the service of these troops abroad, was always a signal to the Highland clans for a rebellion at home.

The death of the emperor Charles VI., in 1740, gave rise to a general war in Europe. The French ministry, in order to furnish employment to the British government at home, concerted a plan of invasion in favour of the Pretender. In the beginning of 1744, transports were collected at Dunkirk, for an army of 15,000 men under the command of Marshal Saxe, who, with Prince Charles Edward, the Pretender's son, arrived at that place on the 23d of February; but while the embarkation of the troops was going on, a storm arose, which wrecked a number of transports, whereby many soldiers and seamen, and a great quantity of warlike stores were lost, and an end, for that time, was put to the invasion. Had this expedition reached the shores of Britain, the whole of the disaffected clans, who were able to bring to the field 12,000 men, were prepared to rise. The chiefs were all then united, which for various reasons they were not when the Rebellion actually took place.

Impatient at the delays of the court of France in seconding his views, the young Pretender proposed to repair to Scotland, even without assistance, contrary to the wishes of his Jacobite friends in that country, who, with the exception of the Duke of Perth, all declared themselves against such a design. The battle of Fontenoy, however, in which the British troops were cut to pieces, on the 11th of May, 1745, determined Prince Charles to try what he could do in a country where he knew he had many friends, and no formidable enemies but the regular troops, few of which were then in the island. He embarked soon after, and landed in the West Highlands, accompanied only by a few attendants.

In the Low-country of Scotland, the great body of the people were either presbyterians of the established church, or seceders from that church of still more rigid presbyterian principles. These were all staunch adherents of the Hanover family. A considerable number of the nobility and gentry, and a few of the middle classes were of the episcopal persuasion; and the episcopalians as has been already stated, were either open or concealed Jacobites. The strong feeling of discontent, which had nearly united together the presbyterians and Jacobites, at the time of the union, was now infinitely less powerful with the former, than their hatred of the house of Stuart, and their attachment to the house of Hanover.

The state of England at that time is a subject of greater difficulty. In that country the different parties were not so sharply separated from each other as in Scotland, in which all who were not Whigs were Jacobites, and all were Jacobites who were not Presbyterians. In England all the dissenters were Whigs and Hanoverians; but in that country there is always a considerable body undecided in their principles, and governed by circumstances; and all who were not Whigs and dissenters could not therefore be called Jacobites.

It is certain, however, from the archives of the Stuart family,now in the King's library, that a very great proportion of the English aristocracy were Jacobites. The Tories, though not all Jacobites, had all a leaning towards the Stuart family; and we must never forget that the Tories formed the bulk of the nation for it has been truly observed by Mr. Burke, that the Whigs have never formed any considerable part of the strength of England; that the dissenters were the chief support of that party; and that they owe to circumstances alone, whatever influence they may have at

any time possessed. As the administration had then been thirty years in the hands of the Whigs, they of course possessed a number of adherents in the upper and middle ranks of life, and among the higher established clergy. But though, from the constitution of that church, it is naturally the ally of the state, and its tenet of passive obedience, independently of interest, leads it to support the government; a very suspicious circumstance respecting it was shrewdly noticed by Hume, namely, that almost all its lower clergy then sided with the opposition. He very naturally inferred from this, "that some bias still hung upon our constitution, some extrinsic weight, which turned it from its natural course." We were indebted, for the two extraordinary phenomena of a Whig king and an opposition church, to the existence of the deposed family of Stuart; and the extinction of a Pretender to the throne will probably for ever prevent their recurrence.

Such was the state of the country, and its relations, at the time Prince Charles Edward landed in the West Highlands.

In a few days he was joined by several chieftains, with from 1800 to 2000 men; and with this force he advanced towards the Low-country. Sir John Cope, the commander-in-chief of Scotland, advanced into the Highlands, with what troops he could collect together, about 1400 foot, with some artillery; but on receiving notice that the rebels were waiting his approach in the passes of a high mountain, which it was necessary for him to cross, he turned aside, and left the road to the Low-country open to them. In two days after crossing the Forth, they became masters of the metropolis of Scotland. The king's forces having formed a junction advanced against them, and were completely routed at Preston Pans or Gladsmuir. Being now between 5000 and 6000 strong, though the Highland clans, which formed the

only part of their force, whereon any great dependance could be placed, did not exceed 4000,* they advanced into England, took Carlisle, before which they remained a sufficient time to allow Marshal Wade, who lay at Newcastle with a superior force, to come up with them, and proceeded without interruption to Derby, having gained a march on the Duke of Cumberland, who was at the head of another superior army in the centre of the kingdom. Deceived in their expectations of being joined by the English Jacobites, justly alarmed at the disproportion between their force, and the force and population of the country into which they had advanced so far, and having received intelligence of the arrival of troops and arms from France, they determined to fall back on that force in a council of war held at Derby; and with one army on their flank and another in their rear, they effected their retreat without loss into Scotland, there formed a junction of their forces, again defeated the King's army, then retired into the Highlands, where, after achieving a number of daring exploits in the course of the winter and spring, they were ultimately defeated at Culloden.

Nothing appears more surprising, at first sight, than that so small a force should have bid defiance for more than half a year to the powerful government of Great Britain.

The politician may derive some important lessons from the attentive consideration of what took place at that time.

* In a letter from Lord President Forbes to Mr. Scrope, dated 14th Nov. 1745, published in the Culloden Papers, he says, "For of those kindreds of the Highlanders who in the year 1715 were at Perth, there are now in this country partly assisting me, and partly detained at home by persuasion or force, a greater number than the number of real Highlanders who have from Edinburgh marched towards England. I do not speak of the whole of what they call their army, which is composed of Low-country people, who must prove rather a drawback than any assistance to them; but I speak of the natives of the mountains who by the celerity of their marches, and by their capacity to bear fatigues, may be accounted dangerous enemies."

That a very great proportion of the aristocracy of the country were jacobitically disposed, is proved by the evidence of their own hand-writings. The prevalence of similar feelings in the other classes of England (in Scotland it was otherwise) is proved by the indifference with which the approach of the Highlanders was viewed. “ We are such uncommon people," (at Cambridge) says Gray in a letter to Horace Walpole, " as to have no more sense of danger than if the battle had been fought where and when the battle of Cannæ was. I heard three sensible middleaged men, when the Scotch were said to be at Stamford, and actually were at Derby, talking of hiring a chaise to go to Caxton (a place in the high road), to see the Pretender and Highlanders as they passed."

But the English aristocracy, though they would willingly have joined the Pretender, if they had seen that he could support himself without them, resolved not to stir one step so long as this point remained doubtful. King William was only joined in 1688, when he had shown that he could make good his ground without support. The Jacobites would have cheerfully paid their homage to the family of Stuart, if once seated on the throne, but would risk nothing to contribute to place them on it.

From this we may see the immense strength of government, in a country in which wealth is widely diffused, in relation to its own subjects. The dread of losing that wealth by unsuccessful resistance, will generally command their submission, though the government may not only have little of their regard, but may even be an object of dislike to them. Nothing but the most flagrant misgovernment, something which unites all classes against the state, and renders them, in the apprehension of a greater danger, insensible to the danger to which resistance exposes them, can