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No event was less expected on the part of the goverment than
the landing of Charles Edward. A flying report had, indeed, been spread in the Highlands
in the beginning of summer, that the prince was to come over in the course of that season;
but no person, not in the secret of his design, could have imagined that Charles had any
intention to risk his person without being accompanied by a sufficient body of troops, and
no disposition appeared on the part of France to assist him.
The report alluded to was first communicated in a letter from "a gentleman of
consideration in the Highlands" to Lord President Forbes, who, on the 2d July, showed
it to Sir John Cope, the commander-in-chief in Scotland. Little credit was, however,
attached to the report, either by the writer of the letter or by the president. Cope,
though equally increduoous, considered it his duty to communicate the report to the
Marquis of Tweeddale, the secretary of state for Scotland; and to provide against any
contingency that might occur, he proposed that the forts of Scotland should be well
provided, and that arms should be transmitted for the use of the well-affected clans. In
an answer which the marquis wrote upon the 9th, he ordered Cope to keep a strict watch
upon the north, but informed him, that, as the measures he proposed were considered by the
lords of the regency acting in behalf of the king during his majesty's absence in Hanover,
as likely to create alarm, they had declined to enter into them.
But the lords of the regency were soon aroused from their supineness by advices from
abroad that the French court was meditating an invasion of Great Britain, and that the
eldest son of the Pretender had left Nantes in a French man-0of-war, and, according to
some accounts, was actually landed in Scotland. On the 30th of July, the Marquis of
Tweeddale wrote to Sir John Cope, communicating to him the news which had just been
received, and despatched letters of the same date to Lord Milton, the Justice Clerk, and
to the Lord Advocate, with similar intelligence, and enjoining them to keep a strict look
out, - to concert what was proper to be done in the event of a landing. - to give the
necessary ordersfor making the stictest inquiry into the truth of the intelligence, - and
to transmit to the marquis, from time to time, such information as they were able to
collect. The Lords Justices, however, without waiting for a return to these letters,
issued, on the 6th of August, a proclamation, commanding all his majesty's officers, civil
and military, and all other loving subjects of his majesty, to use their utmost endeavours
to sieze and secure the son of the Pretender, promising at the same time a reward of
£30,000 to any one who should seize Prince Charles, and "bring him to justice".
The express sent by the Marquis of Tweeddale reached Edinburgh on the 3d of August, but
the advices which had been received in London had preceded it. The Lord President, in a
letter written the day before to Mr Pelham, mentions the alarm which, in a state of
profound tranquility, these advices had created. The report, however, of the prince's
intended visit was discredited by the President, who considered the "young
gentleman's game" to be then "very desperate" in Scotland, the President
believing that there was not "the least apparatus for his reception, even amongst the
few Highlanders who were expected to be in his interest". As, however, where there
was so much at stake, the President wisely judged that no report respecting the prince's
movements, however improbable, was to be disregarded, he resolved to make his acustomed
journey to the north a little earlier than usual, to the end that, though, as he himself
observes, his "fighting day" were over, he might give countenance to the friends
of government, and prevent the seduction of the unwary, should the report turn out
well-founded. On the 8th of August, Forbes wrote the Marquis of Tweeddale, stating that
the Lord Advocate and Sir John Cope had informed him of the advices which had been
received from abroad, but expressing his disbelief of the report, which he considered
"highly improbable". "I consider the report improbable", he observes,
"because I am confident that young man cannot with reason expect to be joined by any
considerable force in the Highlands. Some loose lawless men of desperate fortunes may
indeed resort to him; but I am persauded that none of the Highland gentlemen, who have
ought to lose, will, after the experience with which the year 1715 furnished them, think
proper to risque their fortunes on an attempt which to them must appear desperate;
especially as so many considerable families amongst themselves have lately uttered their
sentiments; unless the undertaking is supported by an invasion on some other part of his
majesty's dominions". To provide against any emergency which might arise in the
north, his lordship proposed first, that a sufficient number of arms should be lodged in
the forts in the Highlands, with directions by whom, and to whom they might be delivered
out, - a proposal the same in substance as that made by Sir John Cope; and secondly, that
money or creidt should be lodged in the hands of confidential persons in the north, for
the use of the public service. This last mentioned measure he considered the more
necessary, as it could not be expected, as he observed, that private individuals would
come forward with money, when they recollected that several gentlemen, who, in the year
1715, had advanced large sums out of their pockets for the public service, had not even
been repaid, far less rewarded by the government.
The Lord President, though a man of sound judgement, and gifted with a considerable
portion of political foresight, was in this instance deceived in his speculations; and
Lord Tweeddale, perhaps misled by the President, on whose personal knowledge of the state
of the Highlands he placed great reliance, adopted the same views. In an answer to the
President's letter, which the marquis wrote on the 17th of August, he thus expresses
himself: "I own I have never been alarmed with the reports of the Pretender's son's
landing in Scotland. I consider it was a rash and desperate attempt, that can have no
other consequence than the ruin of those concerned in it". |
