more suitable to their inclinations, and swelled the retinue of Charles in his march into England after the memorable battle of Gladsmuir. Several of Charles' friends also, from Edinburgh and other places, who had been in anxiety lest he should have been cooped up in the natural fastnesses of the Highlands, where they knew that want of money and want of bread would soon reduce the number of his followers, met him here with small supplies of money, which, with what he was laying hold of as belonging to the public, enabled him to hold out, till, by making himself master of Edinburgh, his supplies became more ample.*

On the eleventh of September, having appointed lord George Murray and the duke of Perth lieutenant generals of his army, provided himself in whatever Perth could supply, and levied all the men, horses, and money, which he could command in the neighbourhood, Charles marched to Dunblane, which the duke of Perth had previously occupied, where he halted till the whole of his army came up, which they did on the evening of the twelfth, having been joined on the march by Macdonald of Glenco with sixty men, which, added to sixty that had previously joined, made his quota of the army one hundred and twenty. Macgregor of Glengyle also joined him at Conagan, near Dunblane, with two hundred and fifty-five of the clan Macgregor. On the thirteenth he crossed the Forth at the ford of Frew, five miles above Stirling, and was lodged for the night in Leckie house.

From Leckie house Charles sent the following message to the city of Glasgow:-" I need not inform you of my view in coming, that being already sufficiently known. All who truly love their country, and the true interest of Britain, ought to wish for my success, and do what they can to promote it. It would be a needless repetition to tell you that all the privileges of your town are included in my declaration, and what I have promised I never will depart from. I hope this is your way of thinking, and therefore expect your compliance with my demands. A sum not exceeding fifteen thousand sterling, besides

* Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 443, 444. Home's History of the Rebeltion, pp. 54, 55, 99.

what is due to the government, and whatever arms can be found in the city, is all at present I require. The terms proposed are very reasonable, and what I promise to make good. I choose to make these demands, but if not complied with, shall take other measures, and you shall be answerable for the consequences." This was signed Charles P. R., and dated from Leckie house. From the confidence they had in the troops under Sir John Cope, the magistrates of Glasgow paid no regard to this summons; but it was not long before Mr. John Hay, writer to the signet, with a party of horse, accompanied by Glengyle, the chief of the Macgregors, arrived in the city with another of the same tenor, and they were glad to compromise the matter by giving five thousand sterling in money, and five hundred in goods.

From Leckie house Charles moved on the morning of the fourteenth, directing his march to the eastward, apparently towards Edinburgh. Passing within a mile of the castle of Stirling, several shots were fired at him from the castle, but none of them took effect. This day the rebels reached the neighbourhood of Falkirk. Charles himself passed the night at Callender, the seat of the earl of Kilmarnock, his army sheltering themselves among the broom in the parks to the eastward of that house. Colonel Gardener having with his dragoons retreated before them from Stirling to Falkirk, now moved on to Linlithgow, the bridge of which place he proposed to defend. Aware of this determination, one thousand Highlanders were detached by Charles, under the command of lord George Murray, on the morning of the fifteenth, with a design to surprise the colonel. The Highlanders reached Linlithgow before break of day, but the dragoons had gone off the preceding evening. Lord George Murray halted with his detachment at Linlithgow, till Charles and the remainder of the army came up, when the whole took the direct road for Edinburgh, which is only sixteen miles from Linlithgow. A messenger was despatched to Edinburgh to give notice of the approach of the

* Ray's History of the Rebellion, pp. 27, 28.

+ Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 445. Home says they were quartered in the town of Falkirk.

rebels, and he reported that they had got as far as Kirkliston, a village about eight miles from Edinburgh.

When the news of Charles having landed in the Highlands first reached Edinburgh, they do not appear to have made any very particular impression. Many no doubt wished them to be true, provided he was accompanied with an army sufficient to enforce his claims; but upon the whole, they certainly gained but little credit either with his friends or his enemies; and even when their truth became unquestionable, from the feeble retinue he had brought along with him, the unpromising circumstances with which he was surrounded, and the nature of the enterprise, which had more the appearance of romance than reality, they laid a foundation of slender hope to the one, and of no very serious alarm to the other. The inconsiderate march of the king's troops into the Highlands, however, soon gave them altogether a new, and, to the friends of order and good government, a fearful importance; and when on the evening of Saturday, the thirty-first of August, an express from Perthshire brought tidings to Edinburgh that Sir John Cope had felt his forces inadequate to force the Corryarrak, and had gone by Ruthven for Inverness, leaving the country entirely open to the Highlanders, who were already advanced as far as Blair in Athol, the extravagance of the hopes of the Jacobites could only be equalled by the extravagance of the fears of their opponents.

The spirit of the city of Edinburgh, with regard to the existing order of things, had long been doubtful, nor had recent circumstances tended greatly to improve it; but there was unquestionably among its many citizens a goodly number of men devoted to the interests of religion and liberty, and who, considering the present government as the best security for both, were willing to risk their lives and fortunes for its preservation. Unhappily, however, the city elections were just approaching, and there was a struggle for power going on, which absorbed the attention of individuals much more than in such circumstances was consistent with that duty which they owed to the community in general. The lord provost of the city happened unfortunately to be Archibald Stuart, Esq. a weak man,

whom the Jacobites found it easy to perplex, and his enemies out of his weakness drew materials for fixing upon him a charge of Jacobitism, which subjected him to a long and a rigorous prosecution, from which, though a jury of his countrymen pronounced him not guilty, his memory is perhaps not yet altogether cleared.*

The following are the opinions of some of his contemporaries. The first is that of Colin MacLaurin, professor of mathematics in the college of Edinburgh, than whom no man was better qualified to give a judicious view of any subject:

"If you have curiosity to know my history these last three months, take it briefly as follows. As soon as the danger from the rebels seemed imminent, I left the country, and continued in town, endeavouring to promote the spirit that began to appear amongst the gentlemen, in hopes it would have been raised likewise amongst the burghers and trades. I was amongst the first volunteers, and signed for a dozen of the town's regiment. The care of the walls was recommended to me, in which I laboured night and day, under infinite discouragements from superior powers. When I was promised hundreds of workmen, I could hardly get as many dozens; this was daily complained of, redress was promised; but till the last two days no redress was made, and then it was late. However the town was in a condition to have stood out two or three days against men unprovided with artillery, unskilful, and then ill armed: and there was a double expectation of relief, viz. from the Dutch and Sir John Cope. On the fatal Monday I was loading the cannon at the west port, and pressing the finishing of some works there, when, in a packed meeting (400 volunteers, mostly substantial burghers, being under arms elsewhere) it carried to capitulate. When I heard of this, I called for the Provost for orders what I should do with the cannon. The answer was,

he had not time to speak to me. The case, (which) had been often put to the Provost, actually happened, for Cope was off Dunbar, and could have been up on the Wednesday. The Monday night, neither were the town's arms carried to the castle, nor did the town stand on its defence till terms were granted; and therefore they had none, though by *****'s message it had been offered, that no Highlander should enter the town; but there was a plain collusion."-Culloden Papers, p. 262.

The next is that of general Robert Wightman, who also was an actor in the farce, which, if his opinion of provost Stuart was correct, must have ended in a very horrid tragedy, had not circumstances prevented it.

66

My L. P.

"I came to Edinburgh from Potosi on the 10th instant, after having sett my smelt miln a going, and put every thing in such order, under the direction of an active agent, as my affairs will go on successfully in my absence, without

There had been several consultations between the magistrates and some of the principal citizens with regard to the defence of the town, in the absence of any thing like regular troops, previously to the reception of the news of the two armies having passed each other; but now that the rebels were on the direct road for the metropolis, with nothing of a defensive kind interposed in their way, it became a question of immediate concern, and on Monday, the second of September, the council ordered the town guard to be augmented to the full number of one hundred and twenty-six men. In addition to the town guard, the magistrates of Edinburgh still retained in the trainbands the name and form of their ancient militia, which consisted of sixteen companies, from sixty to one hundred men in a company. The men were enrolled, and the officers appointed from the burghers of the town, according to ancient custom; but, except on the king's birthday, when they were furnished with arms for the service of the day from the city magazine, which contained about twelve hundred stand of arms, most of them without bayonets, the trained bands had not been called out since the Revolution. Many of the citizens, of course, doubted

any interruption. I found the honest people in the city very zealous, and G. D. and J. N. very active; but soon perceived the Provost was a dead weight upon them, acting in the little, subtil, sly way. I assisted Mr. MacLaurin in forming a plan for fencing the city, in some such manner as was done in 1715, which somewhat was done before I left the city on Monday the 16th at noon, but nothing to the purpose. I soon saw the Provost's plot; which was, to render all the efforts of the honest people of the town vain, by arming the train bands, and critically raising a tumult in the city, which would have issued in their utter ruin. I therefore apprised my friends of their danger, and put the enclosed paper into G. D.'s hands; the effect whereof was, that the volunteers laid down their arms about five hours after I left the city. The Provost having declined to consent to the admission of the dragoons, or even to invite 100 of them to assist in its defence, next morning, between 5 and 6 o'clock, the rebells entered, by a concerted surprise, whereof you have doubtless heard the particulars before this can come to your hand.” -Culloden Papers, p. 224.

The third is George Dodington, who, writing to Mr. Oswald of Dunkier, says:-" As to the behaviour of Edinburgh, I am not quite satisfied with it; as to friend Archy, certainly he may be very blameless, but I find by all accounts he has very ill luck. Some make him carl of Leith, &c. What is the truth of the man's conduct ?"-Memorials of James Oswald, Esq. of Dunnikier