the figure of " Prince Charlie," the young 
 Chevalier, began to rise on the political horizon. 
 His beauty, grace, agreeable manners, and war- 
 like disposition heralded his coming; and when 
 at last the news came from Moidart to over-run 
 the country like wildfire, that the royal adven- 
 turer was on Scottish ground, the fading hopes 
 of the Jacobites began to brighten and broaden. 
 Affairs were in a condition not less unfavourable 
 to the cause than they shewed in 1716, yet the 
 devotion and loyalty his person and circumstances 
 inspired soon surrounded him with an army of 
 Highlanders, with which he boldly sought the 
 field. Never was Prince more beloved. The 
 songs and 'ballads that welcomed his arrival 
 bespeak the most ardent enthusiasm. They are 
 all in praise of his princely behaviour, and 
 breathe the most devoted wishes for his success.
 
 196 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Many of them are in the Gaelic tongue, and 
 these, for fervour of language and unanimity of 
 sentiment, are unmatched in any literature. 
 They will be noticed hereafter. It is unnecessary, 
 here, to trace minutely the events of " the Forty- 
 five." It will be sufficient to glance at the 
 broader features of that Rebellion. The defeat 
 of Sir John Cope at Prestonpans, and the trium- 
 phal return to Edinburgh, raised the hopes of 
 the Jacobites to the highest pitch. The unfor- 
 tunate Cope was pitilessly tortured by the 
 ballad-mongers of the day. Nothing of all that 
 he had said or done in connexion with the battle 
 of Prestonpans, was lost sight of, or unutilized, 
 to his disadvantage. And each of the many 
 accounts of his conduct at that battle left him at 
 Dunbar or Berwick telling the story of his own 
 defeat. After the victory, the forces of Charles 
 continued to increase; and in swelling the ranks 
 of the Jacobite army, female influence, as exerted 
 upon husband, brother, or lover, played a signi- 
 ficant part. At length the march to England
 
 and its Relative Literature. 197 
 
 was resolved upon. The border was crossed, 
 and Carlisle taken. The English Jacobites, how- 
 ever, were slow to commit themselves to the side 
 they secretly cherished. They wanted to be 
 more sure of its proving the winning side. This 
 was the general feeling among them, so that 
 the backwardness of each deterred his neighbour. 
 The Jacobite army reached Derby, but still 
 there were no decided signs of encouragement 
 held out by the English. The halt at Derby 
 was the turning point of the cause. Retreat 
 was resolved on, and the star of Jacobitism 
 approached its setting. Dissensions divided the 
 leaders, privations and inaction disheartened the 
 men, and the Government was daily recovering 
 strength and decision. A brief glimpse of vic- 
 tory shone on the Jacobite arms at Falkirk, where 
 General Hawley was driven from the field. The 
 ballads of this battle allude to the fierce wind 
 that blew in the face of the Government army, 
 and to the sudden and unexpected disappearance 
 of the foe: 
 
 N
 
 198 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 " Says brave Lochiel, ' Pray, have we won ? 
 I see no troop, I hear no gun ' ; 
 Says Drummond, ' 'Faith the battle's done, 
 I know not how nor why.' " 
 
 The Prince, however, was still forced to retreat. 
 Winter was spent among the Highlands, and in 
 the ensuing Spring the fatal blow was dealt to 
 Jacobitism on the moor of Culloden. From 
 this point onwards in the ballad-history of the 
 Jacobites, hope is either entirely lost, or shines 
 with only a transient ray. The vengeance of 
 Heaven is invoked upon the merciless con- 
 querors ; but the prevailing strain is one of 
 lamentation and despondency. Satire still con- 
 tinues, but it is no longer in any of its moods 
 playful or hopeful: it is earnestly acrimonious, 
 and tinged with despair. Indeed, the sorrow 
 that befell the Jacobite party by the disaster of 
 Culloden, gave quite a new character to the 
 bulk of the song-literature of that and subse- 
 quent years. It increased and refined the 
 poetry of the literature. We might even say, 
 speaking comparatively of the ballads preceding
 
 and its Relative Literature. 199 
 
 the year 1 746, and those of that and the imme- 
 diately succeeding years, that the sorrows of 
 the Stuarts were unconsecrated by song till fate 
 at last fairly determined for doom that the 
 House should fall Then the recollection of 
 the earlier misfortunes, which, however, seemed 
 only partial while the struggle was going on 
 and fate had not yet indicated the disastrous 
 final result, deepened the sorrow and refined 
 the song. 
 
 After the battle, executions and confiscations 
 followed, and a price was set on the head of the 
 fugitive prince. The loyalty of the Highlands 
 kept him safe. " Though thirty thousand pounds 
 they gi'e, where's the knave that would betray?" 
 And again, in spite of all the sufferings that had 
 been entailed upon the Highlanders by their 
 active support of his cause, with unflinching 
 devotion they could sing, 
 
 " He gat the skaith, he gat the scorn, 
 
 I lo'e him yet the better; 
 Tho' in the muir I hide forlorn, 
 I'll drink his health in water!"
 
 2OO The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 It would seem that a hope of rallying the 
 clans after Culloden, existed among some of 
 the fugitive Jacobites : " Prince Charlie he'll 
 be down again," &c. ; and, 
 
 " I yet may stand as I ha'e stood 
 
 Wi' him thro' rout an' slaughter, 
 An' bathe my hands in scoundrel blood 
 As I do now in water!" 
 
 This hope, however, at least its immediate 
 fulfilment, was soon abandoned; and the bards 
 of the cause confined their strains to hopes of 
 the personal safety of their wandering prince, 
 and continued expressions of devotion to his 
 service : 
 
 " I'll hide thee in Clanranald's isles 
 Where honour still bears sway; 
 I'll watch the traitor's hovering sails 
 By islet and by bay." 
 
 The Prince's companion and guide in his skulk- 
 ings among the glens, and moors, and islands of 
 the inner Hebrides, is frequently mentioned, 
 and always with honour and admiration, in this 
 connexion. And when at last his wanderings
 
 and its Relative Literat-ure. 201 
 
 are over, and he is safely embarked, and safely 
 landed in France, the cry of the almost heart- 
 broken Jacobite breaks out in the refrain, 
 "Will ye no' come back again?" Years after 
 he had left, his memory was cherished. He 
 was invited back, and promised the utmost help 
 which in their ruined condition they could 
 bestow. They were willing to sacrifice their 
 last drop of blood in his service, as many of them 
 had already sacrificed the last acres of their 
 patrimony. Mothers even promised their re- 
 maining sons in proof of the cheerfulness with 
 which they had granted the lives of their elder- 
 born to his cause. So late as 1772 the spirit of 
 active Jacobitism was kept alive. In April of , 
 that year the Prince married Louisa of Stolberg 
 and the union inspired considerable joy and 
 fresh hopes in the breasts of the Scottish 
 Jacobites. The lady at once became the subject 
 of loyal toasts. But the sword had been lifted 
 for the last time in behalf of the Stuarts in April 
 1746, and the once vigorous feeling of Jacobitism
 
 202 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 began to sink into mere romantic sentimental- 
 ism. 
 
 Not the least interesting feature of the 
 Jacobite Ballads lies in the numerous incidental 
 references to the customs of the age, and to the 
 social, moral, and religious condition of the 
 nation. These allusions afford vivid side- 
 glimpses of the home-life of the people. Thus, 
 from the numerous toasts and healths, the large 
 enumeration of " horns " and glasses, which 
 occur in the Songs, we learn that the Jacobite 
 age must have been an intensely thirsty one. 
 Drinking appears to have been reckoned a 
 manly and fashionable accomplishment ; and 
 the person who would refuse to honour a toast, 
 that did not shock his political ideas even, would 
 have been obliged to leave the company, and 
 held in suspicion by his bacchanalian confreres. 
 " Take off the toast," is the order of the feast- 
 master, " for he that refuses, a traitor we'll 
 mark." From the drinking tendencies of the 
 age, social gatherings were of frequent occur-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 203 
 
 rence, where were discussed the plans of the 
 Stuart restoration, and the chances of success 
 likely to be relied on. "A running bumper " is 
 called for to the health of the " royal Swede." 
 " Then let us be jovial, social, and free," is part 
 of a swinging chorus. " I'se be fou, an' thou'se 
 be toom, cogie, an the king come," is the quaint 
 utterance of a resolution likely to be acted up to, 
 from its very undemonstrativeness. Just before 
 the dismissal of a company, met to concoct 
 schemes inimical to the government, the cry of 
 the host is, 
 
 " Send roun' the usquebaugh sae clear; 
 Let's tak' a horn thegither;" 
 
 and, as a parting advice to those whose attach- 
 ment to Jacobitism was in danger of effervescing 
 in noisy professions over the alcohol, the lines 
 of the song are quoted, 
 
 " He that drinks maun fight too, 
 To shew his heart's upright too." 
 
 Attendant upon these social gatherings were 
 the pastimes of piping and dancing. In fact a
 
 204 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 piper was an indispensable at a Jacobite meeting. 
 And dancing is frequently spoken of as if it 
 were the usual concomitant of the strains of the 
 bagpipe : 
 
 " Mak' the piper blaw, 
 
 An' let the lads and lasses baith 
 Their supple legs shaw ! " 
 
 is the command of a south-country " laird " to 
 whom is brought the intelligence of the expected 
 arrival of his exiled king. 
 
 In connexion with these cheerful recreations 
 of the Stuart partizans, we may notice the con- 
 tempt they entertained for the sunless severity 
 and austerity of life of the Cameronians, or 
 Scottish Puritans. They ridiculed and mocked 
 them in many ways, in their garb, features, 
 talk, doctrines, and especially in the mode of 
 life they adopted, so destructive of the little 
 sweets of social companionship. The mock 
 solemnity of the ballad of the Cameronian Cat, 
 that followed its feline instincts of mouse-catch- 
 ing on a Sunday, is a bitter caricature of the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 205 
 
 external strictness in Sabbatarian observances 
 of the stern Hill-men of the West. Latterly in 
 the Jacobite struggle they were let alone for the 
 most part. Many of them, indeed, had become 
 so dissatisfied with the Union, and with the 
 treatment of Scotland in commercial matters by 
 the English, that they were secretly inclining to 
 the Jacobite side, a state of matters which was 
 not long in leaking out, and of which the Cheva- 
 lier was not slow to take advantage for the 
 furtherance of his claims. In a manifesto, dated 
 3 ist October, 1718, with a view to securing their 
 aid, or at least their non-interference in any after 
 attempts he might make against the Hanoverian 
 Government, he promised to "protect such of 
 our people, commonly called Cameronians, as 
 shall prove dutiful and loyal to us, from all sorts 
 of hardships and oppressions." The Hill-men 
 as a class, however, had conceived a strong in 
 some cases, an ineradicable dislike to the very 
 name of Stuart, ever since the persecutions to 
 which their fathers and themselves had been
 
 206 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 subjected in the reigns of Charles and James; 
 and, consequently, the manifesto of the Chevalier 
 was without result. 
 
 The occupation of spinning, &c., then com- 
 mon to the female portion of the lower and 
 even middle class, is often alluded to. From 
 Buchan, we have enthusiasm for the white 
 cockade blending with the sentiment of love, 
 expressed in the lines, 
 
 " I'll sell my rock, I'll sell my reel, 
 My ripplin' kame, an' spinnin' wheel, 
 To buy my lad a tartan plaid, 
 A broad-sword, and a white cockade." 
 
 And, again, in the spirited verses of Lady 
 Drummond, 
 
 " I may sit in my wee croo' house, 
 At the rock an' the reel to toil fu' dreary," &c. 
 
 Many of the ballads have a country air about 
 them: they smack undeniably of the farmyard 
 and the sheepfold. "What a delightful picture," 
 says the Ettrick Shepherd, " of our ancient and 
 homely hospitality do these few lines convey,
 
 and its Relative Literature, 207 
 
 
 
 ' Wi' rowth o' kin, an' rowth o' reek, 
 My daddy's door it wadna steek; 
 But bread an' cheese were his door-cheek, 
 An' girdle-cakes the riggin' o't.' " 
 
 In the song beginning "What ails thee, puir 
 Shepherd ? " we have Britain viewed as an 
 extensive sheep-farm, and, from the Jacobite 
 point of view, hastening to ruin from the un- 
 skilfulness and roguery of its "shepherds." In 
 a song already quoted, two fugitive Jacobite 
 lords from Sheriffmuir are spoken of as better 
 adapted to act as shepherdesses than as soldiers. 
 One of the ballads about the battle of Sheriff- 
 muir begins, " O cam' ye here the fight to shun, 
 or herd the sheep wi' me ? " In another ballad, 
 a disguised Jacobite is represented as climbing 
 the hillside to " shift his sheep their lair." A 
 third has the verse, which the closing days of 
 Walter Scott have filled with a melancholy 
 
 interest, 
 
 " It's up yon heathery mountain, 
 
 An' doun yon scroggy glen, 
 We daurna gang a milkin', 
 For Charlie an' his men."
 
 208 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 The profligacy, open and unchecked, which 
 reigned at the court, especially of the first 
 George, was unsparingly exposed by the Jaco- 
 bite satirists. This was fair game for the shafts 
 of satire; but delicacy was required in the mat- 
 ter, and in this respect the Jacobite bards have 
 been awanting. They never encourage vice, 
 and they never deride or jest at virtue; on the 
 contrary, they denounce vice, but in terms of 
 wide-mouthed coarseness. Dealing with a foul 
 subject, they are careless in their mode of treat- 
 ment of it, and so contract some of the foulness 
 to themselves. In their hatred, too, of their 
 political opponents, the Jacobite bards frequently 
 approach the verge of blasphemy, as well as 
 indulge in coarseness. But this can more com- 
 monly be predicated of the language than of the 
 idea; and, taking the literature of the period all 
 in all as a fair reflection of the state of matters 
 in Scotland at the time it was produced, we 
 must acknowledge that, between that time and 
 this, Scotland was yet to reach her greatest 
 depth of profanity and blasphemy.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 209 
 
 But the Jacobite ballads of Scotland may be 
 viewed in another and totally different light from 
 that in which we have hitherto been regarding 
 them. They are a repository of interesting 
 historical facts relating to the period when they 
 first appeared; but this, for the most part, they 
 are only incidentally: the main object of their 
 production is not now the palpable thing it was 
 when they were first given in successive instal- 
 ments to the world. They exercised an influ- 
 ence, and a mighty influence, in the cause they 
 advocated. They are now merely the historical 
 frame-work or skeleton of an energy that no 
 longer lives and breathes in them. This princi- 
 ple of life and action, this influence, we have 
 seen, died hard. It was succeeded by a weaker 
 influence of less potent range, a watery dilution 
 of the former, which was confined entirely to the 
 region of imagination. It appeared only in 
 words: otherwise it did not reach the outer 
 world of life and action. It fought and struggled 
 only in imagination,, and exercised no governing
 
 2 1 o The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 sway over the outward life. There were thus 
 two species of Jacobitism; the one, real, active, 
 outward; the other, sentimental, romantic, fanci- 
 ful. The latter we shall consider in its proper 
 place, as an out-growth, or rather after-growth, 
 of the former. And, in the meantime, let us 
 confine ourselves shortly to the Jacobitism of the 
 Jacobite ballads, viewed in the aspect of a prin- 
 ciple of action. 
 
 All literatures affect the age of which they are 
 the outcome. They are not merely mirrors in 
 which later generations may trace the broader 
 mental features of their predecessors. They 
 were not simply the passive recipients of the 
 thoughts and feelings of the age: they were 
 active as well as passive, and helped to modify, 
 and perhaps even create the very features which 
 they now hold up as characteristic of the age in 
 which they were produced. This is true of the 
 literatures of peaceful times: much more palp- 
 ably is it true when asserted of a period of 
 struggle and controversy, such as the period
 
 and its Relative Literature. 
 
 21 I 
 
 before us, when the minds of men are over- 
 heated, and readily and decisively moved in the 
 direction to which they are naturally inclined. 
 
 We may consider, in the first place, the 
 cementing" influence which the ballads exercised 
 over the scattered energies of the Jacobite party. 
 They gave unity and individuality to Jacobitism, 
 and thus acted as a powerful aid in perfecting 
 the policy laid down by its leaders. A ballad 
 which contained the plans or the hopes of the 
 Jacobite leaders was longer-lived than the spoken 
 word or communicated letter, penetrated into 
 remoter localties, and gave a more extensive 
 publicity. By this means the collective energy 
 of the Jacobite body was prevented from being 
 frittered away and lost in desultory and inde- 
 pendent movements, and greater unity of action 
 was secured when the time came to strike a 
 blow. They also revealed to the members of 
 the party as a collective body their own strength, 
 and gave them a confidence in themselves which 
 they could not otherwise have possessed. By
 
 212 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 the free use of names they marked out in a clear 
 
 and unmistakeable manner the number and 
 
 \ 
 
 strength of the adherents of Jacobitism. They 
 confirmed the wavering, the irresolute, and the 
 faint-hearted, while at the same time they pre- 
 vented the double-dealing from tampering with 
 Jacobite matters. A man whose name was 
 sounded in the same song with well-known and 
 determined advocates of the Stuart cause, must 
 have understood that from that moment he had 
 taken the decisive step which separated him 
 from the Government, and placed him among 
 the ranks of the Jacobites; and from the moment 
 of his public committal to that party, he must 
 have been stimulated to the utmost to further 
 the advancement of the interests with which 
 his name was now bound up, from a sense that 
 his own safety depended upon the exertions of 
 his party. Not only therefore would the ballad- 
 literature increase the strength of the Jacobites, 
 by collecting their various and far-separated 
 energies into a unity, but it would still further
 
 and its Relative Literature. 213 
 
 add to their collective strength, by inciting 
 individual action to the highest pitch. 
 
 In yet another way would the ballads stir up 
 the Jacobite partizans to the display of great 
 individual exertion. When they were in the 
 field, and a battle impending, they were not 
 only conscious of the disasters that would be 
 sure to befall them if they should chance to be 
 unsuccessful as a body : they were further aware 
 that, however the issue should go, brave and 
 honourable behaviour on their part as individual 
 soldiers would certainly be noted, and sung 
 about, and circulated ere many days throughout 
 the country ; and that, on the other hand, 
 cowardice or treachery, wherever witnessed, 
 and, if enacted, it could not very well wholly 
 escape notice, would be unsparingly pro- 
 claimed, and as loudly by friend as by foe. 
 The ballads, in fact, in their accounts of the 
 battles of the Jacobite Rebellion, filled the posi- 
 tion of the modern newspaper, with this differ- 
 ence, that they were ten-fold more severe in 
 
 o
 
 214 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 their comments upon cowardice and treachery, 
 and held up the unfortunate subjects of their 
 satire and denunciation to a much longer-lived 
 obloquy. At the same time, furnished as they 
 were by rhyme with wings and talons, they 
 were as universal in their range, and clung 
 more continuously and forcibly to the memories 
 of men. Thus, the additional stimulus of fame, 
 or at least the preservation of honour, was 
 brought to bear with peculiar force upon the 
 adherents of Jacobitism, by the well-known 
 character of these ballads. Cowards and trai- 
 tors were lashed unmercifully by the thong of 
 the satirist. Indeed, so bitterly was the be- 
 haviour of Huntly, Seaforth, and Carnegie of 
 Phinaven assailed for the timidity and evil 
 example they exhibited at SherirTmuir, that 
 they were afraid to show face again among 
 their own party, and accordingly deserted to the 
 other side. In this way, the Jacobite camp was 
 kept pure, by the deterrent influence exercised 
 by the ballads upon occasions of the faintest 
 symptoms of cowardice.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 215 
 
 But the ballads acted further as an influence 
 in inducing individuals to throw in their lot with 
 Jacobitism, by an enumeration of the claims the 
 Stuarts had upon their loyalty and allegiance. 
 These claims are sometimes expressly set forth, 
 and altogether embrace a variety of considera- 
 tions. One of the writers declares that by the 
 laws of God the Stuarts must, and yet shall, 
 reign ; the date of their restoration may be 
 delayed, but the country will never rest in peace 
 till these laws are satisfied. He even represents 
 religion to be an impossible thing in the country 
 while the Stuarts remain in exile. He says, 
 
 " To injure true princes and gloss o'er offences 
 
 Is serving God worse than a Turk or a Jew. 
 Then what we so foully have taken away, 
 O let us return on our reckoning day, 
 Or else we as wicked as demons are grown; 
 And tho' to the skies 
 We turn up our eyes, 
 Dishonour the church and the land we own." 
 
 And again, in a kindred strain,- 
 
 " Your Hogan Mogan foreign things, 
 God gave them in displeasure," c.
 
 2 1 6 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Then, as visible proofs of the divine displeasure, 
 he traces the disasters of Scotland to the 
 establishment of these contemptuous " foreign 
 things" in the land of the Stuarts: 
 
 " Our Darien can witness bear 
 
 And so can our Glencoe, 
 Our South Sea it can make appear 
 
 What to your kings we owe. 
 We have been murdered, starv'd, and robb'd, 
 
 By those your kings and knavery; 
 And all our treasure is stock-jobbed 
 
 While we groan under slavery." 
 
 The only possible plan of ending these calami- 
 ties, and averting the mischief which they have 
 produced, -in the words of the song, 
 
 " The only way relief to bring, 
 
 And save both church and steeple, 
 Is-to bring in our lawful king, 
 
 The father of his people. 
 Ne'er can another fill his place 
 O'er rights divine and civil." 
 
 In another song, James, "the Pretender" of the 
 whigs, is called by the Jacobite bard "your 
 God's vicegerent and your king."
 
 and its Relative Literature. 2 1 7 
 
 Another argument made use of to enforce the 
 Stuart claims is the high antiquity of the family. 
 
 " His great progenitors have sway'd 
 Your sceptre nigh the half of time." 
 
 The birth of the Chevalier is even the fulfil- 
 ment of a prophecy uttered ages ago, according 
 to the Jacobite bard. " 'Twas thus," says he, 
 reading his prophecy backwards, 
 
 " 'Twas thus in early bloom of time, 
 
 Under a reverend oak, 
 In sacred and inspired rhyme 
 
 An ancient Druid spoke, 
 ' An hero from fair Clementine 
 
 Long ages hence shall spring, 
 And all the gods their power combine 
 
 To bless the future king.' " 
 
 Similar arguments were largely circulated in 
 pamphlet-form on the accession of George I. 
 " I'm confident," says one writer, in an expostu- 
 latory address, "that in our secret thoughts we 
 are agreed that King James VIII. is our lawful 
 rightful sovereign; and we all know that he is 
 the undoubted lineal heir by blood, and descen-
 
 2 1 8 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 dant of the ancient race of our Scottish kings, 
 whose ancestors, in a direct line, have swayed 
 the sceptre in our hereditary monarchy for many 
 generations without control ; a prince upon whom 
 the crown is entailed by the fundamental laws 
 of our country; and to whom, even before he 
 was born, we have often sworn allegiance and 
 fealty by those oaths given to former kings, by 
 which we bound ourselves not only to them, but 
 to their lawful heirs and successors, &c., &c," 
 
 The ballads lay strong force on the Stuarts 
 being native to Scotland; and the fact of their 
 being " foreigners " is again and again urged 
 against William and the Georges as sufficient 
 in itself to disqualify them from wielding the 
 Stuart sceptre. In the spirit-stirring song 
 Who, wadna fecht for Charlie? the verse occurs 
 illustrative of this, 
 
 " Shall we basely crouch to tyrants, 
 
 Shall we own a foreign sway ; 
 Shall a royal Stuart be banished, 
 While a Stranger rules the day?" 
 
 The same idea comes out prominently in the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 2 1 9 
 
 pamphlet-literature of the day : " You are to 
 fight against your lawful and rightful king, born 
 in our own island, of the ancient stock of the 
 royal family of the Stuarts." 
 
 Every method is adopted to recommend 
 " Prince Charlie " to the people of Scotland. 
 His handsome appearance, princely manners, 
 native courtesy, and courage, are all praised 
 again and again; and his name is linked with 
 one which every Scotsman must always respect 
 with complete unanimity of feeling, the name 
 of the Bruce. He is called the " Bruce's 
 Heir," and therefore Scotland was his rightful 
 patrimony: 
 
 " The hills he trode were a' his ain ; . . . 
 The bush that hid him on the plain 
 
 There's nane on earth can claim but he." 
 
 Ingratitude is charged in the pamphlets, where 
 they treat of the same arguments, against those 
 who are about to draw their swords against the 
 cause of the Stuarts: "His ancestors bravely 
 defended us, and transmitted down to us the
 
 220 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 liberty and independency of our nation; and 
 under them our nobility and gentry first received, 
 and ever since possessed, all the honours, titles, 
 riches, and estates, &c." 
 
 To meet the wishes and secure the aid of 
 those whose only objections to " the Pretender " 
 are his popish education and intolerant papisti- 
 cal creed, the pamphleteer offers the assurance 
 that " he is truly of the one Catholic Church, 
 without the addition of Roman." And, further, 
 " But let the king's religion be what it will, he 
 has under his hand given us all the security we 
 can ask that he will maintain the Protestant 
 Religion in his kingdoms, and fence it from any 
 danger by such laws, as shall, by the advice of 
 his Parliament, be thought necessary." 
 
 The influence of party-song in keeping alive 
 the spirit of the cause, in support of which they 
 were framed, is too manifest to require more than 
 a passing allusion. King Edward the First of 
 England sought to destroy this influence in the 
 prosecution of his conquest of Wales, by com-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 221 
 
 passing the death of the Welsh bards, and 
 suppressing the patriotic strains in praise of 
 freedom and independence, which formed the 
 main bulwark of the land of the Cymri. It 
 was by the universal prevalence of a single 
 party-song that James II. was said, with con- 
 siderable show of truth, to have been " whistled " 
 and sung out of his ancestral inheritance. So 
 fully acknowledged, indeed, has the power of 
 song become in the formation and guidance of 
 national opinion, that the saying, attributed to 
 Fletcher of Saltoun, " Give me the making of 
 a country's songs, and let who will make its 
 laws," has passed into a proverb. It is perhaps 
 difficult, therefore, to over-estimate the influence 
 of the Jacobite ballads upon the prolongation 
 of the struggle between the rival parties in 
 Britain during the sixty years from the Revolu- 
 tion. In that period three important risings 
 took place, the attempts, namely, of Dundee, 
 Mar, and the young Chevalier respectively, to 
 re-instate the Stuart dynasty. These attempts
 
 222 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 mark the epochs when the struggle gathered to 
 a head, and burst out fiercely in civil war. 
 Between these points or centres of activity 
 stretched years of apparent repose, which, how- 
 ever, were prevented from sinking into apathy, 
 indifference, or forgetfulness, by the constant 
 circulation throughout the country of ballads 
 breathing the most ardent devotion to Jacobit- 
 ism, and the most determined opposition to 
 what they regarded as foreign supremacy. 
 These ballads were repeated from town to 
 town, and from village to village; they were 
 sung at secret social gatherings of the Jacobites; 
 they were treasured in every Jacobite memory; 
 and thus rendered it impossible that the princi- 
 ples of Jacobitism should speedily die and be 
 forgotten. They were taught by Jacobite 
 parents to their children as, next to the Bible, 
 the most important part of their education, 
 instilling into their rriinds the principles of 
 loyalty, and furnishing them with a political 
 creed by which to direct their lives and actions.
 
 and its Relative Literature. 223 
 
 Indeed, in some of the more intensely Jacobite 
 households, the spirit of these ballads was in- 
 culcated into the minds of the rising generation 
 as a species of religion. The exiled heir was 
 God's vicegerent on earth; want of loyalty to 
 him was breach of faith with God. To the 
 grown-up Jacobite, whose mind did not require 
 their teaching, coeval as it was with their 
 earliest production, the ballads came endowed 
 with hardly less important influences. They 
 cheered him in his hours of despondency,, 
 inspired him with fresh hopes for the ultimate 
 success of the cause to which he was pledged, 
 and encouraged him to renewed exertions in 
 the Stuart interest when a favourable oppor- 
 tunity for action should arrive. At the same 
 time they increased his hatred and aversion to 
 the government of a sovereign whose innermost 
 sympathies were with his Dutch or German 
 subjects, and whose language, customs, and 
 traditional instincts, were comparatively alien to 
 the British nation.
 
 224 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 When Jacobitism as a principle of action was 
 dead, there appeared in the country a post- 
 humous Jacobitism of a purely sentimental type. 
 Its sway was wholly in the realms of a romantic 
 imagination. It gave a peculiar complexion to 
 the literature of Scotland when, after the tur- 
 moil of the rebellions had ceased, the current 
 of the national literature resumed its interrupted 
 course; but beyond the pale of literature it did 
 not reach. It was purely literary in its aim, and 
 was quite unmixed with politics. The romantic 
 circumstances in which real Jacobitism was 
 fought out, the heroism, chivalry, unselfish devo- 
 tion, and unparalleled misfortunes of the Stuart 
 family and its adherents, viewed historically, 
 contained many of the elements of poetry, and 
 possessed strong affinity for the poetical mind. 
 Perhaps poetical feeling was most strongly 
 roused to the side of Jacobitism by the misfor- 
 tunes which befel the ancient House of Stuart 
 in the person of its last youthful representative, 
 Prince Charles. This feeling was, at least,
 
 and its Relative Literature. 225 
 
 purely poetical, and would have been as readily 
 awakened if similar circumstances had sur- 
 rounded the ruin of a different family. The 
 losing side is always the side on which the 
 greatest amount of good poetry is enlisted. A 
 sense of poetical justice, demanding to be shewn 
 to the undeserving sufferers, arises in the poeti- 
 cal mind ; and while Fate has crowned the 
 conquering side with laurel, Poetry weaves for 
 the prostrate vanquished a chaplet of more 
 undying bay. 
 
 The posthumous influence of Jacobitism 
 shewed itself, in the first place, in a continua- 
 tion of the mournful strain which broke out in 
 the ballads with such thrilling pathos after 
 Culloden. Jacobitism, as a living principle of 
 action, was now dead. It was hopeless to 
 expect its resurrection. It was now only a 
 feeling. And in this new light of it, it was 
 gazed backwards upon in its entirety. The 
 changes it had undergone were reviewed. 
 The sufferings it had experienced were lingered
 
 226 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 over. The good qualities that had marked its 
 existence were enumerated, treasured up, in 
 many cases, a fictitious value put upon them. 
 Everything that could excite sympathy for the 
 fallen family was eagerly sought out by the 
 poetical mind, eagerly caught hold of, and lov- 
 ingly shewn off in song and ballad. The 
 sufferings and misfortunes of the Jacobite 
 leaders, and especially of the Prince, the 
 most conspicuous in his sorrows of them all- 
 were mostly dwelt upon in these songs. Many 
 of them, by nameless bards, are fraught with 
 the most touching pathos. They appear to have 
 been flung off, in many cases anonymously, as 
 a natural and only mode of relief to the sorrow- 
 o'erburdened mind, and not from ulterior ends 
 of poetical renown. 
 
 But to leave these scattered, and, in many 
 cases, unacknowledged songs, and to confine our 
 attention to the works of well-known Scottish 
 authors whose minds have been tinged with 
 the feeling of Jacobitism, we may notice un-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 227 
 
 mistakeable traces of Jacobite predilection in the 
 poetry of Carolina Oliphant, Baroness Nairne, 
 of Burns, of Hogg, of Scott, and, not to exhaust 
 the whole list, of Campbell, and of Aytoun. 
 Some of the best so-called Jacobite songs are 
 by Lady Nairne. And, possessing as she did 
 in a marked degree the genius of the lyre, it 
 would have been matter of surprise if she had 
 turned away her attention from the misfortunes 
 of the House of Stuart. Her father, her grand- 
 father, and numerous relatives, were among the 
 most zealous and active supporters of Jacobitism 
 in the period of the rebellions. She was born 
 and educated in "the Auld House of Gask,"- 
 which was a very centre of Jacobite ideas. 
 She was taught to sing the praises of the 
 Stuarts ere she could well lisp the name. Her 
 family had shared in the misfortunes of the 
 exiled family. And many little acts of special 
 favour had been extended to her father by the 
 young Chevalier himself. Accordingly, her 
 songs are imbued with the spirit of Jacobitism,
 
 228 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 and are so clearly the offspring of the heart, 
 that none are more widely known or more 
 universally popular among Scotsmen. So com- 
 pletely is the feeling of Jacobitism mixed up in 
 her mind with all other feelings, that it shews 
 itself even in songs that have no direct con- 
 nexion with Jacobitism. One of the many 
 associations, for instance, by which " the Auld 
 House " of her childhood, in the deservedly 
 popular song of that name, has become en- 
 deared to her memory, is the circumstance that 
 the eyes of " Scotland's Heir" have rested upon 
 its walls ; and that it contains, as one of its most 
 cherished treasures, a lock of " his lang yellow 
 hair." 
 
 Burns, it is well known, was strongly touched 
 with the misfortunes that at last overwhelmed 
 the Stuart line. This sympathetic feeling 
 occasionally bursts out in his songs, though he 
 evidently laboured to restrain it. He even 
 apologises to those who might take his strongly- 
 uttered expressions of sympathy for the unfor-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 229 
 
 tunate Stuarts in other than a poetical significa- 
 tion: ' 
 
 " A poor friendless wanderer may well claim a sigh, 
 Still more if that wanderer be royal." 
 
 In the Chevaliers Lament occurs the well- 
 known line, 
 
 " His right are these hills, and his right are these valleys, "- 
 but the statement is urged simply to explain 
 the poetical sympathy with which his heart was 
 charged for one, now dead, who was chased 
 from his paternal inheritance. From Burns's 
 muse we have also Strathallans Lament. 
 
 Hogg's Jacobite predilections in literature 
 were even more marked, but not more decidedly 
 intense than Burns's. He has got his comic 
 as well as his plaintive Jacobite songs. Of the 
 former class, perhaps the most original is 
 Donald Macgillivray. It is amusing to find 
 "the Shepherd" at one time giving it as his 
 opinion "ti\-&\. Donald Macgillivray is apparently 
 a very old song, and doubtless is meant to 
 embrace the whole Highland clans under an
 
 230 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 individual name " ; and, at another time, as a 
 great secret, avowing himself the author of it. 
 A verse of it runs thus, descriptive of the 
 fierce descent of the Highlanders upon the 
 Lowlands in aid of the Stuart cause, 
 
 " Donald's run ower the hill, bot his tether, man, 
 As he were wud, or stang'd wi' an ether, man; 
 When he comes back, there's some will look merrily; 
 Here's to King James, and Donald Macgillivray. 
 Come like a weaver, Donald Macgillivray, 
 Come like a weaver, Donald Macgillivray, 
 Pack on your back, an' el wan' sae cleverly; 
 Gie them full measure, my Donald Macgillivray ! " 
 
 But Hogg's genius as a Jacobite song- writer is 
 best manifested in those translations from the 
 Gaelic illustrative of Celtic hospitality and 
 loyalty to the royal adventurer. Macleans 
 Welcome and Flora Macdonald's Lament may 
 stand as instances. 
 
 Scott's leanings to the side of Jacobitism are 
 visible in his Waverley, and in several minor 
 songs, chief among these the spirited Gather- 
 ing of the Clans, which reveal the interest he 
 felt in the fortunes of the Stuart House. From
 
 and its Relative Literature. 231 
 
 the natural disposition of his mind, it might 
 have been predicted of Scott that these fortunes 
 would claim his sympathies. The passing- away 
 of a dynasty of high antiquity must have power- 
 fully affected the mind of him to whom every 
 time-honoured institution was sacred. Even 
 the destruction of an old bridge called up sad 
 and contemplative ideas in his mind. It is well 
 known he was fond of repeating the old Jacobite 
 ballads, and nothing gave him more pleasure, 
 deep and undemonstrative, than to listen to the 
 singing of those of them that bewail the sad 
 fate of the royal wanderer. But, after all, we 
 are less able to lay our finger upon any par- 
 ticular passage of Scott's works indicative of 
 undoubted Jacobite sympathies, than to feel, in 
 the perusal of these works as a whole, a per- 
 vading air faintly tinged with the aroma of 
 Jacobitism. 
 
 Campbell's noble fragment of Lochicfs Warn- 
 ing sufficiently indicates the fascination with 
 which his mind was drawn to the contemplation
 
 232 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 of the tragic downfall of the Stuart House, a 
 downfall that included in its completeness the 
 ruin of so many devoted partizans. His feel- 
 ings, too, as shewn in the single brief fragment, 
 are all on the losing side. 
 
 But of all the modern Scottish authors whose 
 works shew a Jacobite leaning, none perhaps 
 has been more thoroughly steeped in Jacobitism 
 than Aytoun. With him, Jacobitism was a 
 passion; and so effectually colours the whole 
 body of his poetry, that one might say his 
 genius only lived, and was only inspired, to 
 celebrate in immortal verse the later fortunes of 
 the Stuarts. Sympathies of a warmer or more 
 absorbing character in behalf of Jacobitism, are 
 nowhere to be found in the entire collection of 
 literature born of the Stuart struggle after a 
 restoration. So intense, indeed, were these 
 sympathies, that they have warped his whole 
 mental energies, and confined them to the single 
 task of setting forth the strangely-mingled 
 glories and reverses of the loyal Scottish Cava-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 233 
 
 liers. And this is the great fault of his poetry : 
 it is too narrow, too exclusive and one-sided. 
 His hatred of the enemies of the Stuarts is 
 unjustly severe and intolerant. He can see 
 nothing in them to admire, or even respect. 
 They were all hypocrites, traitors, or cowards; 
 just as all his cavaliers were heroes, loyal sub- 
 jects, and men of truth. 
 
 There is still prevalent in the country an 
 influence possessed by the Jacobite songs 
 which can most aptly be described as tradi- 
 tional. This influence is, no doubt, greatly due 
 to the intrinsic literary merits of many of the 
 songs; but is chiefly owing to early association. 
 Let us again recollect that they were once the 
 only songs in the mouth of an entire genera- 
 tion: they were sung everywhere, crooned as 
 cradle-songs, adapted as love-songs, and sung 
 as impassioned expressions of freedom and 
 patriotism. They were thus intimately jnter- 
 woven with the every-day life of our fore- 
 fathers. To the old and the middle-aged, they
 
 234 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 were fraught with associations of times, persons, 
 and places in the past, whither the memory 
 loved to turn; at the same time they were 
 flung in the way of the young, by whom they 
 were seized, and used as the fittest expressions 
 of their own individual experiences and modes 
 of thought and feeling. In this way, they have 
 come down to our own generation with almost 
 unimpaired popularity, despite of many excel- 
 lent rival songs, but, of course, with greatly 
 altered signification. Their present influence 
 is eminently healthful. Songs that bring back 
 to one's recollection childhood, parents, and the 
 disinterested friendships of early youth, cannot 
 but tend to keep the mind fresh, and pure, and 
 true to its youthful instincts. This influence 
 they exercise as derived from associative 
 sources. To this, add the further beneficial 
 influence springing from intrinsic virtues of 
 courage, fidelity, and patriotism, which they 
 inculcate in homely but frequently fervid phrase. 
 It now remains for us to take a survey of the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 235 
 
 songs and ballads born of Jacobitism, with a 
 view to a judgment of their literary value, and 
 a determination of their prevailing character- 
 istics. Produced, as by far the greater propor- 
 tion of them were, in a controversial age, when 
 party spirit ran high, we are not surprised to 
 find that many of them are of a satirical nature. 
 Much of this satire is only rhymed abuse, 
 quite devoid of any poetical thought or feeling. 
 The object of the satire appears to have been 
 thought attained, if the person at whom its 
 shafts were launched was seen to wince under 
 the infliction. A good deal of it is coarse; 
 rather, however, in expression than in idea. 
 This was natural, when we consider the heated 
 passions of the times. Men, in their angry 
 haste, said things which in their calmer moods 
 they would have been shocked to hear. They 
 attacked each other's character with the impu- 
 tation of the foulest, and often only fanciful, 
 crimes. They swore dreadful oaths of hatred 
 and vengeance against each other, and reck-
 
 236 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 lessly condemned each other's soul to ever- 
 lasting torment. What wonder if, occasionally, 
 such coarseness, and curses so dreadful, found 
 their way into the satirical literature of the 
 day ? But there still remains, after deducting 
 these, a considerable amount of good and legi- 
 timate satire. A peculiar feature of this satire 
 is the microscopical insignificance to which it 
 dwarfs what it regards as ambitious pretension. 
 As an example of this, take the ballad of the 
 Wee wee German Lairdie. The very name 
 with which they speak of King George is satiri- 
 cal in the highest degree. He is spoken of as 
 having been elevated to a position which he 
 never even aspired to: 
 
 " When we gade to bring him hame, 
 He was delvin j in his kail-yardie." 
 
 He is represented as bringing in his train a 
 number of indigent dependents, who are briefly 
 discussed as "fouth o' foreign trash." His pre- 
 sence on the throne of England, however, is 
 nothing to the Scottish satirist, only let him
 
 and its Relative Literature. 237 
 
 stay there. If ever he crosses the Tweed to the 
 ancient kingdom of Scotland, it must in no case 
 be with the pretentions of a sovereign. That 
 could not for a moment be tolerated. These 
 assumed pretensions must then be laid aside. 
 He must in nowise presume to intermeddle with 
 the time-hallowed institutions of Scotland. He 
 is invited to visit and admire, or sink abashed, 
 but not to touch, overturn, or revolutionize. 
 
 " Come up among our highland hills, 
 Thou wee wee German Lairdie, 
 
 An' see how the Stuarts' lang-kail thrive 
 They dibbled in our yardie ! 
 
 An' if a stock ye daur to pu', 
 
 Or haud the yokin' o' a plou', 
 
 We'll break your sceptre owre your mou', 
 Thou wee bit German Lairdie ! " 
 
 More frequently, however, the satire of these 
 ballads is, metaphorically speaking, a furious 
 succession of knock-down blows, distributed with 
 little discrimination, and less mercy. The only 
 object is to pommel into shapelessness. The 
 fine art to which Pope ennobled the science of 
 literary abuse was unknown, or at least unappre-
 
 238 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 ciated in Scotland. The Scottish satirists did 
 not waste their time and expend their fury in 
 polishing and pointing their instrument of attack. 
 They were too hot-blooded for that. Nor did 
 they take delicate aim from behind some loop- 
 hole in front of which the enemy was thought- 
 lessly breathing himself, with armour laid aside 
 or vizor up. The object of their attack had 
 notice, for the most part, of the intended assault; 
 the bolts, sharp or blunt, as they came to hand, 
 were shot off at random, and when they were 
 exhausted the butt of the cross-bow was a handy 
 instrument of offence. Thus Scottish satire 
 rather bestowed surface bruises, which stunned 
 as much by the noise as the pain with which their 
 delivery was accompanied, than poisoned 
 wounds that rankled secretly, and bled inwardly, 
 and were long and painful in healing. This had 
 from time immemorial been the orthodox mode 
 of dealing literary castigation in Scotland. Dun- 
 bar was an adept in it, and Lyndsay and all the 
 literary disciplinarians of the past had so taught
 
 and its Relative Literatiire. 239 
 
 the art. To illustrate this mode of satirical 
 writing, so often adopted by the contributors to 
 the Jacobite ballad -literature, look for a moment 
 on this wholesale onslaught upon the Whigs of 
 Fife: 
 
 " O, for a bauk as lang as Crail, 
 An' for a rape o' rapes the wale, 
 To hing the tykes up by the tail 
 An' hear the beggars yell ! 
 
 O, wae to a' the Whigs o' Fife, 
 The brosy tykes, the lousy tykes, 
 O, wae to a' the Whigs o' Fife 
 
 That e'er they cam' frae," &c. 
 
 One can fancy the Whigs of Fife themselves, 
 after this tremendous deluge of wordy invective, 
 recovering their scattered ideas, and laughing 
 immoderately at the imaginary gallows of 
 Herculean dimensions, with its abnormally- 
 strung load of yelping curs. In the same 
 song the writer prays for the return of that 
 happy day when "ilka ane shall get Ms ain, 
 an' ilka Whig the mdl:" he implores also that 
 Satan be loosed among the Fife Whigs for a
 
 240 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 while "to claw the traitors wi' ay&zz'/." These 
 ponderous implements of industrial occupation 
 are fitting emblems of the author's own powers 
 as a satirist. They break bones, and bruise, 
 and make noise enow; but, after all, they are 
 not the most lethal weapons which one might 
 carry with him to the battle-field. There is 
 often a ludicrous weirdness of imagination 
 portrayed in this species of Jacobite Satire. 
 Thus in the lines, 
 
 " O, to see Auld Nick gaun hame 
 Wi' Charlie's faes afore him!"- 
 
 we have a vivid vision that half shocks us with 
 its daring, and half shakes us into laughter 
 with its ludicrousness. 
 
 It maybe as well here to notice the frequency 
 with which the figure of Satan is made to 
 appear and re-appear in the long series of the 
 Jacobite ballads. It seems, indeed, that about 
 this time was formed that idea of the " Deil " 
 and his supposed usual place of abode, which 
 was afterwards more fully elaborated by the
 
 and its Relative Literature. 241 
 
 genius of Burns, and is now come to be regarded 
 as peculiarly Scottish. Whatever may have 
 been the origin of the Scottish idea of hell and 
 the Devil, it was certainly not English nor 
 German. The hell of Paradise Lost is a vast 
 unexplored region of "doleful shades" through 
 which we have sublimely indistinct glimpses of 
 a tall, battle-scarred, archangelic figure stalking 
 with uncomplaining pain "over the burning 
 marie," grasping in his hand the defiant spear, 
 and grandly terrific in his blasphemies and 
 challenges against a greater than himself. In 
 Faust he is a mixture of the sceptical philosopher 
 and the man about town, well versed in all the 
 fashionable vices of a refined but licentious age, 
 and ready with his sophistical arguments to 
 shew that vice loses all its evil by losing all its 
 grossness. In Scotland, on the other hand, he 
 is represented by the Jacobite ballads as having 
 dispensed with disguise, and as journeying 
 about in his native nigritude. He is, however, 
 more frequently in his own proper domain
 
 242 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 superintending the disposal of multitudinous 
 arrivals. Rarely is he in the intermediate 
 region of earth surveying his prospects and 
 calculating the chances of a plenteous harvest. 
 Occasionally, however, he is out for an airing. 
 At one time we have him perched on the 
 commanding site of Stirling steeple, at another 
 time in secret conclave with the Whig leaders; 
 but most commonly he is immersed in the cares 
 and anxieties of subterranean business. His 
 occupation, as obtained from passing glimpses 
 in the ballads, is to keep alive the fires of huge 
 furnaces, to provide fuel, manufacture brimstone, 
 secure the more refractory of his prisoners by 
 gyves and chains, administer the proper rotation 
 of punishment suited to individual cases, and, 
 generally, preserve an jll-acknowledged supre- 
 macy. These cares he seeks to alleviate by 
 blasphemous songs, and "scraps of Auld Calvin's 
 catches." In that weird and powerfully imagina- 
 tive poem, entitled Cumberland and Murray's 
 Descent, we have a comprehensive insight into
 
 and its Relative Literature. 243 
 
 the whole infernal economy. The poem is an 
 attack upon the cruelties perpetrated upon the 
 defenceless Scots after Culloden by the Duke 
 of Cumberland; and the traitorous conduct of 
 Murray of Broughton, who, after his capture, 
 consequent upon the suppression of " the Forty- 
 five," was carried to London, and purchased his 
 indemnity by discovering the secrets of many 
 noble families concerned in the late rebellion. 
 The Jacobite idea of justice can only be satisfied 
 by figuring the heinousness of the crimes of 
 these two arch-enemies to the interests of the 
 Stuarts, as demanding all the penal resources 
 of the place of torment. The curtain of hell is 
 drawn aside, and an extensive underground 
 vault of fire, smoke, brimstone, terrific noises, 
 writhing victims, and rejoicing devils is revealed. 
 The floor of this vault is covered with a vast 
 sea of simmering vats, which fade away in end- 
 less series in smoky perspective. In these vats 
 Satanic imps are now and again descried, 
 swimming and diving, and generally disporting
 
 244 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 themselves among the mysterious contents, after 
 the fashion of dab-chicks. At suitable distances 
 there are great " dubs," or " lowing haughs " of 
 fire, being constantly fed with sulphureous fuel. 
 Around and in the midst of these are the " puir 
 wretches " undergoing their measured allotment 
 of punishment; while at intervals, through the 
 flame-streaked smoke, 
 
 " The worm of hell, which never dies, 
 In winded coil, writhes up an' fries ! " 
 
 Each inferior demon has his own apportioned 
 work. 
 
 " Ae deil sat splitting brunstane matches, 
 Ane roasting Whigs like bakers' batches; 
 Ane wi' fat a Whig was bastin', 
 Spent wi' frequent pray'r an' fastin'." 
 
 Around lie the various instruments of their 
 profession, the hideous paraphernalia of hell: 
 "frything pans," "caudrons," "spunks," "chains," 
 "leisters," " scalping-whittles," and "whunstane 
 hones." In the midst of this busy scene, the 
 two unfortunates, in condemnation of whom the 
 poem was written, are seized upon and submitted
 
 and its Relative Literature. 245 
 
 to the severest torments of Satanic ingenuity. 
 Their uttered agonies are represented as un- 
 speakable, and striking even the hardened 
 aborigines of the region with astonishment: 
 
 " A' ceased when thae twin butchers roar'd, 
 An' Hell's grim Hangman stopt an' glowYd ! " 
 
 This idea is Dantesque in its horror. Murray's 
 greed of gain, the supposed ruling passion of his 
 life, and his impudent cleverness in acquiring it, 
 are represented as still accompanying him in the 
 midst of these awful scenes : 
 
 " Ae deevil roar'd, till hearse an' roupit, 
 ' He's pykin' the gowd frae Satan's poopit ! ' 
 Anither roar'd wi' eldritch yell, 
 ' He's howkin the keystane oot o' hell 
 To damn us mair wi' God's day-light!' 
 An' he dookit i' the caudrons oot o' sight! 
 
 He stole auld Satan's brunstane leister, 
 Till his waukit loofs were in a blister; 
 He stole his whig-spunks, tipt wi' brunstane, 
 He stole his scalpin-whittle's whunstane; 
 An' oot o' its red-het kist he stole 
 The very charter-rights of hell ! 
 
 Satan, tent weel the pilferin' villain ; 
 He'll scrimp your reverence by stealin'; 
 Q
 
 246 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 Th' infernal boots in which you stand in, 
 
 Wi' which your worship tramps the damn'd in, 
 
 He'll wile them aff your cloven cloots, 
 
 An' wade thro' hell-fire in your boots ! " 
 
 The preparation of an infernal banquet is 
 descibed, but with such shocking particularity 
 of details that we cannot venture upon the sub- 
 ject. The "black mastiff," that guarded "the 
 hallan gate," in the bustle of the carnival, " slipt 
 her collar;" and, the portals being thus left un- 
 guarded, we are told, with an allusion that may 
 perhaps determine the local origin of the poem, 
 
 " Whigs poured in, like Nith in spate." 
 With the notice of this wholesale inundation, 
 the poet abruptly closes his vision of hell, leav- 
 ing, in another horrible but masterly tableau, 
 
 " Hell's grim Sultan, red-wud glowrin', 
 Dreadin' that Whigs would usurp owre him." 
 
 This poem, as a whole, is the most original 
 in idea, and certainly the most daring in execu- 
 tion in the whole compass of Jacobite literature. 
 Indeed, it is one of the most original of all 
 Scottish literary attempts, not even excepting
 
 and its Relative Literature. 247 
 
 Burns's Address to the Deil, or his vision of 
 unhallowed pastimes in " Alloway's Auld 
 Haunted Kirk," in the poem of Tarn d Shanter. 
 And, as regards its mode of dealing with the 
 element of horror, we shall search any literature 
 in vain for a poem that will over-match it. 
 
 The most apparent characteristic of the 
 poems of the Jacobite literature as a whole, is 
 a grim humour. Wit, in word or phrase, there 
 is none. There is perhaps only a single at- 
 tempt at wit in the collected Jacobite relics, and 
 that is a failure. It is that species of wit 
 usually described as the pun which the writer is 
 attempting when he says, 
 
 " Sin' our true king abroad is gone 
 There's nought but Whelps sit on his throne." 
 
 As we have already observed, the satire is 
 for the most part humorous, and there is even 
 a humour of the grimmest sort blending with 
 the horrible in that most powerful and merciless 
 of all the Satires, Cumberland and Murray's 
 Descent. But humour is distinctive of only one
 
 248 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 side of the Scottish national mind, the other 
 and equally characteristic side of which is a 
 most affecting pathos. There must, therefore, 
 be some explanation of the apparent prepon- 
 derance of humour in the Jacobite ballads and 
 songs. And this is to be sought, doubtless, in 
 the circumstance that the Jacobite cause re- 
 mained a hopeful one down to the date of its 
 final extinction, which was generally believed 
 by the Jacobites as a party to have happened 
 in or about 1 746. So long as the struggle for 
 the Stuart restoration went on, and hope cheered 
 the Jacobite partizans, just so long was satirical 
 humour the prevailing characteristic of the con- 
 temporaneous literature. But as soon as the 
 clouds of fate began to collect with unmistake- 
 able denseness over the Stuart House, and the 
 beams of hope to be unable to pierce these 
 clouds, then the tone of the literature was 
 changed: elegy and lament took the place of 
 satire and song, and a pathetic tenderness 
 marked the succeeding literature. A verse-
 
 and its Relative Literature. 249 
 
 monger can write satire, but real sorrow can 
 only be expressed melodiously by a true poeti- 
 cal mind. As a consequence, we find that much 
 real poetry attended the downfall of the Stuart 
 House, greatly superior to what accompanied 
 the struggle when the downfall was as yet 
 unforeseen. This has, in the histories of all 
 individuals, families, and nations, been invari- 
 ably the case. Sorrows and misfortunes are 
 more frequently sung than joys and successes. 
 The deeper chords of the heart, those which 
 thrill most powerfully through a man's being, 
 are sacred to the touch of sorrow. Hence 
 Bannockburn as a victory is less embalmed in 
 song than Flodden as a defeat. And Culloden 
 as a victory is altogether unsung. 
 
 Of the pathetic Jacobite ballads and poems 
 which appeared when the ultimate event of the 
 struggle, though yet unforeseen, began to be 
 whispered about forebodingly, many are in the 
 Gaelic language. Several of these have been 
 collected and translated, and shew the most
 
 250 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 intense devotion to the Stuarts, and the deepest 
 sympathy for their reverses. As examples of 
 songs illustrative of this devoted feeling, take 
 Lenachans Farewell; the Highlanders Farewell, 
 in which, amidst the enumeration of his indivi- 
 dual misfortunes, the poet is not forgetful of his 
 prince, 
 
 " And thou, my prince, my injured prince, 
 
 Thy people have disown'd thee, 
 Have hunted and have driven thee hence, 
 
 With ruin'd chiefs around thee. 
 Though hard beset, when I forget 
 
 Thy fate, young helpless rover, 
 This broken heart shall cease to beat 
 
 And all its griefs be over;" 
 
 the Highland Widow s Lament; the Welcome to 
 Skye; the Frasers in the Corrie; Farewell to 
 Glen-Shalloch ; Callum d Glen; Cidloden Day, 
 &c. 
 
 Of pathetic songs in the Lowland language, 
 there are many examples. The mutilated frag- 
 ment of Carlisle Yetts has a good deal of the 
 fascinating simplicity of lament of the still older
 
 and its Relative Literature* 251 
 
 ballads of Scotland. It is a maiden's wail, and 
 recalls to one's mind the affecting rhymes of the 
 crazed Ophelia: 
 
 " His lang lang hair, in yellow hanks, 
 
 Waved o'er his cheeks sae sweet and ruddie; 
 But now they wave o'er Carlisle yetts, 
 In dripping ringlets clotting bloodie. 
 
 My father's blood's in that flower-tap, 
 My brother's in that harebell's blossom; 
 
 This white rose was steeped in my luve's blood, 
 An' I'll aye wear it in my bosom." 
 
 The sad fate of Prince Charlie has changed the 
 whole face of Nature to the bewailing bard. 
 Life has now nothing joyful to offer. The once 
 glad songs of the wild birds seem now to be 
 turned into sorrowful refrains: 
 
 " Whene'er I hear the blackbird sing 
 
 Unto the e'ening sinking doun, 
 Or merle that makes the woods to ring, 
 To me they ha'e nae ither soun' 
 Than 'Will he no come back again?'" &c. 
 
 The "o'ercome," in another minstrel's ears, is 
 " Wae's me for Prince Charlie." Even Smollett, 
 among London distractions and London apathy,
 
 252 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 like a true son of Scotland, lets fall a few " mel- 
 odious tears" in sympathetic remembrance of 
 the misfortunes of his country. 
 
 The heroic ardour and patriotic spirit breathed 
 by the Jacobite songs is another remarkable 
 feature. Never was a more martial strain than 
 the song of Who, wadna fecht ? It contains 
 every warlike inducement that can prompt he- 
 roic thoughts and actions. The past glories of 
 Scottish war are recalled to mind; a prince is 
 their leader; they are surrounded with the in- 
 spiring insignia of battle, "the pomp and cir- 
 cumstance of glorious war;" their numbers are 
 increasing; the clans are advancing to swell their 
 host with heroes; swords are flashing, pibrochs 
 sounding and the ancient banner of Scotland, 
 floating over them on the buoyant winds, has to 
 be defended. 
 
 " Wha' wadna fecht for Charlie, 
 Wha' wadna draw the sword?" 
 
 Surely none but cowards! 
 
 Many other Jacobite ballads breathe the same
 
 and its Relative Literature. 253 
 
 sentiments ; of which we may particularly notice 
 Macdonalds Gathering, and Kenmures on and 
 awa. In the ballad of the Lament of Lord 
 Maxwell, the warlike minstrel speaks of the 
 glory of dying on the battlefield, and taking " a 
 bluidy nievefu' o' fame to the grave." 
 
 A peculiar feature of the earlier half of the 
 Jacobite ballads is the enigmatical and allegori- 
 cal form into which many of them are cast. 
 This appears originally to have been occasioned 
 by the strict watch maintained by government 
 over seditious and suspicious publications. The 
 Jacobite rhymster accordingly took refuge under 
 the shield of ambiguity of language, and so could 
 sing the (in many instances) meaningless words 
 with a mental interpretation of his own, even in 
 public gatherings of a mixed or doubtful nature. 
 Songs expressly Jacobite were openly sung at 
 meetings where every member was an avowed 
 friend of the Stuart cause; but it was necessary 
 also to have songs that, without betraying any 
 decided leaning this way or that, should yet act
 
 254 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History 
 
 as "feelers" to test the character or political 
 opinion of a mixed assembly. Among these 
 enigmatical productions a good many are, 
 naturally enough, toasts. One of them goes 
 thus, 
 
 " To the turners out of the turners out 
 And a return to the turned out," 
 
 and so on in such intricate fashion that the 
 labyrinth of turnings gets quite bewildering. 
 Another of these has much the look of a 
 genealogical puzzle; 
 
 " To ane king, and no king, ane uncle and faither, 
 To him that's all these, yet allowed to be neither," &c. 
 
 The Jacobite cause is symbolized in one ballad 
 as a moor-hen, as a blackbird in another, and in 
 a third as a cuckoo. 
 
 Sometimes the Jacobite songs admit of an 
 interpretation of a purely amatory nature; and, 
 of course, as such, were beyond the power of 
 the law to suppress them. A good example of 
 this is found in the well-known song of Some- 
 body, beginning,
 
 and its Relative Literature. 255 
 
 " My heart is sair, I daurna tell, 
 My heart is sair for somebody;" 
 
 which may either be explained as the passionate 
 sigh of an ardent lover, wearying for the return 
 of his or her absent and secret sweetheart; or, 
 as the longing desire of the not less ardent 
 Jacobite, wearying for the restoration of his 
 exiled king. 
 
 Allegorical songs are also of common occur- 
 rence among the literary products of Jacobitism. 
 It was noticed that allegory is often mixed up 
 with the Jacobite satire. George I. is a German 
 "Lairdie;" the kingdom is a "Kailyard;" its 
 institutions are " lang kail," " syboes," " leeks." 
 In offering counsel to Queen Anne, a Jacobite 
 writer represents his native country of Scotland 
 as "a gude gray mare," somewhat "thrawart/* 
 but if well-treated a useful and valuable and 
 obedient animal. He goes on to particularize 
 the successive acts of ill-treatment which had 
 rendered the "gray mare" unmanageable, and 
 worse than useless to its new owner; and advises
 
 256 The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History. 
 
 the adoption of judicious usage, to avoid the 
 risk of losing it altogether. Among other songs 
 of this nature may be enumerated Atkendrum; 
 The Riding Mare; There was a man came from 
 the Moon; What ails thee, Poor Shepherd? 
 Kirn-Milk Geordie, fc. The allegory is some- 
 times so obscure as to baffle interpretation.
 
 Glasgow Saint Andrew Society > 
 
 Instituted 30th November, 1854. 
 
 LIST OF MEMBERS 
 
 At jot/i November, 1873. 
 
 Prcsident. 
 G. FYFFE CHRISTIE, 62 George Square. 
 
 Vice-President. 
 
 T. Mum GRANT, 114 West George Street. 
 
 Directors. 
 
 ALEX. WATT, ex-qfficio. 
 FRANC GIBB DOUGALL, ex- 
 
 qfficio. 
 WILLIAM STEVENSON. 
 
 JOHN LORIMER. 
 JOHN WHITE. 
 DANIEL MUNRO. 
 W. FORREST SALMON. 
 
 Honorary Secretary. 
 JOHN WIGHT, 150 Hope Street. 
 
 HONORARY MEMBERS. 
 ANDERSON, JAMES, Q. C., 
 BALLANTINK, JAMES, 
 BLACKIE, J. S., Professor of Greek, 
 BLIND, KARL, 
 BURTON, J. H., LL.D., 
 BLANC, Louis, 
 
 FREILIEGRATH, FERDINAND, - 
 FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, - 
 GARIBALDI, GENERAL, - 
 MICHEL, FRANCISQUE, - 
 SCOTT, CHARLES, Advocate, - 
 
 London. 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 London. 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Stuttgart. 
 
 London. 
 
 Caprera. 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Edinburgh.
 
 11. LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 ORDINARY MEMBERS. 
 Those marked * are ex-Presidents. 
 
 Alexander, William, Jeweller, 3 Gordon Street. 
 Allan, P. G., 123 Argyle Street. 
 
 Allan, William, Merchant, 27 Smith Street, Whiteinch. 
 Arthur, John, Jeweller, 80 Argyle Street. 
 
 * Arthur, William Rae, 29 West George Street. 
 Auld, R. R., Writer, 49 West Regent Street. 
 Bain, James, 3 Park Terrace. 
 
 Baker, Thomas, Beech Bank, Mount Vernon. 
 Bannerman, W., Valuator, 85^ Hope Street. 
 Barrow, F. A., Drysalter, 191 Hope Street. 
 Belch, John, Merchant, 184 North Street. 
 Bell, B. Barton, 1 7 Gordon Street. 
 Black, George, Writer, 88 West Regent Street. 
 Breen, George, 18 George Square. 
 Bremner, George W. M., 19 St. Vincent Place. 
 Brownlie, John, 522 Gallowgate. 
 Bryan, F. G. D., Factor, Drumpellier. 
 Brydon, William J., 18 George Square. 
 Buchanan, T. D., M. D., 275 Argyle Street. 
 Burns, John, Surgeon, 10 John Street, Bridgeton. 
 Burns, Thomas, Belmont, Dowanhill. 
 
 * Burns, William, Writer, 151 St. Vincent Street. 
 Butler, Dugald, 12 Newhall Terrace. 
 Campbell, William, New Club. 
 
 Campbell, William F. M., New Club. 
 
 Carrick, John, City Master of Works, 4 South Albion Place. 
 Carruthers, Henry S., Writer, 150 Hope Street. 
 Christie, Archibald, Merchant, 87 Wilson Street. 
 Christie, G. Fyffe, Writer, 62 George Square, President. 
 Christie, Robert, 17 Royal Crescent, Crossbill. 
 Colquhoun, Alexander, 3 Ashton Place, Dowanhill. 
 Copland, William R., C.E., 83 West Regent Street. 
 Cowan, James, Brassfounder, 1 1 Hyde Park Street.
 
 GLASGOW ST. ANDREW SOCIETY. 111. 
 
 Craig, Bailie, 16 Abbotsford Place. 
 
 Crombie, Archibald, 5 Buchanan Street. 
 
 Cruickshank, James, Builder, 67 Bothwell Street. 
 
 Dewar, Peter, 26 Minerva Street. 
 
 Dickie, Alexander, at M. M'Farlane & Coy.'s, Distillers, 
 
 Port-Dundas. 
 
 Douie, Robert, Writer, 145 Ingram Street. 
 *Dougall, Franc Gibb, Bank Agent, 167 Canning Street. 
 *Dreghorn Colonel, 5 Dixon Street. 
 Dunn, Hugh, Writer, 59 St. Vincent Street 
 Dunn, John, High Kennedies, Hamilton. 
 Dykes, John, Jun., Accountant, 79 St. Vincent Street. 
 Ewing, George E., Sculptor, 225 Hope Street. 
 Faulds, W. B., Writer, 97 West George Street. 
 Fisher, George D., Manufacturer, 55 Wilson Street. 
 Fleming, James, 257 West George Street. 
 Forbes, John, Wine Merchant, 175 Sauchiehall Street. 
 Frame, Robert, Writer, Sheriff Chambers, Wilson Street. 
 Frame, William, Wine Merchant, i Ashton Place, Dowanhill. 
 Fraser, William, Wine Merchant, 10 Clyde Place. 
 Fyfe, John T., Resident Secretary, Scottish Provincial 
 
 Assurance Co., 106 St. Vincent Street. 
 Gale, James M., Civil Engineer, 23 Miller Street. 
 Gardner, John, i Brighton Place, Govan. 
 Gartshore, Joseph, Falkirk. 
 
 Gemmell, Andrew, Jun., Writer, 18 Renfield Street. 
 Gibson, Hugh, Resident Secretary, Scottish Equitable Life 
 
 Assurance Society, 128 St. Vincent Street. 
 Gildard, Thomas, 31 Elderslie Street. 
 Gillies, W. D., Metal Broker, 10 Prince's Square. 
 Gilmour, Graham, Merchant, 160 Buchanan Street. 
 Graham, John, City of Glasgow Bank, Trongate. 
 Grant, Donald, Manufacturer, Coatbridge. 
 Grant, T. Muir, Resident Secretary, Scottish Widows Fund, 
 
 114 West George Street, Vice-President. 
 Gray, David, Writer, 108 West Regent Street.
 
 IV. LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Hedderwick, James, " Citizen " Office, 34 St. Enoch Square. 
 Hewat, Archibald, Secretary, The Edinburgh Life Assurance 
 
 Co., 112 St. Vincent Street. 
 
 Hinshelwood, John, St. Vincent Park, Paisley Road, Govan. 
 Hislop, J. R, F.R.C.S.E., 10 South Portland Street. 
 Hogg, William, Merchant, 81 Eglinton Street 
 Hunter, Matthew, Muslin Manufacturer, 70 Union Street. 
 Hutch eson, Thomas S., Bookseller, 135 Buchanan Street. 
 Jamieson, T. B., Windham's Club, St. James Square, London. 
 Kay, James Cairns, 229 St. George's Road. 
 Kay, John Z., 229 St. George's Road. 
 Kaye, Robert, at R. S. Muir & Coy.'s, 46 Ingram Street. 
 Keir, Provost, Falkirk. 
 
 Kennedy, A., Wholesale Stationer, 13 Glassford Street. 
 Lament, James, National Bank of Scotland, 1 74 Trongate. 
 Lament, John, Merchant, 33 Virginia Street. 
 Lander, Mungo, i Somerset Place. 
 Lawrence, William, 29 Kent Street. 
 *Leggatt, Rev. William, Buchanan Institution, 7 1 Greenhead 
 
 Street. 
 
 Lindsay, George, Merchant, 34 Bedford Street. 
 Lockhart, James, Writer, 58 West Regent Street. 
 Lorimer, John, Merchant, 56 Howard Street. 
 Lucas, William, Writer, 133 West George Street. 
 M'Adam, John, 45 Hyde Park Street. 
 M'Call, Alexander, Chief Constable, Police Chambers. 
 M'Caul, James S., Merchant, 72 Ingram Street. 
 M'Culloch, John, Governor, Govan Poorhouse, Merryflats, 
 
 Govan. 
 MacDonald, J. K., Resident Secretary, Scottish National 
 
 Insurance Co., 120 St. Vincent Street. 
 M'Ewan, George, Surgeon, 196 Pitt Street. 
 M'Glashan, John, Merchant, 145 Stobcross Street. 
 M'Gregor, P. Comyn, Lonend House, Paisley. 
 M'Intosh, Major, 129 Stockwell Street. 
 Mackay, Alexander, Merchant, 212 North Street.
 
 GLASGOW ST. ANDREW SOCIETY. 
 
 M'Kenzie, John, Merchant, 159 Stobcross Street. 
 
 M'Kinnon, Charles, Merchant, i Holland Place. 
 
 M'Kinnon, William, C.A., 140 St. Vincent Street. 
 
 M'Lachlan, Henry, Accountant, Coatbridge. 
 
 M'Onie, William, Engineer, i Scotland Street. 
 
 *M'Tear, Robert, Auctioneer, North Court, Royal Exchange. 
 
 Marr, Thomas, 35 St. Vincent Place. 
 
 Marshall, William, of Newhouse, Falkirk. 
 
 Mathieson, George, Warehouseman, 42 Glassford Street. 
 
 Mathieson, Thomas A., 13 East Campbell Street. 
 
 Maxton, John, Writer, 175 St. Vincent Street. 
 
 Meikleham, Lieut. William, 72 Cathedral Street. 
 
 Menzies, Thomas, F. E.I.S., Hutcheson's Hospital School, 
 
 211 Crown Street. 
 Michel, Roland, Paris. 
 Miller, D. S., 9 Prince's Square. 
 Miller, Peter, 9 Prince's Square. 
 Mitchell, Moncrieff, C.A., 4 National Bank Buildings. 
 Moir, Alexander, Muslin Manufacturer, 73 Mitchell Street. 
 Morrison, Bailie, 52 Sauchiehall Street. 
 Morrison, James, Writer, 115 St. Vincent Street. 
 Mossman, John, Sculptor, 83 North Frederick Street. 
 Moyes, J. R., Stationer, 331 Sauchiehall Street. 
 Moyes, William, Merchant, 56 Howard Street. 
 Muir, Robert, 37 West Nile Street. 
 Munro, Daniel, 39 Hope Street. 
 Munro, Donald, F. C. S, Glasgow University. 
 Murdoch, James, Baker, 247 Argyle Street. 
 Murray, D. A. B., 2 Clarendon Place. 
 Murray, Provost, Paisley. 
 Orr, William, Painter, 173 St. Vincent Street. 
 Park, Gavin, Measurer, 167 St. Vincent Street. 
 Paterson, Alexander, (of Charles M'Donald & Co.), 68 
 
 Ingram Street. 
 
 Paton, David C., 17 Newhall Terrace. 
 Pearson, Alexander, Sheriff Clerk Depute, County Buildings. 
 
 R
 
 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Provan, James, Accountant, 17 Gordon Street. 
 Raeburn, James, Merchant, 263 Argyle Street. 
 Ramsay, Thomas, 22 Holyrood Crescent. 
 Rankin, William, Printer, 192 Argyle Street. 
 Rattray, John, Plumber, 94 Renfield Street. 
 Reid, Peter, Dyer, Govan. 
 Reid, William, Surgeon, 26 Canning Street. 
 Rice, A. K., Yarn Agent, 51 George Square. 
 Robertson, John, Engineer, 172 Lancefield Street. 
 Rochead, J. T., Architect, Wellbridge, Morningside, Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 Rodger, George S., Lansdowne Place, Shawlands. 
 Rodger, William, Parkview, Uddingston. 
 Ross, A. B., 1 1 St. Vincent Place. 
 Ross, William, " Citizen " Office, 34 St. Enoch Square. 
 Rule, Robert, 13 Ashton Terrace, Dowanhill. 
 *Salmon, James, I. A., 197 St. Vincent Street. 
 Salmon, W. Forrest, I. A., 197 St. Vincent Street. 
 Scotland, J., Custom House. 
 Scott, Bailie, 32 Jamaica Street. 
 Scott, Thomas, 6 Queen's Square, Strathbungo. 
 Scott, William, 18 Old Broad Street, London. 
 Service, James, Writer, 35 Bath Street. 
 Shand, George, Chemist, Stirling. 
 Simpson, John, Muirpark, Renfrew. 
 
 Smellie, T. D., Surveyor and Valuator, 213 St. Vincent Street. 
 *Smith, Gordon, Writer, 133 West George Street. 
 Smith, James, Benvue, Dowanhill Gardens. 
 Smith, Robert, Wine Merchant, 124 Sauchiehall Street. 
 Somerville, Rev. Thomas, 5 Richmond Street. 
 Stark, Andrew, 41 Queen Street. 
 
 Steel, James, Plasterer and Modeller, 25 Holmhead Street. 
 Stevenson, William, Oil Merchant, 28 Robertson Street. 
 Stewart, Andrew, Tubemaker, 153 Hill Street, Garnethill. 
 Stewart, James, 262 Bath Street. 
 Stewart, John M., Manufacturer, 73 Mitchell Street.
 
 GLASGOW ST. ANDREW SOCIETY. vii. 
 
 Stewart, Peter, Springfield House, 340 South York Street. 
 
 Taylor, James, Druggist, 132 Trongate. 
 
 Taylor, William, Surgeon Dentist, 144 Wellington Street. 
 
 Taylor, William, 34 St. James's Road. 
 
 Templeton, James, Manufacturer, 266 Both well Street. 
 
 Thomson, Alexander, 6 Nelson Terrace, Billhead. 
 
 Thomson, James, F.G.S., 276 Eglinton Street. 
 
 Thomson, James, 25 Monteith Row. 
 
 Torrance, William B., Merchant, 55 Hutcheson Street. 
 
 Ure, John, Merchant, 68 Washington Street. 
 
 Vallance, Alexander, Manufacturer, 62 Queen Street. 
 
 Waddell, Alexander, Bank Agent, 44 Canning Street. 
 
 Waddell, James, Bank Agent, 419 Gallowgate. 
 
 Walker, Andrew, Manufacturer, 23 Royal Exchange Square. 
 
 Walker, Robert, Resident Secretary, Reliance Mutual Life 
 
 Assurance Society, 162 St. Vincent Street. 
 *Watt, Alexander, Writer, 183 St. Vincent Street. 
 Watt, James, Writer, Airdrie. 
 Watt, Robert, Writer, Airdrie. 
 Wellstood, Stephen, Manufacturer, 14 Newington Street, 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 White, James, Crown Place, Partick. 
 White, John, Scotstown Mills, Partick. 
 Whyte, John, Assistant Master of Works, 4 South Albion 
 
 Place. 
 
 Whitelaw, Matthew, 37 Queen Street. 
 Wight, John, C.A., 150 Hope Street, Honorary Secretary. 
 Wilson, Daniel, 87 Hope Street. 
 Wilson, James, Merchant, 30 John Street. 
 Wilson, John, South Bantaskine, Falkirk. 
 Wilson, John, C.A., 59 St. Vincent Street. 
 Wilson, Thomas M., Warehouseman, 42 Glassford Street. 
 *Wilson, William, Warehouseman, 42 Glassford Street. 
 Wink, James, C.A., 4 National Bank Buildings. 
 Wood, George, Merchant, 27 Frederick Street. 
 Wylie, Matthew, 239 North Street.
 
 n 
 
 PBJNTED BY WILLIAM RANKIN, 192 ARGYLE STREET, GLASGOW.

 
 ilC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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