Balmerino, addressing himself to the lord high steward, produced a paper, desiring it might be read. Being told that he was at liberty to read the paper, his lordship said his voice was too low, and that he could not read it so well as he could wish;

suspect, that what I am now to offer, is intended to extenuate those crimes, or palliate my offences. No, I mean only to address myself to your lordships' merciful disposition; to excite so much compassion in your lordships' breasts, as to prevail on his grace, and this honourable house, to intercede with his majesty for his royal clemency.

"Tho' the situation I am now in, and the folly and rashness which has exposed me to this disgrace, cover me with confusion, when I reflect upon the unsullied honour of my ancestors; yet I cannot help mentioning their unshaken fidelity, and steady loyalty to the crown, as a proper subject to excite that compassion which I am now soliciting. My father was an early and steady friend to the revolution, and was very active in promoting every measure that tended to settle and secure the protestant succession in these kingdoms. He not only in his public capacity promoted these events, but in his private supported them; and brought me up, and endeavoured to instil into my early years those revolution principles, which had always been the rule of his actions. It had been happy for me, my lords, that I had been always influenced by his precepts, and acted up to his example. Yet I believe, that on the strictest inquiry, it will appear that the whole tenor of my life, from my first entering into the world, to the unhappy minute in which I was seduced to join in this rebellion, has been agreeable to my duty and allegiance, and consistent with the strictest loyalty.

"For the truth of this, I need only appeal to the manner in which I have educated my children; the eldest of which has the honour to bear a commission under his majesty, and has always behaved like a gentleman. I brought him up in the true principles of the revolution, and an abhorrence of popery and arbitrary power. His behaviour is known to many of this honourable house, and therefore I take the liberty to appeal to your lordships, if it is possible that my endeavours in his education would have been attended with such success, if I had not myself been sincere in those principles, and an enemy to those measures which have now involved me and my family in ruin? Had my mind at that time been tainted with disloyalty and disaffection, I could not have dissembled so closely with my own family, but some tincture would have devolved to my children.

"I have endeavoured, as much as my capacity or interest would admit, to be serviceable to the crown on all occasions; and even at the breaking out o. the rebellion, I was so far from approving their measures, or showing the least proneness to promote their unnatural scheme, that, by my interest in Kilmarnock and places adjacent, I prevented numbers from joining them, and encouraged the country, as much as possible, to continue firm to their allegiance.

"When that unhappy hour arrived in which I became a party, which was

on which the lord high steward gave orders for one of the clerks of parliament, who, standing within the bar close by the prisoner, read the paper, which was to the following effect:-That an indictment could not be found in the county of Surrey for

not till after the battle of Preston, I was far from being a person of any consequence amongst them. I did not buy up any arms, nor raise a single man in their service. I endeavoured to moderate their cruelty, and was happily instrumental in saving the lives of many of his majesty's loyal subjects, whom they had taken prisoners. I assisted the sick and wounded, and did all in my power to make their confinement tolerable.

"I had not been long with them before I saw my error, and reflected with horror on the guilt of swerving from my allegiance to the best of sovereigns; the dishonour which it reflected upon myself, and the fatal ruin which it necessarily brought upon my family. I then determined to leave them, and submit to his majesty's clemency, as soon as I should have an opportunity. For this I separated myself from my corps at the battle of Culloden, and staid to surrender myself a prisoner; though I had frequent opportunities, and might have escaped with great ease. For the truth of which I appeal to the noble person to whom I surrendered.

"But, my lords, I did not endeavour to make my escape; because the consequences in an instant appeared to me more terrible-more shocking than the most painful or ignominious death. I chose therefore to surrender, and commit myself to the king's mercy, rather than to throw myself into the hands of a foreign power, the natural enemy of my country; with whom, to have merit, I must persist in continued acts of violence to my principles, and of treason and rebellion against my king and country.

"It is with the utmost abhorrence and detestation I have seen a letter from the French court, presuming to dictate to a British monarch the manner he should deal with his rebellious subjects. I am not so much in love with life, nor so void of a sense of honour, as to expect it upon such an intercession. I depend only on the merciful intercession of this honourable house, and the innate clemency of his sacred majesty.

"But if, my lords, if all I have offered is not a sufficient motive to your lordships to induce you to employ your interest with his majesty for his royal clemency in my behalf, I shall lay down my life with the utmost resignation; and my last moments shall be employed in fervent prayers for the preservation of the illustrious house of Hanover, and the peace and prosperity of Great Britain."

The following, which is still more pathetic, was made by the earl of Cromartie.

My lords,

"I have now the misfortune to appear before your lordships, guilty of an offence of such a nature, as justly merits the highest indignation of his majesty, your lordships, and the public; and it was from a conviction of my guilt, that I did not presume to trouble your lordships with any defence. As I have com

a crime said to have been committed at Carlisle, in December last, while the act ordaining the rebels to be tried in such counties as his majesty should appoint, was not passed till March, and could not have a retrospective power.

mitted treason, it is the last thing I would attempt to justify. My only plea shall be your lordships' compassion-my only refuge his majesty's clemency. Under this heavy load of affliction, I have still the satisfaction, my lords, of hoping that my past conduct, before the breaking out of the rebellion, was irreproachable as to my attachment to the present happy establishment, both in church and state; and in evidence of my affection to the government upon the breaking out of the rebellion, I appeal to the then commander-in-chief of his majesty's forces at Inverness, and to the lord president of the court of session in Scotland, who, I am sure, will do justice to my conduct upon that occasion. But, my lords, notwithstanding my determined resolution in favour of the government, I was unhappily seduced from that loyalty, in an unguarded moment, by the arts of desperate and designing men. And it is notorious, my lords, that no sooner did I awake from that delusion, than I felt a remorse for my departure from my duty, but it was then too late.

"Nothing, my lords, remains, but to throw myself, my life, and fortune, upon your lordships' compassion. But of these, my lords, as to myself, is the least part of my sufferings. I have involved an affectionate wife, with an unborn infant, as parties of my guilt, to share its penalties—I have involved my eldest son, whose infancy and regard to his parents hurried him down the stream of rebellion-I have involved also eight innocent children, who must feel their parent's punishment before they know his guilt. Let them, my lords, be ple lges to his majesty-let them be pledges to your lordships-let them be pledges to my country for mercy-let the silent eloquence of their grief and tears, let the powerful language of innocent nature supply my want of eloquence and persuasion; let me enjoy mercy, but no longer than I deserve it, and let me no longer enjoy life than I shall use it to deface the crime I have been guilty of. Whilst I thus intercede to his majesty through the mediation of your lordships for mercy, let my remorse for my guilt as a subject, let the sorrow of my heart as a husband, let the anguish of my mind as a father speak the rest of my misery. As your lordships are men, feel as men; but may none of you ever suffer the smallest part of my anguish.

"But if after all, my lords, my safety shall be found inconsistent with that of the public, and nothing but my blood can atone for my unhappy crime; if the sacrifice of my life, my fortune, and family, is judged indispensably necessary for stopping the loud demands of public justice, and if the bitter cup is not to pass from me, not mine, but thy will, O God, be done!"

This speech, which deeply affected their lordships, together with the intercessions that were made for him, saved his lordship's life. He was condemned, as above, with his two companions in crime, but the sentence was not executed; in 1748, he was allowed to leave the Tower, and to lodge at the house of a messenger. In the following August he was permitted to go

motion of earl Granville, the lords adjourned to their own house, where, after some debate, it was agreed that his lordship should have counsel allowed him to argue the case, for which purpose the court was adjourned till next day, the prisoners being carried back to their confinement, with the axe carried before them in the same manner as on the former occasion.

On the first of August, the court being set, and the prisoners - presented at the bar, lord Balmerino was asked if he was ready, by his counsel, to argue the point he had proposed to the court the day before. He replied, that having been told by his counsel his objection was not sufficient to found an arrest of judgment upon, he now withdrew it, craving their lordships' pardon for giving them so much trouble, and submitted himself to the court. The lords Cromartie and Kilmarnock having done the same, and silence being proclaimed, the lord high steward, after an eloquent speech, in which he enlarged upon the excellence of the British constitution, the blessings attending the reign of his present majesty, the wickedness and the madness of the late rebellion, &c. &c. pronounced the sentence which the law has awarded against the crime of high treason; after which he took the white rod, with both his hands, broke it in two, and declared his commission at an end. The lords then returned to the chamber of parliament, and the prisoners, after partaking of a cold collation provided for them, were carried to their former places of confinement, the axe still accompanying them as before. They showed no symptoms of dejection, and the populace behaved with more decency than on some former

occasions.

Petitions were presented in the name of William, late earl of Kilmarnock, to the king, to the prince of Wales, and to the duke of Cumberland, in which every argument was brought forward that could be supposed to have any influence in extenuating his lordship's crime, and to vindicate him from some reports that had gone abroad-very unjustly we believe-of his having been accessary to several acts of wanton and unnecessary

into Devonshire; and in the month of October, 1749, a pardon passed the seals for him, on condition that he should remain in such place as his majesty should appoint. He died in London, 1766.

cruelty when along with the rebels; but he was not considered to be a proper object of the royal mercy. Every exertion was also made in behalf of the earl of Cromartie. His lady, the day after he was sentenced, went with petitions to the lords of the cabinet council, and next day, August the third, being the Sabbath, she went to Kensington in deep mourning, and throwing herself on her knees before the king, as he was going into the chapel, took hold of the hem of his coat, and in the act of presenting him a petition, fainted away. His majesty raised her up with his own hand, took her petition from her, and gave it to the duke of Grafton, who was behind him; he also desired lady Stair, who accompanied lady Cromartie, to carry her to an apartment where she might be taken care of. The dukes of Hamilton and Montrose, the earl of Stair, and several others, also interceded with the king on his behalf, and on the ninth of the month he received a reprieve. Lord Balmerino having been pardoned before, could have little hopes of mercy, and it does not appear that he made any applications for it.

On the eleventh of the month, an order was signed in council for the execution of the earl of Kilmarnock and lord Balmerino, on Tower hill, Monday the eighteenth; and on the twelfth, writs passed the great seal, to empower the lord Cornwallis, constable of the Tower, to deliver their bodies to the sheriffs of London on that day for execution. This melancholy result was communicated to lord Kilmarnock the same day, by Mr. Foster, a dissenting clergyman, whom his lordship had called to assist him in his devotions during the few days that remained to him. These few days he entirely devoted to his spiritual interests. Deeply impressed with the enormity of the crime for which he was to suffer a violent death, as well as with the careless and dissipated tenor of his previous life, his lordship seems to have had nothing in view but how he might best testify the sincerity of his repentance, and repair, as far as was in his power, the mischief that might have followed from his pernicious example. The week previous to his execution, he had the sacrament twice administered to him, and his appearance on the day of his execution was every way suitable to his unhappy situation. He was apparently sensible of his guilt, sincerely repentant,