mise the peace with England, and would only promise secret assistance. Meanwhile the Earl of Mar began prematurely and unadvisedly an insurrection in Scotland. He dispatched letters to the principal gentry, inviting them to meet him at a great hunt in Aberdeenshire on August 27. When they were assembled he inveighed against the union, using other topics calculated to inflame his audience; and on the 6th of September, though he had no more than 60 followers, he raised the standard of the Pretender. His force had swelled to about 5000 men when he entered Perth, September 28.

This insurrection created great alarm. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and several noted Jacobites were arrested in London, Edinburgh, and other places. As the number of regular troops in England was but small, the Dutch contingent of 6000 men was sent for, as stipulated by an article of the guarantee of succession. Argyle, who had been dispatched to support the king's cause in Scotland, had at his disposal only about 1000 foot and 500 horse; yet Mar, who had no military talent, remained inactive. Serious symptoms of disaffection appeared in the northern counties, where Mr. Forster and the Earl of Derwentwater, hearing that orders had been issued to arrest them, rose in arms and proclaimed the Pretender at Warkworth. Lord Kenmure did the same at Moffat; and, being soon after joined by the Earls of Nithisdale, Wintoun, and Carnwath, crossed the border and joined Forster. The united force, amounting to 500 or 600 horsemen, proceeded, by Mar's directions, to Kelso, where they were joined (Oct. 22) by Brigadier M'Intosh with 1400 foot. Edinburgh, which lay between the forces of M'Intosh and Mar, might

Rev. CLEMENTINA. MAGNAE. BRITANNIAE. ET. G. REG. Bust to left. easily have been taken; but no plan of a campaign had been formed, and, after a senseless march along the Cheviots, M'Intosh determined to proceed into Lancashire. Many of his men deserted, but he nevertheless entered Lancaster without resistance, and proceeded to Preston, where Stanhope's regiment of dragoons and a militia regiment retired on his approach. Here he received an accession of 1200 men, but badly armed and disciplined; and when General Carpenter arrived (Nov. 13) with 900 cavalry, Forster surrendered almost without a blow. Among the prisoners made on this occasion were Lords Derwentwater, Nithisdale, Wintoun, Kenmure, with many members of old northern families.

On the very day of this disastrous affair a battle had been fought between Mar and Argyle at Sherriffmuir, near. Stirling. The latter was now at the head of between 3000 and 4000 regular troops, while Mar's forces had increased to 10,000 men, but badly armed and disciplined. The battle was singular, the right wing of each army having defeated their opponents; but Argyle remained in possession of the field, while Mar retired to Perth, and the weather prevented any farther operations.

§ 4. The rebellion having been thus unadvisedly begun, the Pretender and the Duke of Ormond felt themselves called upon to act, whatever might be the event. Ormond landed in Devonshire with about 40 officers and men, but, finding nobody willing to join him, returned to St. Malo. The Pretender sailed from Dunkirk about the middle of December, in a small vessel of eight guns, and landed at Peterhead on the 22d, accompanied by only six gentlemen disguised as French naval officers. Mar immediately proceeded to pay his respects to him, and was created a duke. On January 6, 1716, the Pretender made his public entry into Dun

dee on horseback, followed by a troop of nearly 300 gentlemen. Thence he proceeded to Scone, performed several acts of state, and appointed the 23d of January for his coronation. But James was not the man for this conjuncture. In person he was tall and thin, sparing of speech, calm and composed in his behavior. Instead of encouraging his followers, he talked to them of his misfortunes. One of them says, "We saw nothing in him that looked like spirit. He never appeared with cheerfulness and vigor to animate us. Our men began to despise him; some asked if he could speak."

On the advance of Argyle, Perth was pronounced untenable by a council of the insurgent generals; and on the 30th of January, a day of evil omen for the Stuarts, orders were issued to retreat northward. Argyle entered Perth about 12 hours after the rebels had quitted it. The latter proceeded to Dundee, and thence to Montrose, where James stole away on the evening of February 4, and, accompanied by Mar, embarked on board a small French vessel lying in the Roads, while the rebel army gradually dispersed. Such was the ignominious end of this ill-concerted expedition. James landed at Gravelines after a passage of seven days, and proceeded to St. Germain's. On the 24th of February Lords Derwentwater and Kenmure were executed on Tower Hill. Lord Nithisdale, who had also been sentenced to death, escaped the night before through the heroic devotion of his wife, who changed clothes with him. Of inferior criminals about 26 were executed.

The repeal of the Triennial Act of 1694, and the enactment of the SEPTENNIAL ACT, was one of the immediate effects of this rebellion. In the present state of the nation it would have been hazardous to dissolve the Parliament, as a Jacobite majority might have been returned. The bill of repeal was originated in the Lords by the Duke of Devonshire, and does not appear to have excited any discontent among the public.

$ 5. In the summer the king proceeded to Hanover, for which purpose the restraining clause in the Act of Settlement was repealed. He was so jealous of his son that he would not give him the full authority of regent, but would only name him guardian of the realm and lieutenant, an office unknown since the time of the Black Prince; and several restrictions were placed upon his authority. The king's foreign favorites, Bothmar, Bernsdorf, Robethon, were suspected of taking bribes for their good offices with him; and his foreign mistresses had also incurred a great share of odium. The principal one, the Baroness Schulenburg, was made Duchess of Munster in Ireland, and Duchess of Kendal in England. The Baroness Kilmanseck, another mistress, somewhat younger and handsomer, was made Countess of Darlington. Both were of unbounded rapacity, but neither had the smallest share

A.D. 1716. 1717. TREATY WITH FRANCE AND HOLLAND.

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of ability. During his absence in Hanover the king dismissed Lord Townshend from his post of secretary of state, and General Stanhope was appointed in his place. Townshend's dismissal was very unpopular. His offense was having encouraged the Prince of Wales in opposition to his father's authority. However, the lord lieutenancy of Ireland was offered to Townshend, which he was at length induced to accept.

The late rebellion made it very desirable to deprive the Pretender of all support from France. The Regent Orleans was not averse to an English alliance. In case of the death of Louis XV. he was next heir to the throne of France, Philip V. of Spain having renounced his pretensions; but as it was well known that Philip did not mean to abide by that renunciation, the alliance of England might be useful to the duke. Stanhope, who had accompanied the king abroad, entered into negotiations with the Abbé (afterward Cardinal) Dubois, first at the Hague and then at Hanover. They were subsequently prosecuted by Lord Cadogan; and on the 28th of November a treaty was signed between the two countries. Earlier in the year, defensive alliances had been concluded with the emperor and the Dutch. The latter subsequently acceded to the terms of the English and French alliance (Jan. 4, 1717), when the instrument of the previous convention between France and England was destroyed, in order that the new arrangement might appear as a triple alliance. In consequence of this treaty the Pretender was obliged to quit France, and resided sometimes at Rome, sometimes at Urbino. He soon after contracted a marriage with the Princess Clementina, granddaughter of John Sobieski, the late King of Poland; but, at the instance of the British cabinet, she was arrested at Innsbrück on her way to Italy, by the emperor's orders, and detained till 1719, when her liberation was effected and the marriage consummated. § 6. One of the worst evils of the Hanoverian succession was that it dragged England into the vortex of Continental politics, and made her subservient to the king's views in favor of his electorate. The bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, formerly belonging to Hanover, had been secularized at the peace of Westphalia, and ceded to Sweden; but they had been conquered by Frederick IV. of Denmark after the defeat of Charles XII. at Pultawa. The return of that monarch, however, made the King of Denmark tremble for his conquests; and in 1715 he ceded them to George, as Elector of Hanover, on condition of his joining the coalition against Sweden, and paying £150,000. In order to carry out these arrangements, a British squadron, under Sir John Norris, was dispatched to the Baltic in the autumn of 1716. But this was not the whole evil. Baron Gortz, Charles XII.'s minister,

concocted in retaliation a Jacobite conspiracy for the invasion of Scotland with 12,000 Swedish soldiers. Count Gyllenborg, the Swedish embassador, in spite of his privileges as embassador, was arrested in London, when full proofs of his complicity were discovered; but Charles XII. would neither avow nor disavow these practices. Walpole was suspected of being concerned in them; and Townshend's adherents having voted against the grant of supplies on account of the Swedish affair, that nobleman was dismissed from the lord lieutenancy of Ireland. On the following morning Walpole resigned, and was followed by other ministers. General Stanhope now became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, and was shortly afterward raised to the peerage with the title of Viscount Stanhope (1717).* Sunderland and Addison, the celebrated writer, were made secretaries of state, and Craggs secretary-at-war.

§ 7. Spain was at this time governed by Cardinal Alberoni, the son of a working gardener, who, solely by his great abilities, had raised himself to that height of power and grandeur. Both he and Philip found much cause of discontent in the state of Europe. Philip's title had never been acknowledged by the emperor; while the latter's alliance with England, and the triple alliance between France, England, and Holland, seemed to isolate Spain in Europe. The seizure of one of his ministers by the Austrians increased the exasperation of Philip. He resolved upon war, seized Sardinia, and seemed to threaten Sicily. At the same time, Alberoni was intriguing with Charles XII. of Sweden, and with the Czar, in favor of the Stuarts, was in correspondence with the Pretender at Rome, and was employing agents to foment dissensions in England. This state of things required vigorous counsels. In the summer Stanhope proceeded to Paris, and succeeded in concluding a new treaty with France and the emperor, which, after the accession of the Dutch, was styled the Quadruple Alliance. Its avowed object was the preservation of the peace of Europe. Stanhope then proceeded to Madrid, but did not succeed in overcoming the stubborn hostility of Alberoni. Meanwhile the Spanish troops had landed in Sicily (July 1), and taken Palermo and Messina, though the citadel of the latter place held out. Admiral Byng,† with 20 ships of the line, now made his appearance on the coast of Sicily; and on August 11 an action, said to have been begun by the Spaniards, took place off Cape Passaro, ending in their total defeat, and the destruction of a great number of their ships. Alberoni recalled

* He was created Earl Stanhope in the following year (1718), and was the ancestor of the present earl.

He was created Viscount Torrington in 1721, and was the ancestor of the present viscount.