My dear Lord, No. CCLXXXV. Lord Lovat to the Lord President. I HAD the honor to receive your Lordship's letter two days ago; but this House has been so full of all sorts of strangers, that it was impossible for me to make ane Still waiting, that Gortuleg might have a good opportunity to speak to my Son about the essential affair that you was so good as to acquaint me of in your letter, in such a kind and affectionate manner for my Son and for my family, that he and I would be most ungrateful monsters if we did not remember it in the sincerest gratitude and strongest friendship to your Lop and to your family. Gortuleg declares to me, that he could not yet get a full occasion to speak to him thoroughly as he could wish, because of the strangers that are still here, who, I believe, blows him up in his folly; and Gortuleg is as much against his project as your Lop is. as your Lop is. For my part, my Lord, I solemnly protest to your Lop, that since my Son was determined on that mad, foolish project, I never spoke to him about it, but he always flew in my face like a wild cat when I spoke to him against any of his distracted opinions; and any thing that I got done with him was by Gortuleg's means, who has a great deal to say with him. I have earnestly begg'd of Gortuleg, within this hour, to use all his interest with him not to go away this week; for God knows what a week may produce. As Gortuleg told me, that he heard it whispered among the Gentlemen that were here these two days ago, that Barrisdale was resolved to go to Assinn with 4 or 500 men, and raise the people of that Country to go with him South; and if they refused that he was resolved to destroy the whole Country. As I was very much concerned for Genias, and for my dear Cousin, your neice, his Lady; I spoke to Gortuleg in very strong Terms, to tell my Son, that if he sent a man with Barrisdale on that Expedition, I would never speak a word to him while I liv'd. So, as he has a great friendship himself for his Cousin the Lady Genias, he easily followed Gortuleg's advice, and refused to give a man to Barrisdale; which broke & blew up that Project. I am very glad in being any ways instrumental in overturning such a base inhuman design. I wrote to your Lop some time ago, to beg of you, as you wish'd me well, to give me your advice how to behave in the distracted situation that this Country is in. If I knew where to go in safety out of it, I certainly would not stay in it; and I am so unlucky with the weakness and pain in my knees and limbs, that I am not able to mount a horseback, nor walk the length of your Garden without assistance, if it was to save my Life. But if I was able to ride, I would be in no pain; for I could go and visit all my friends in the Shires of Murray, Ross, Sutherland, & Caithness, where I never was, tho' I have a great many relations in those Countrys; and discoursing with different persons every other day would divert my melancholy, which is truly heavy upon me at present; and if it increase, it will very soon make an end of me. I would go straight to Edin', if the Highland Army was not there, and thereabouts. But since I am fully resolved to have nothing ado with them, I dare not go to Edin'. So that my situation is a little perplex'd; and I again most earnestly and humbly [beg] your Lop may give me your advice about it. Gortuleg joins with me in our most humble duty to your Lop; and I give my kind humble Service to my Cousin the Doctor: he knows, if he pleases to tell it, that my Son is of a very positive, obstinate, & contradicting Temper. For my part, I can declare, if it was my last, that I never reasoned ten sentences with him, but he contradicted every one; and since he has begun this affair, his Contradiction is turned to passion; passion; so that I really durst not open my mouth to him, for fear I should turn into a violent passion, as sometimes I have, and then be guilty of some unnatural inhuman Act that might be fatal to him & to me. So I chuse to let him alone. If he succeeds, the whole merit will be his own; and if his mad Enterprize bring misfortunes upon him, he has himself only to blame. All the effect that my strong Remonstrances and Intreaties, in my letter to Gortuleg, to Stratherrick, had, was, to get back Eight of the Cattle that was taken from your Tenant, the rest being killed before I wrote; & faithful promises and assureances that none of your Lop's people would ever after this be molested by those wicked Rogues; and that they would send back as much as could be got put together of the things taken out of the Gardener's and Weaver's Houses. I shall long to hear from your Lop; and I ever am, with true zeal & attachment, Oct 29, 1745. I WAITED with much impatience for the Answer to the letter which I wrote to your Lop of the 25th; & yesterday, when it came, I must acknowlege it gave me very great uneasiness; chiefly as it left it extremely difficult for me, if at all possible, to give your Lop what you so earnestly desire, advice. Should the unlucky Youth persist in his purpose, & should his Authority with that kindred for whom you have done so much, & who with reason were so passionately fond of you, prevail over your Lop's, & induce them to march, without regard to your Commands, or even to the safety of your person, the case would stand in a very odd light; & in this age of jealousy & suspition, it is impossible to say what construction might not be put upon it, even if a man had no enemy to improve such suspicions by hints; on the other hand, should the young Man yeild to your Lop's representations, or should your Authority prevail on your kindred to desert his rash undertaking, & to save you & your family from ruin, as they very remarkably did 30 Years ago, when they were much more deeply engaged than they are at present, it is to be hoped that conduct would wipe off every circumstance of suspition, & attone for any act of temerity the Master may have faln into; at the same time, that the joint force of those who in this Country are disposed to stand by the Gov', will be sufficient to protect your Country against the resentments of those who may have flatter'd themselves with the hopes of assistance from it. In those circumstances, what is left for me to advise, or rather to wish, but that your Lordship may prevail, either by Argument or by Authority, over the Master, or over your kindred, to forsake the dangerous course to which they are disposed, and to join with the gross of the North in defence of the Gov'; in which case, nothing within my power for your service shall be left undone. But should what I presume to advise, & most earnestly wish, not take place, whatever my inclinations may be, I greatly fear my power will not be able to answer them. will not be able to answer them. What your Lop suggests concerning time to resolve, or bring the Master to resolutions, does not depend on me; that there has been so much is oweing to the winds, which have not permitted the Vessell Vessell to come up from Cromerty; & so soon as she arrives I must write; & when I do, shall be extremely sorry if I have not somewhat that is comfortable to say concerning your Lop: & I submitt to you one other consideration on the article of time; whether, as such a step as I propose, taken early, may be of infinite service, the same step taken a week too late might not be absolutely useless. You see, my Lord, I write without reserve; you cannot do better than consult w' Gortuleg on a matter that imports you & your family so much. Company breaking in, leaves me time only to say, that I am very much your's, &c. My dear Lord, No. CCLXXXVII. Lord Lovat to the Lord President. I RECEIVED the honour of your Lop's letter late last night, of yesterday's date; and I own that I never received one like it since I was born; and I give your Lop ten thousand thanks for the kind freedom you use with me in it; for I see by it, that, for my misfortune in having ane obstinate, stubborn, Son and ane ungrateful Kindred, my family must go to destruction, and I must lose my Life in my old Age. Such usage looks rather like a Turkish or Persian Government than like a British. Am I, my Lord, the first Father that has had ane undutiful and unnatural Son? Or am I the first Man that has made a good Estate, and saw it destroyed in his own time by the mad foolish actings of ane unnatural Son, who prefers his own extravagant fancies to the solid advice of ane affectionate old Father? I have seen instances of this in my own time; but I never heard till now, that the foolishness of a Son would take away the Liberty and Life of a Father, that lived peaceably, that was ane honest Man, and well inclined to the rest of Mankind. But I find, the longer a Man lives, the more wonders and extraordinary things he sees. Now, my dear Lord, I beg leave to tell you my Mind freely in my turn. I thank God, I was born with very little fear. In my greatest difficulties and dangers, by Sea and Land, and by God's assistance, I often saved my Life by the firmness and stedfastness of my resolutions; and tho' I have now but a little remains of a Life that is clogg'd with infirmities and pains, yet, by God's help, I am resolv'd to preserve it as long as I can; and tho' my Son should go away with the young people of his clan, yet I'll have six hundred brave Frasers at home, many of them about my own age, that will lose the last drop of their blood to preserve my person. Since I am as peaceable a subject as any in the Kingdom, and as ready to pay the King's Taxes, and do every thing else that a faithful subject ought to do, I know no Law or Reason why my person should not be in safety. . I did use, and will use, the strongest arguments that my reason can suggest to me with my Cousin Gortuleg, that he may repeat them to my Son; and if they should not prevail, is it just or reasonable that I should be punish'd for the faults of my Son? Now, my dear Lord, as to the Civil War that occasions my misfortune, and in which almost the whole Kingdom is involved, on one side or other; I humbly think that men should be moderate on both sides; since it is morally impossible to know the Event. For thousands, nay ten thousands on both sides, are positive that their own Party will carry; and suppose that this Highland Army should be utterly defeat, and that the Government should carry all in Triumph, no Man can think that any King upon the Throne would destroy so many ancient good Familys that are engaged in it. King William was as great a King, as to his knowledge of Government and Politicks, as sat for many hundred years on the Throne of England; and when his General, who was one of the best in Europe, was defeat and forced to run to save his Life, and all his Army routed at Killicrankie by a handful of Highlanders, not full 2,000 in number, King William was so far from desiring to extirpate them, that he sent the late Earl of Braedalbine, with £25,000. sterling, as a compliment to them; and sought no other return nor condition from them, but that they should live peaceably at Home. My Lord, we cannot imagine, that, tho' the Highlanders should be defeat at this Time, and most of them killed, and the Government full master of the Kingdom, that any administration would be so cruel as to endeavour to extirpate the whole remains of the Highlanders. Besides, it would be a dangerous enterprize, which neither we nor our Children would see at an End. I pray God, we may never see such a scene in our Country, as subjects killing and destroying their fellow-subjects *. As your Lordship's family and mine has always lived in great friendship together, and that I have not only a particular experience of your Lop's good friendship and great service done me, but likewise of the goodness and friendship of your worthy Father towards me, and of your brave Brother, who was my intimate and faithful friend, your Lop may be assured, that while there is a drop of blood within me I will be a most faithful friend and servant to your Lop's family and person; and who knows but Providence may give me ane occasion to show the gratitude I owe to your Lop, & to your worthy Father & Brother? Í hope your Lop has not forgot, that in the year 1715, when the Rebellion was great and dangerous, I did more effectual good service to this present Government then any Lord Barron in Britain; for which I had three letters of thanks from the late King, my good Master, and a favorite of his present Majesty when he was Prince of Wales and Regent, and received Marks of his favour. I think the remembrance of that should have some regard for ane old infirm Man; and it is my belief that I will be still safe under the Protection of my Lord President, while he has the full power and command of the North of Scotland. I beg leave to assure your Lop of my most affectionate Respects, in which Gortuleg joins me; and I ever am, with zeal and attachment, My dear Lord, Your Lordship's most affectionat Cousin, Beaufort, 30th October 1745. S LOVAT. *It is certain, that the news of the battle of Preston Pans very much changed the ideas and language of Lord Lovat. There is extant a printed copy of a letter, chiefly verbatim the fame as the above, and principally dif fering in this, viz. After the conclusion of this paragraph, the printed one omits the rest of this letter; and concludes with the following paragraph, which, as it is not in the original letter (extant as all the others now offered are), must be a forgery:"For my part, my Lord, I am resolved to live a peaceable Subject "in my own House, and do nothing against the King or Government; and if I am attack'd, if it was by "the King's Guards and his Captain General at their Head, I will defend myself as long as there is breath "in me; and if I am killed here, it is not far from my Burial-place; and I will have, after I am dead, "what I always wish'd, the Cronach of all the women in my Country to convey my Body to the Grave; " and that has been my ambition when I was in my happiest situation in the world. "I am your Lordship's, &c. "Brt, October. " (Signed) BT." No. CCLXXXVIII. No. CCLXXXVIII. Copie Memorandum to M' Donald Fraser*. Nov. 4, 1745. THE President told me the reason he had sent for me was, that he knew me to be a zealous and an unsuspected friend to my Lord Lovat and his Family; that the last letter he had from his Lop convinced him that what he had wrote was misunderstood; at the same time, that in the present conjuncture, it was somewhat too delicate, to attempt to set the mistake to rights by a letter; that my Lord Lovat was pleased to construe the expression of his concern for the danger to which his person & family must necessarily be exposed, should the Master hurry away the Clan into the present Undertaking against the Gov', as a threatening; as if, after so long an acquaintance, he had not known my Lord better, than to think him capable of being bully'd; & that therefor he chose, by word of mouth, to deliver to me, what he wish'd my Lord should know & consider. He said, it was demonstratively clear, as far as demonstration could take place in such Cases, that no weight of interest whatsoever could prevail with the Gov' to act gently with such as, contrary to their expectations, took Arms against them upon this occasion; that the errors of the Master would in all likelyhood be imputed; that a Parliament was sitting, which had already suspended the Habeas Corpus A&; & might proceed to make other Laws, the effects whereof could not easily be foreseen; that one step further than had been already taken would put things beyond any possible remedy, to him known, except a totall subversion of the Govt; which, as things at present stood, was the most unlikely of all events; that an immediate alteration of Measures, and the Master's desisting totally from his enterprize, considering his youth, could not fail to procure forgiveness, if the matter was properly represented; and that the Necessity of making such a representation now, or not at all, was what moved him to write to my Lord the Letter which his Lop misconstrued; that he is now to send off to London, by Sea, dispatches, in which the state of this Country must be described; that if my Lord shall not enable him to say any thing that is favourable, he must make the representation such as it is generally believed to be, & as it appears to him; that if my Lord would have him charge the Motions of the Clan upon his Son, he will give that Acc'.of the matter as received from his Lop, and will make every other representation for him, that shall be competent with truth and his alledgance; but that what would give him the greatest satisfaction would be, to be enabled by his Lop to assure the Govt that his Lop has quieted all the motions amongst his people that threatened to give any disturbance. He further said, that the Ship must sail in three Days at furthest; which was the reason why he was so earnest to see me; as any resolution that came thereafter would come too late. The above is the Substance of the President's Communication to Mr Donald Fraser, for Lord Lovat. My dear Lord, No. CCLXXXIX. Lord Lovat to the Lord President. MY old Chaplain, Mr. Donald Fraser, is with me; who tells me, that he had the honour to see your Lop two days ago, and that you was so good as to express your kind and real friendship for my person and Family. I have great Experience of your Lop's generous friendship to me and to my Family, since ever I had the honour to be * Chaplain to Lord Lovat. known |