plained our own motives for now appearing in arms, and would willingly use a little serious expostulation with you, gentlemen, who intend to oppose us. "What then, in the name of God, do you propose to yourselves? Is it also the interest of Great Britain and Ireland? Or, is it the support of the Elector of Hanover's family in the succession to the crown of these realms? If your armaments proceed from the first of these motives, tell us what a prince can do more to make you a free and a happy people? What security can you have more than his word and his army's guarantee, until the nation shall have time abundantly to secure themselves by parliament ? "If you be satisfied with the promises made you, and the security of the performance, do you disapprove of this method of bringing about the execution by force of arms? If you do, be so good as suggest another equally efficacious. "That by parliament, indeed, would have been universally the most acceptable; but we cannot be so infatuated as to remain in eternal bondage, unless a parliament, composed of hirelings, should set us at liberty; nor have we any hopes that the Elector will strip himself of that pecuniary influence by which alone he has carried, over the bellies of the nation, every destructive measure. "On the other hand, if the dispute is to be, whether the Stuart or Hanoverian family shall reign over Great Britain, without reference to the interest of the nation, we need use no other argument than the sword with such as shall oppose us upon these principles. "To conclude, we desire to lay this important question before you in a new light. Suppose, for it is only a supposition, that this dreadful and unnatural rebellion, as you are taught to call it, should be extinguished and quashed, and every man concerned in it executed on a scaffold; your joy, no doubt, would be very great upon so glorious an event; your addresses would then be turned into thanksgivings,—your parliament would then meet and cloath your beloved sovereign with new powers, your standing army, which has hitherto been looked upon as the bane of the constitution, would then be consecrated as your deliverers; and the reverend bishops of the church of England would be hailed from the most distant corners of the island by the glorious appellation of patriots and protectors of British liberty. O happy, thrice happy nation, who have such an army and such a bench of bishops ready upon this occasion to rescue them from popery, from slavery, tyranny, and arbitrary power! "When, indeed, the first transport of your joy would be over,-for you are not to expect that these halcyon days are ever to remain,—you might perhaps find, to your fatal experience, that the constitution of your country was not in the least improved; and upon the return of the unavoidable consequences of those evils all along complained of, and which now you have so fair an opportunity of having redressed, you would at last be sensible that we were those who, in truth, deserved the appellation of deliverers, patriots, and protectors of the British liberty. But this last part of our letter is addressed only to such as we expect to meet with in a field of battle, and we are hopeful that those will prove but an inconsiderable part of the nations of Great Britain and Ireland; and that you, our countrymen and fellow-subjects, upon being advised and informed, as you now have been, of the whole plan of this glorious expedition, will cheerfully join issue with us, and share in the glory of restoring our king and in setting our country free, which, by the strength of our arm, the assistance of our allies, and the blessing of Almighty God, we shortly expect to see accomplished." Whilst the prince and his partizans were thus spreading the seeds of insurrection, and endeavouring to improve the advantages they had gained, the ministry of Great Britain, aroused to a just sense of the impending danger, took every possible measure to retard the progress of the insurrection. King George had returned to London on the thirtyfirst of August. He met with a cordial reception from the nobility and gentry in the capital, and loyal addresses were voted by all the principal cities, and towns, and corporations in the kingdom. A demand was made upon the states-general for the six thousand men stipulated by treaty, part of whom were landed at Berwick the day after Cope's defeat. Three battalions of guards, and seven regiments of foot, were ordered home from Flanders, and a cabinet council was held at Kensington on the thirteenth of September, which directed letters to be sent to the lords-lieutenants and custodes rotulorum of the counties of England and Wales to raise the militia. Marshal Wade was despatched to the north of England to take the command of the forces in that quarter, and two regiments, of one thousand each, were ordered to be transported from Dublin to Chester. A number of blank commissions was, as has been before stated, sent to the north of Scotland to raise independent companies; the earl of Loudon was despatched to Inverness to take the command, and two ships of war were successively sent down with arms to the same place. As popery had been formerly a serviceable bugbear to alarm the people for their religion and liberties, some of the English bishops issued mandates, to their clergy, enjoining them to instil into their people "a just abhorrence of popery" and of arbitrary power, both of which they supposed to be inseparably connected; a proceeding which formed a singular contrast with the conduct of their brethren, the Scottish protestant episcopal clergy, who to a man were zealously desirous of restoring the Stuarts, apart from such considerations. The • In the letter from Charles to his father, of 21st September, 1745, before quoted, he animadverts with singular severity on the conduct of the bishops. "I have," he says, " seen two or three gazettes filled with addresses and mandates from the bishops to the clergy. The addresses are such as I expected, and can impose on none but the weak and clergy attended to the injunctions they had received, and their admonitions were not without effect. Associations were speedily formed in every county, city, and town in England, of any consideration, in de fence of the religion and liberties of the nation, and all persons, of whatever rank or degree, seemed equally zealous to protect both. The parliament met on the seventeenth of October, and was informed by his majesty that he had been obliged to call them together sooner than he intended, in consequence of an unnatural rebellion which had broken out and was still continued in Scotland, to suppress and extinguish which rebellion he craved the immediate advice and assistance of the parliament. Both houses voted addresses, in which they gave his majesty the strongest assurances of duty and affection to his person and government, and promised to adopt measures commensurate with the danger. The habeas corpus act was suspended for six months, and several persons were apprehended on suspicion of treasonable practices. The duke of Cumberland arrived from the Netherlands shortly after the opening of the session, and on the twenty-fifth of October a large detachment of cavalry and infantry arrived in the Thames from Flanders. The train-bands of London were reviewed by his majesty on the twenty-eighth; the county regiments were completed; and the persons who had associated themselves in different parts of the kingdom as voluncredulous. The mandates are of the same sort, but artfully drawn. They order their clergy to make the people sensible of the great blessings they enjoy under the present family that governs them, particularly of the strict administration of justice, of the sacred regard that is paid to the laws, and the great security of their religion, and liberty, and property. This sounds all very well, and may impose on the unthinking; but one who reads with a little care will easily see the fallacy. What occasion has a prince, who has learnt the art of corrupting the fountain of all laws, to disturb the ordinary course of justice? Would not this be to give the alarm, or amount to telling them, that he was not come to protect as he pretended, but really to betray them? When they talk of the security of their religion, they take care not to mention one word of the dreadful growth of atheism and infidelity, which I am extremely sorry to hear, from very sensible, sober men, have within these few years got to a flaming height, even so far, that I am afraid many of their most fashionable men are ashamed to own themselves Christians, and many of the lower sort act as if they were not. Conversing on this melancholy subject, I was led into a thing which I never understood rightly before, which is, that those men who are loudest in the cry of the growth of popery and the danger of the protestant religion, are not really protestants, but a set of profligate men of good parts, with some learning, and void of all principles, but pretending to be republicans. "I asked those who told me this, what should make those men so zealous about preserving the protestant religion, seeing they are not Christians; and was answered, that it is in order to recommend themselves to the ministry, who, if they can write pamphlets for them, or get themselves chosen members of parliament, will be sure to provide amply for them. "The bishops are as unfair and partial in representing the security of their property as that of their religion; for when they mention it they do not say a word of the vast load of debt, that increases yearly, under which the nation is groaning, and which must be paid (if ever they intend to pay it,) out of their property. 'Tis true all this debt has not been contracted under the princes of this family, but a great part of it has, and the whole of it might have been cleared by a frugal administration during these thirty years of a profound peace which the nation has enjoyed, had it not been for the immense sums that have been squandered away in corrupting parliaments and supporting foreign interests, which can never be of any service to these kingdoms." teers, were daily employed in the exercise of arms. Apprehensive of an invasion from France, the government appointed Admiral Vernon to command a squadron in the Downs, to watch the motions of the enemy by sea. Cruizers were stationed along the French coast, particularly off Dunkirk and Boulogne, which captured several ships destined for Scotland with officers, soldiers, and ammunition for the use of the insurgents. The birth-day of George the Second, which fell on the thirtieth of October, was celebrated throughout the whole of England with extraordinary demonstrations of loyalty. Many extravagant scenes were enacted, which, though they may now appear ludicrous and absurd, were deemed by the actors in them as deeds of the purest and most exalted patriotism. In Scotland, however, with one remarkable exception, the supporters of government did not venture upon any public display. The exception alluded to was the town of Perth, some of whose inhabitants took possession of the church and steeple about mid-day, and rang the bells. Oliphant of Gask, who had been made deputy-governor of the town by the young Chevalier, and had under him a small party, sent to desire those who rang the bells to desist; but they refused to comply, and continued ringing at intervals until midnight, two hours after the ordinary time. Mr Oliphant, with his small guard and three or four gentlemen, posted themselves in the councilhouse, in order to secure about fourteen hundred small arms, some ammunition, &c. belonging to the Highland army, deposited there and in the adjoining jail. At night seven north-country gentlemen, in the Jacobite interest, came to town with their servants, and immediately joined their friends in the council-house: when it grew dark the mob made bon-fires in the streets, and ordered the inhabitants to illuminate their windows, an order which was generally obeyed, and the few that refused had their windows broken. About nine o'clock at night a party sallied from the council-house, and marching up the street to disperse the mob, fired upon and wounded three of them. The mob, exasperated by this attack, rushed in upon the party, and disarmed and wounded some of them. After this rencontre the mob placed guards at all the gates of the town, took possession of the main-guard and rung the fire-bell, by which they drew together about two hundred people. They thereupon sent a message to Mr Oliphant, requiring him to withdraw immediately from the town and yield up the arms, ammunition, &c. to them. Mr Oliphant having refused, they rang the fire-bell a second time, and hostilities commenced about two o'clock in the morning, which continued about three hours. The people fired at the council-house from the heads of lanes, from behind stairs, and from windows, so that the party within could not look out without the greatest hazard. About five o'clock the mob dispersed. An Irish captain in the French service was killed in the council-house, and three or four of Mr Oliphant's party were wounded. Of the mob, who had none to conduct them, four |