the disposal of offices, after the resignation of sir Robert Walpole. To that coalition they gave the name of the BROAD-BOTTOM, as comprehending honest and able men of all parties. Conformable to this idea, the earl of Harrington was appointed to succeed earl Granville, formerly lord Carteret, as secretary of state; the duke of Bedford was made first commissioner of the admiralty; the earl of Chesterfield, lord-lieutenant of Ireland; Mr. George Lyttleton, afterward lord Lyttleton, one of the commissioners of the treasury; Mr. Doddington, treasurer of the navy; and sir John Hynd Cotton, treasurer of the chamber.

The wide base on which Mr. Pelham had founded his administration left little room for parliamentary opposition; and faction, though secretly plotting new revolutions, seemed for a season to be lulled asleep. Very liberal supplies were voted for prosecuting the war on the continent: vigorous measures were resolved upon, as the most likely means of bringing it to a speedy conclusion; and the duke of Cumberland was appointed commander in chief, in A. D. 1745. order to carry those measures into execution. The earl of Chesterfield was dispatched to the Hague, in the character of ambassador extraordinary, with a view of persuading the Dutch to become principals in the war, or at least to engage them to settle, and furnish with exactness, their quota of troops and subsidies. He succeeded in the latter; and the most sanguine hopes were entertained of

success.

But all those hopes were blasted by the fatal battle of Fontenoy. Fresh discontents arose: the machinations of the jacobites were renewed; and the king of France, whose great object was the conquest of Flanders, in order to procure the recal of the British troops from that country, encouraged the young pretender, by flattering promises and false representations, to attempt a descent in the North of Scotland. Representations, equally false and illusory, were

4. Id. ibid.

made

made to him by certain Irish and Scottish adventurers, who, having nothing to lose, were ready for any desperate enterprise, and probably bribed by the court of Versailles to cajole him into a compliance with its views. They affirmed, that the whole British nation was disaffected to the reigning family; that the body of the people, loaded with oppressive taxes, and longing for relief, would every where crowd to his standard as soon as it should be erected; that the regular troops in the kingdom were few; and that, being assured of a powerful support from France, he could not doubt of being able to recover the crown of his ancestors.

Charles, who was naturally confident, encouraged by these intoxicating misrepresentations, embarked at PortLazare, in Brittany, on board an armed vessel, which his father had found interest to equip, atJULY 14. tended by the marquis of Tullibardine, sir Thomas Sheridan, and a few other Irish and Scottish adherents, with nine hundred stand of arms. The Elizabeth, a French ship of sixty-four guns, laden with arms and ammunition, was appointed him as a convoy: but she falling in with the Lion, an English ship of fifty-eight guns, was obliged, after an obstinate and bloody engagement, to return to Brest in a shattered condition. Charles, however, pursued his voyage, and having made the circuit of Ireland, landed on the coast of Lochaber. He was there joined by Cameron of Lochiel, and some other Highland chiefs, who, though they did not approve of his rash and ill-concerted undertaking, thought themselves bound in honour to assert the rights of a prince whose cause was dear to them, and who had thrown himself upon their generositys.

The naked and defenceless condition of the pretender was too evident to escape the observation of the least intelligent of his partizans. But this objection was artfully set aside by the address of his followers. His deficiency in arms and ammunition, it was said, might be accounted for from the

5. Tindal's Contin. of Rapin, vol. ix. Smollet, vol. xi.

unforeseen

unforeseen misfortune that had befallen his convoy; and his coming without foreign force was produced as a proof of his superior discernment, as well as of his confidence in the affection of his friends. The rooted hatred and animosity of the English against the French nation, it was ingeniously urged, had been the chief cause of the failure of all the attempts of the latter to re-establish the family of Stuart on the throne of Great-Britain; that a perpetual jealousy of the influence of this rival nation, always connected with the idea of popery and arbitrary power, could alone have induced a great and generous people so long to submit to the dominion of a foreign family, in exclusion of their hereditary princes; and those bug-bears being chased away by the magnanimity and heroism of the youthful Charles, he had only to march southward at the head of his faithful clans, in order to be joined by multitudes of his father's loyal subjects, who longed for an opportunity of renewing their allegiance; and that, should any foreign power interpose in behalf of the house of Hanover, or the British troops be recalled from Flanders, a superior French army would be landed, to complete the glorious revolution.

These plausible arguments, recommended by a magnificent side-board of plate, and a large sum in ready money, which to the frugal Highlanders seemed a royal treasure, were so well received, that Charles soon found himself at the head of some thousands of hardy mountaineers, filled with here. ditary attachment to his family, and warmly devoted to his person, in consequence of his open and engaging manners, as well as of his having assumed the ancient military dress of their country, which added new grace to his tall and handsome figure, at the same time that it borrowed dignity from his princely air; and who, from all those motives, were ready to shed the last drop of their blood in his cause.

But this ardour to raise in arms was confined to the heads of a few clans; and these, namely, Lochiel, Glenco, Glengary, Keppock, Clanronald, and some other chiefs, though distinguished

distinguished by their valour, were by no means the most considerable for their numbers. Political interest had drawn to the side of government, or prudence taught, a quiet sub, mission to the heads of many of those clans who had been the grand support of the pretender's claim in 1715, and who were, from principle, still attached to the house of Stuart.

The eldest son of the attainted earl of Seaforth, the head of the Mackenzies, was a member of the house of commons, as was also the head of the Macleods. The chief of the Macdonalds, the most numerous of the jacobite clans, had declared against an insurrection. The representative of the noble and powerful family of Gordon, whose retainers made a principal figure in the former rebellion, was now become protestant, and lay under great obligations to government; and lord Lovat, the head of the Fraser's, beside his utter want of principle, was backward in declaring himself. Nor was this all. The duke of Argyle's Highlanders, the earl of Sutherland's men, the Monroes, and several other protestant clans, seemed sincerely attached to the reigning fa mily, as were all the inhabitants of the low-country of Scotland, a few catholic and nonjuring families excepted'. This matter is but little understood.

The people of the low-country of Scotland are chiefly presbyterians, and jealous of their civil and religious rights, That jealousy led them, as we have seen, to take up arms against Charles I. before a sword was drawn in England. By neglecting to bargain for the free exercise of their reli, gion at the restoration, they were again exposed to persecų

6. Contin. of Rapin, vol. ix. written, as already noticed, by the late laborious and intelligent Mr. Guthrie, whose account of the rebellion in Scotland is very full, circumstantial, and accurate. The author of these Letters was then a boy, by no means incapable of memory; and he has since had occasion to converse with many persons deeply engaged in that rebellion, as well as with many employed in suppressing it. He therefore considers himself as a contemporary. This observation he means should tend to the whole subsequent part of his narration.

tion

tion under Charles II. But at the revolution they took care to secure both their civil and religious liberties, which were farther secured by the union. They have, therefore, on all occasions, firmly adhered to the protestant succession; and were, at this crisis, equally alarmed at the idea of the pretender and of the Highlanders, whose cruel depredations under the marquis of Montrose, the viscount Dundee, and the earl of Mar, were still fresh in their memory. They were the most loyal subjects of the house of Hanover in Great-Britain. But they had long been disused to arms; and were therefore filled with melancholy apprehensions at the threatening danger. The disasters in Flanders, the rapid progress of the French power, and the defenceless state of their own country, all pressed upon their minds.

The news of a fortunate event in America, contributed in some degree to remove this despondency; namely, the conquest of the island of Cape-Breton.

That island, of which the French were shamefully left in possession at the peace of Utrecht, through the negligence or corruption of the English ministry, when Great-Britain had the power of giving law to her enemies, is situated at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is ninety miles in length and sixty at its greatest breadth. Newfoundland, which lies to the east, is but fifteen leagues distant; and Nova-Scotia, to the west, is separated from it only by a channel about twelve miles broad. Thus placed between the territories of France, and those ceded to her rival, CapeBreton threatened the possession of the one, while it protected those of the other. Louisburg, seated on the eastern coast, was the chief town and port in the island. The harbour, naturally safe and capacious, was strongly fortified; the narrow entrance being guarded by two formidable batteries, whose cross-fire threatened instant destruction to any ship that should attempt to force a passage. The town was walled, and defended by all the works that can render a place impregnable. It was the key of communication between. France