West Highlands was as great a surprise to me as it was to any man in Scotland. But who can prevent accidents or the designs of Providence? It is certain, that what he has done since he landed seems rather to be a miracle than the effects of men's heads or hands, and how far that favourable providence may follow him, or conduct him, God alone knows, for he seems at present in a fair and probable way of succeeding; for those of his party have quite different accounts from those that your lordship has, and their faith directly opposite to yours; and I can assure your lordship, without any party view or influence, that those that are resolved to stand by him are much more numerous than your lordship imagines, and they flatter themselves that they will have succours from France and Spain of men, money, and arms. So, as I told your lordship before, he must be a very real prophet that can tell what side will gain or lose, and that makes every person go to the side that they love best. It is certain that almost all the Highlanders in Scotland love the pretender and his interest more than they do the interest of the present government; and if he be assisted by the English friends of the pretender, and by a foreign force, he believes he will succeed in his enterprise. But I do solemnly declare to your lordship, that nothing ever vexed my soul so much as my son's resolution to go and join the prince, and venture his person with him; and this mad resolution struck him in the head as soon as he heard of the prince's landing; and after what Macleod said to him, and what Gortuleg said to him, and what myself said to him, I know by his answers to Macleod, Gortuleg, and me, that all the creation will not keep him from going to live and die with that prince. I refer it to your lordship, who has a true sense of the danger of my family by his going out, what a load and weight of grief must be upon my soul to see my son, myself, and my family, in such danger and jeopardy. But I cannot help it; I must submit to the will of God, and there I must leave it. I sent your lordship's last letter with a clever man to travel all night, that he might deliver it to Gortuleg as soon as possible, to whom I wrote the strongest exhortations to entreat of him to use all his credit and good sense with my son to dissuade him from his very rash and inconsiderate resolutions; and for my part, as my son only

smiles and laughs at me when I make strong remonstrances to him against his resolutions, I am resolved never to write or open my mouth to him upon that subject: and as God Almighty has at many times wonderfully delivered me out of many dangers and difficulties by land and sea, I throw myself on his divine providence, and trust myself entirely to it; for if God in his providence save my estate, I do not give three halfpence for my life, for it is but wearisome to me, and full of troubles.

"I beg, my lord, that you may not be in the least apprehensive that any of those rogues, or any in my country, go and disturb your tenants; for I solemnly swear to Gortuleg, that if any villain or rascal of my country durst presume to hurt or disturb any of your lordship's tenants, I would go personally, though carried in a litter, and see them seized and hanged. So, my dear lord, I beg you may have no apprehension that any of your tenants will meet with disturbance as long as I live in this country, and I hope that any son that represents me will follow my example; so let monarchies, governments, and commonwealths take up fits of revolutions and wars, for Godsake, my dear lord, let us live in good friendship and peace together. This is my sincere wish and desire, since it is impossible for me to forget the obligations I owe your lordship and your family, for which reason you shall always find me your affectionate cousin, and faithful slave, Lovat."*

This is certainly one of the most extraordinary letters to be found on record, and points out the character of Lovat, and the miserable state of the Highlands, more distinctly than any comment possibly can. Lovat, indeed, could write, say, or swear any thing that he imagined would serve his purpose. This son, of whom he had such complaints for disobedience, was in every point of view exemplary for submission and docility, and was doing all that he did in compliance with the commands of his father, and in direct opposition to his own better judgment; and the greedy, subtile rogues, and rascals, and barbarians, against whom he rails so bitterly, durst not, according to his own showing, presume to disturb any body without his authority, since he had the power and the will, if they did so, to

* Culloden Papers, pp. 233, 234.

have them seized and hanged. But he was determined to have the president, whose generous disposition he was well acquainted with, brought to commit himself in the way of advice, so as that he might have something like his permission for the deceitful part he was now performing. That such was his motive, appears still more evidently from a letter written a week after, wherein he repeats his complaint of the disobedience of his son:-" For my part," says he, "my lord, I solemnly protest to your lordship, that since my son was determined on that mad, foolish project, I never spoke to him about it, but he always flew in my face like a wild cat, and any thing I got done with him was by Gortuleg's means, who has a great deal to say with him. I have earnestly begged of Gortuleg within this hour to use all his interest with him not to go away this week, for God knows what a week may produce."

The earl of Cromarty was performing, at the same time, a part exactly similar to Lovat, and it had been concerted between them and others of the Highland chieftains to march into the country, of Assint, and raise the people for the pretender by force of arms. The want of co-operation, however, on the part

* Cromarty was playing the same game with the lord president as the lord of Lovat, and though he was greatly inferior, the following specimen of his style may not be unacceptable to the reader:-" My lord, when I saw your lordship last at Culodden, we then concerted that I should look out for some men to have them in raddiness when there might be occasion for them. In consequence of which, I spoke to several of my friends, to know what I might expect from them; and to others at a distance, I wrote and used such arguments as I thought might be most apt to exceet them to come into measures. I am sorry to hear that I am misrepresented, and that my endeavours, when I meant them for the best, are misconstrued by some, tho' I hope your lordship, who knows my sentiments of these matters, will give no credit to idle storys; on the contrary, I would expect you wou'd contradict them, and take my parte against any that out of ill will endeavour to asperce me. But I believe there is none at this time free of being in some shape or other misrepresented-I must take my share in the general calamity. When I see your lordship I will tell you a great deal more of this than I can trouble you with in a letter. In the mean time I beg leave in this way to assure you, that I am, with great truth, my lord," &c.

"To the Lord President. Tarbert, 19th October, 1745."

Culloden Papers, p. 232.

of Macdonald and Macleod of Skye, and the companies that were so rapidly drawing together by lord Loudon, put an end to that project; and Lovat, without any scruple, claims the whole merit of preventing it :-" As I was very much concerned," he writes, "for Genias and for my dear cousin, your niece, his lady, I spoke to Gortuleg in very strong terms to tell my son, that if he sent a man with Barrisdale on that expedition, I would never speak a word to him while I lived. So as he has a great friendship himself for his cousin, the lady Genias, he followed Gortuleg's advice, which broke and blew up that project. I am very glad in being anywise instrumental in overturning such a base and inhuman design.

"I wrote to your lordship some time ago, to beg of you, as you wished me well, to give me your advice how to behave in the distracted situation that this country is in. If I knew where to go in safety out of it, I certainly would not stay in it; and I am so unlucky with the weakness and pain in my knees and limbs, that I am not able to mount a horseback, nor walk the length of your garden, without assistance, if it was to save my life. But if I was able to ride I would be in no pain, for I could go and visit all my friends in the shires of Murray, Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness, where I never was, though I have a great many relations in those countries, and discoursing with different persons every day would divert my melancholy, which is truly heavy upon me at present, and if it increase it will very soon make an end of me. I would go straight to Edinburgh if the Highland army was not there and thereabouts; but since I am fully resolved to have nothing to do with them, I dare not go to Edinburgh, so that my situation is a little perplexed, and I again most earnestly and humbly beg your lordship to give me your advice about it." After again reverting to the obstinacy of his son, which he represents as of the most inveterate kind, he concludes by telling the president, that all the effect of his strong remonstrances to Gortuleg in Stratherrick, “was to get back eight of the cattle" that had been stolen, the rest being killed before the letter arrived, and faithful promises and assurances that " none of his lordship's people should ever after this be molested by those, wicked rogues, and that they would

send back as much as could be got together of the things taken out of the gardener and weaver's houses."

Full of compassion for an old man for whom he had done many kind offices, and whom he saw, from a mistaken notion of his own interest, drawing down inevitable destruction upon his own head; and provoked, perhaps, not a little by such "shilly shally stuff," as he elsewhere denominates it, so often repeated, the lord president at last finding that the master of Lovat, with the better part of the clan, had either marched or were marching to join the rebels, laying aside the familiar manner he had hitherto used with so little real effect, wrote to Lovat on the twenty-ninth of October, the following, in his official character:"My lord, As I have now the honour of being charged with the public affairs in this part of the kingdom, I can no longer remain a spectator of your lordship's conduct, and see the double game you have played for some time past, without betraying the trust reposed in me, and at once risking my reputation, and the fidelity I owe to his majesty as a good subject. Your lordship's actions now discover evidently your inclinations, and leave us no further in the dark about what side you are to choose in the present unhappy insurrection; you have now so far pulled off the mask, that we can see the mark you aim at, though on former occasions you have had the skill and address to disguise your intentions in matters of far less importance. And, indeed, methinks a little more of your lordship's wonted artifice would not have been amiss, whatever had been your private sentiments with respect to this unnatural rebellion. You should, my lord, have duly considered and estimated the advantages that would arise to your lordship from its success, and balanced them with the risks you run if it should happen to miscarry; and above all things, you should have consulted your own safety, and allowed that the chief place in your system of politics, which I persuade myself would have induced your lordship to have played the game after quite a different manner, and with a much greater degree of caution and policy. But so far has your lordship been from acting with your ordinary finesse and circumspection on this occasion, that you sent away your son

* Culloden Papers, pp. 236, 237.