" ' May it please your Majesty, —
"' We, the chief heritors and others in the Highlands
of Scotland, under subscribing, beg leave to express the joy
of our hearts at your Majesty's happy accession to the crown
of Great Britain. Your Majesty has the blood of our ancient
monarchs in your veins and in your family; may that royal
race ever continue to reign over us ! Your Majesty's princely
virtues, and the happy prospect we have in your royal family
of an uninterrupted succession of kings to sway the British
sceptre, must extinguish those divisions and contests which
in former times too much prevailed, and unite all who have
the happiness to live under your Majesty into a firm obedience
and loyalty to your Majesty's person, family, and government;
and as our predecessors have for many ages had the honour
to distinguish themselves by their loyalty, so we do most
humbly assure your Majesty, that we will reckon it our honour
steadfastly to adhere to you, and with our lives and our fortunes
to support your crown and dignity against all opposers.
" ' Pardon us, great sir, to implore your royal protection
against any who labour to misrepresent us, and who rather
use their endeavours to create misunderstandings than to engage
the hearts of your subjects to that loyalty and cheerful affectionate
obedience which we owe and are ready to testify towards your
Majesty.
" ' Under so excellent a king we are persuaded that we,
and all your other peaceable faithful subjects, shall enjoy
their just rights and liberties, and that our enemies shall
not be able to hurt us with your Majesty, for whose royal
favour we presume humbly to hope, as our forefathers were
honoured with that of your Majesty's ancestors.
" ' Our mountains, though undervalued by some, are nevertheless
acknowledged to have in all times been fruitful in producing
hardy and gallant men; and such, we hope, shall never be wanting
amongst us, who shall be ready to undergo all danger in defence
of your Majesty's, and your royal posterity's, only rightful
title to the crown of Great Britain.
" ' Our behaviour shall always witness for us, that with
unalterable firmness and zeal, we are, may it please your
Majesty, your Majesty's most loyal, most obedient, and most
dutiful subjects and servants. '
" Signed by 102 persons of weight and respectability.
"
The foregoing may have been a " cause " of disaffection,
but the student of Scottish history will be inclined to look
a
little further back for the "real cause" of the
rebellion of 1715. The union of the crowns took place in 1606,
and a good deal of disaffection was expressed then, especially
in the Highlands. The overthrow of the Stuart dynasty in 1689
almost brought matters to a climax, for then the clans "
vowed they would have a king of their own, and that a Stuart
he should be. " At this period a number of families intrigued
with the Court of France and the Pretender to the crown of
Great Britain, who called himself James VIII. of Scotland
and III. of England. The outcome of this intrigue was that,
in 1708, seven years before the outburst in 1715, he, along
with the French Admiral Fourbin, and 4, 000 men appeared off
Montrose, and then in the Firth of Forth, but fled before
Byng the British admiral.
On the accession of George I. —the very occasion of the "
address " referred to, and yet the feeling as expressed
there may have been quite genuine, but it had been short lived—
we find that the Earl of Mar was among the first to raise
the standard of rebellion. On the 20th of August 1715, he
assembled a number of Jacobites from both sides of the Grampians,
presumably for a grand hunt at Braemar, when he avowed his
real intentions; and shortly afterwards James VIII. was proclaimed
king. Mar made Perth his headquarters, where he soon gathered
together an army of 12, 000 men.
It was expected that the greater part of England would have
risen at this time, but only Northumberland responded. Argyll
beat the rebels at Sheriffmuir the same day that they suffered
defeat at Preston, in England; and with the flight of the
Pretender ended the first serious attempt to replace the Stuarts
on the throne.
Five years later Charles Edward, the son of James, afterwards
known as Prince Charles, was born, and in 1743, when he was
in his twenty-third year, Cardinal Tencin, Prime Minister
to Louis XV. of France, determined to support his claim to
the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. With this object
in view, an invading army about 15, 000 strong assembled at
Dunkirk; vessels were provided to transport them across the
channel, and men-of-war to protect them. Charles Edward was
to lead in person; Marshal Saxe, a distinguished general of
the time, second in command, and the design was to land on
the coast of Kent. The fleet set sail, but a British squadron,
under Sir John Norris, had been collected in the channel to
intercept the invaders, and the Frenchmen learning this made
off. They were over-
|
1745 
