secret in the regiment, and it was calculated to give full effect to all the wicked insinuations which, ever since they approached the metropolis, had been daily instilled into them by the emissaries of rebellion. That the being reviewed by his majesty was a mere pretence, must now indeed have been evident to all, and it would have been nothing more than following the rules of expediency, as well as of justice, to have told them explicitly that the real object of bringing them so far was only to carry them a little farther to join the army in Flanders, which, though contrary to their original engagement, as they were certainly not afraid of facing an enemy, might not have been so very offensive; but they were maliciously, under the guise of private friendship, told, that they were to be sent to Carolina, the Botany Bay of that time, whither, it was added, the government intended to transport, by force or fraud, the whole of their countrymen.

That such a report, by men in such circumstances, should have been to a considerable extent credited, will not appear strange to any one who has reflected on the constitution of the human mind; yet they still looked forward, with some degree of hope, to the review, which, after all, they hoped might bring them into the presence of majesty itself, or, at least of such as had royal authority, and might be both able and willing to befriend them. To be prepared for the worst, however, under cover of providing for this review, which took place on Finchley common, on the fourteenth of May, a considerable body of them made preparations for the journey, and on the night of the seventeenth, deserted in a body, with their arms and regimentals, taking the route direct for Scotland. Next day the lords justices issued a proclamation, requiring all magistrates to endeavour to apprehend them, and offering a reward of two pounds sterling for each of them, over and above the reward given by act of parliament. Three of their officers, before they had proceeded far on their journey came up with a party of them, and with the exception

ensigncy, and was captain lieutenant of the regiment when he was killed at Tinconderago. M'Gregor was promoted in another regiment, and afterwards purchased the lands of Inverardine, in Breadalbane; Sir Gregor M'Gregor, of Poyais notoriety, if he be yet alive, is his grandson.-Stewart's Sketches, vol. i. p. 250.

of a corporal and seven men, prevailed upon them to return to their duty. The remainder were overtaken on the nineteenth, at Lady wood, a few miles from Oundle, Northamptonshire, by captain Ball, with a party of Wade's horse, who immediately sent an express to general Blakeney for orders, and in the meantime went into the wood to endeavour to prevail upon them to surrender, but without effect. At seven o'clock in the evening, the general himself, with a squadron of Wade's horse, and one of Churchhill's dragoons, joined captain Ball, and the whole were immediately drawn up so as to secure the passages into the wood. Soon after, the deserters sent a message to the general, requesting that captain Ball might come to them with the conditions they were to expect, and being told it was to lay down their arms and submit, they one and all declared they would sooner be cut in pieces. Being admitted to treat with them in a body, the captain found them drawn up with a thick wood in their rear, before them a ditch, five feet high with a forest hedge upon it, formed a half moon, within which stood about seventy men. Twenty men were placed on each end of it to secure the path, and the remainder were placed to guard the gate that led into the path. Finding some of them in a state of hesitation, the captain encouraged them to surrender, but several of them resolutely presented their firelocks, and swore they would shoot him instantly, if he offered to treat with any one separately.

The captain now delivered them the general's conditions, viz. "If they surrendered peaceably, a favourable report would be made to the lords justices." On their again protesting they would rather be cut to pieces, the captain told them he had hitherto been their friend, and done all in his power to serve them, but if they stood out one hour longer, as they were now completely surrounded, they should receive no quarter. Two of them, at his request, now conducted him out of the wood, and by their discourse finding them inclined to surrender, he absolutely promised them, being brothers, pardon, and taking of them with him, sent the other back to try what fair words would do with those that remained. This man soon returned with thirteen more, one of whom being again sent back, brought off other seventeen, who were all marched up to the general,

one

The captain going

before whom they laid down their arms. once more into the wood to them, the whole body, ninety-eight in number-a few being scattered abroad in the country-submitted to the general's conditions, and they were all marched back, and committed to the Tower of London. They had provided themselves as much bread, beer, and bacon, as would have served them for a week, and had each fourteen charges of ammunition.

They were tried by a court martial, and on the eighteenth of July, at six o'clock in the morning, Samuel and Malcolm Macphersons, corporals, and Farquhar Shaw, a private, were shot upon the parade within the Tower, pursuant to a sentence of this court. The whole were drawn out to see the execution, and joined in prayer with the unfortunate individuals, who behaved with decency and resolution. Their bodies were put into coffins by three of the prisoners, their namesakes, and buried in one grave, near the place of execution. The remainder were shortly after shipped, fifty for Gibraltar, fifty for Minorca, and forty for the Leeward Islands, thirty for Jamaica, and thirty for Georgia.*

The whole of this business was injudicious and unfortunate. It was below the dignity of the British government in this manner to kidnap, these unsuspecting men, who, for the most part were of the better classes, and, it may be presumed, were also friends to the government; and though, when they entered themselves of the Black Watch, they had no intention of going to fight for German interests in Flanders, their services might, if we may judge from what has often happened since, have been, for no very appalling sum, fairly purchased, and of course honestly and honourably made use of. But it was more especially injudicious, in as much as they were far more useful at home upon their native mountains, than they could possibly be abroad. "These Highlanders," says president Forbes, deprecating this very measure," now regimented, though their dress, language, and manners qualified them for securing the low country against depredations, yet that was not

Scots Magazine for 1743; Stewart's Sketches, vol. i. p. 26.-Lord John Murray, afterwards colonel of the regiment, had portraits of the three men who were shot hung up in his dining room. They were all three remarkable for size and figure.-Ibid.

the sole use of them. The same quality fitted them for every expedition that required secrecy and despatch. They served for all purposes of hussars or light horse, in a country where mountains and bogs render cavalry useless; and if properly disposed over the Highlands, nothing that was commonly reported and believed by the Highlanders could be a secret to their commanders, because of their intimacy with the people, and the sameness of the language.

"Now let me suppose that France was to attempt an insurrection in the Highlands, which must be prepared by emissarys sent to cajole, and to cabale, to promise, to pay, to concert, &c. and by arms and ammunition imported and dispersed; and let me suppose this Highland regiment properly disposed and properly commanded, is it not obvious that the operations of such emissarys must be discovered, if not transacted with the utmost secrecy; that the Highlanders who suffered themselves to be tampered with by them, must do so under the strongest apprehensions of being taken by the neck by detachments of that regiment, if their treason were heard of; and that, of course, they must be shy of meeting or transacting with the agent of the pretender, or of caballing, mustering their followers, or receiving or distributeing arms.

"Now, on the other hand, lett me suppose the same attempt to be made, and the Highland regiment in Flanders; let me beg to know, what chance could you have of discovering or preventing the effect of any tampering in the Highlands. Could any officer, or other person trusted by the government go through the mountains with ane intention to discover such intrigues with safety? Would the pretender's emissarys, or the Highlanders who might favour them, be in any apprehension from the regular troops? Could you propose, with any probability of success, to seize arms or attainted persons? Nay, suppose the government had direct intelligence of the projects carried on, where, and by whom, could they hope to surprise or lay hold of any one person? These questions I dare say you can easily answer, and with me can see, that if France should stumble upon such a design as I have been supposing-remove but that regiment, and there is nothing to hinder the agents of that crown to have their full swing, and to tamper with the poor

unthinking people of the Highlands with as great safety as if there were no government at all in the island. I will say more, I doubt not but in many places of that country, if the people could be prevailed with to rebel, they might receive arms, and be in some sort disciplined for many weeks before the government could have certain notice of it." *

Such was the sound wisdom, and the full information, in the face of which the government acted in this whole affair, and this sagacious and prudent counsellor was not aware how remarkably his suspicions, even to a very iota, were to be verified. Nay, they were already verified to an extent, which though it had been told him, he probably would not have believed. Encouraged by the Spanish war, which they were shrewd enough to see would soon bring on a war with France, and delivered from that surveillance to which by the vigilance of these independent companies they had been for a number of years subjected, the Jacobite chieftains, in the beginning of the year 1740, framed an association, which they signed, sealed, and delivered to Drummond of Bochaldy, to be carried to the Chevalier de St. George, and presented to him at Rome, where he was still resident. This document contained an engagement on the part of the subscribers to take arms, and to venture their lives and fortunes to restore the Stuart family to the throne of Britain, provided the king of France would send over a body of troops to their assistance, and it was signed by lord Lovat, Drummond of Perth, lord Traquair, Campbell of Auchinbreck, Cameron of Locheil, &c. &c. Besides this bond of association, Bochaldy carried with him a list of names comprising the greater part of the chieftains of the Highlands, all of whom the conspirators calculated upon as ready to assist them in case of any favourable demonstration being made from abroad. These papers were immediately forwarded by the chevalier, with his full approbation of all they contained, to the French minister, cardinal Fleury, with a request that his eminence would grant the assistance required. Fleury, however, was not a man to be led rashly into any such undertaking, and gave, in return for this confidence, nothing farther than fair promises, till in 1742, the

* Culloden Papers, p. 362.