1746 ESCAPE OF PRINCE CHARLES. 407 XXIV. authenticity was always denied by the Jacobites. Further, it CHAP. is wholly inconsistent with the character and behaviour of Charles, who had himself intervened to stop the slaughter at Prestonpans and had on all occasions manifested great concern for the enemy's wounded. Odious as Cumberland's character was in some respects, and prejudiced though he was against the Jacobites, he was not deliberately dishonourable. The conclusion seems to be that such an order had been draughted by some person, but never approved by the prince and probably never promulgated.1 During the six months following Culloden Charles was a hunted fugitive, passing through hair-breadth escapes, and shielded by the fidelity of simple peasants. Not until September 20 did he succeed in boarding at Loch-na-Nuagh a small French vessel sent to bring him off. Nine days later he landed in safety at Roscoff in Brittany. One by one the clans submitted to overwhelming force and surrendered their arms. By the end of the summer only a few scattered bands had failed to make submission. The fortunes of the house of Stewart were for ever ruined. Cumberland was acclaimed as the saviour of the country. In gratitude for his services, the commons voted him a pension of £25,000, bringing his income up to £40,000 a year. The city guilds vied one with another in offers of the freedom of their crafts. Even after his return to London he was still "for the utmost severity"; and as the news of the cruelties committed in Scotland filtered through to the public, a reaction of opinion manifested itself. When, in July, it was proposed to make him free of one of the city companies, an alderman said aloud, "Then let it be of the butchers," and "Billy the Butcher" was the nickname by which he was thenceforth known. When military licence had exhausted itself, the law, which 1 See James Bradshaw's declaration, November 20, 1746, Trevor MSS., p. 478. Horace Walpole writes: "The duke said publicly at his levée that the latter (Kilmarnock) proposed murdering the English prisoners". Tindal, an apologist of the government, writing during Cumberland's lifetime, stigmatises the story as "absolutely false". A writer to the Athenæum of March 11, 1899, affirms that three copies of the orders, all in Lord George Murray's hand, have been examined by him and that none contains the alleged paragraph. See Duke of Athole's MSS., p. 74, Hist. MSS. Comm., 1891, where also are Cumberland's own orders, dated Feb. 20, to give no quarter. XXIV. CHAP. it had displaced, proceeded to take its course. In accordance with an act of parliament 1 framed on the precedent of 1716, the rank and file of the Scottish rebels taken in arms were removed to England for trial. It being impossible to discriminate between degrees of guilt where all appeared equally concerned, they were permitted to cast lots, one in twenty to be hanged, the rest to be transported. Among the first to suffer were the officers of "the Manchester regiment,” at their head Colonel Towneley, who was hanged at Kennington Common near London. At Carlisle, York, Brampton, and Penrith, executions took place accompanied by the hideous penalties of drawing and quartering. The total number of sufferers was seventy-seven. Among them was Charles Radcliffe, brother of the Earl of Derwentwater, who had been condemned in 1716, but escaped. As he had been captured upon a French vessel bound for Scotland with supplies for the insurgents and was, therefore, for the second time, taken in an act of rebellion against the established government, it is difficult to see that any substantial injustice was done. "He had the favour," a contemporary records, "of being beheaded" on December 8, 1746. The sufferers almost invariably met their death with firmness and with a declaration of allegiance to the exiled family. Some of the leaders however forgot their “honour in their craving for life". Macdonald of Barrisdale struck a bargain with Cumberland by which the betrayal of Charles should be the price of pardon. Eneas Macdonald, one of the "seven men of Moidart" whose heart was never in the adventure, and John Murray of Broughton, the prince's secretary of state, purchased their lives by the betrayal of their associates. Among the prisoners were the three Scottish peers, the Earls of Cromartie and Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino. They were tried by their peers in Westminster Hall. Balmerino had held a military commission under both George I. and George II.; had resigned it to take part in the rebellion of 1715, had escaped to France, had procured a pardon and returned to rebel a second time. He was unanimously found guilty by 135 peers. The two earls pleaded guilty. Kilmar 1 19 G. II., c. 9 (1746). 2 Hallam considers it "impossible not to reprobate" his execution upon his former sentence. Const. Hist., iii., 312 n. (ed. 1832). 1746 EXECUTIONS OF THE REBEL LORDS. 409 XXIV. nock and Balmerino were cast for death, the latter disdaining CHAP. to sue for mercy. On August 18, amid a vast crowd of spectators, they were beheaded on Tower Hill, Balmerino with his last breath praying for King James. Kilmarnock, alone of the seventy-seven sufferers for the rebellion, repented his action. and acknowledged the justice of his fate. Three days before the execution of Kilmarnock and Balmerino, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, was brought to the Tower. As he had not appeared openly in arms and had been profuse in assurances of loyalty, the government, though convinced of his guilt, had no overt acts on which to found an indictment by a grand jury as in the case of the other lords. It was, therefore, determined to proceed by way of impeachment by the house of commons. The evidence laid before the house was produced by the prince's ex-secretary, Murray of Broughton, in the shape of a letter from the secretary of Lovat recommending Lovat's son as having been sent by his father at the head of the clan Fraser to fight for Prince Charles. The capture of Lovat's secretary, Robert Fraser, to whom the letter had been dictated, completed the chain of evidence, and the motion of impeachment passed the house of commons unanimously on December II. The evidence tendered at the trial before the lords referred to Lovat's conduct before, during, and after the rebellion. Defence he had none, other than attacks upon the witnesses against him and complaints that some of his own had failed to appear. He was found guilty, sentenced to death, and beheaded on Tower Hill on April 9, 1747, solacing his last moments with the Horatian eulogy of a dying patriot. The incidents of the rebellion and, in particular, the trial of Lovat furnished illustrations of the manner in which the feudal rights of the highland chieftains clashed with the power of the crown. By a bill introduced by the Chancellor Hardwicke into the house of lords on February 17, all "heritable jurisdictions" were abolished, but as pecuniary emoluments were associated with them, provision was made for compensation to the amount of £152,000. A second outcome of Lovat's trial was an act extending to cases of impeachment of treason the right to be defended by counsel, already granted by 7 W. III., c. 3, to cases of indictment for treason. CHAP. Two other statutes were consequences of the rebellion; the XXIV. first, a disarming act, attached heavy pecuniary penalties to the retention or concealment of arms, the alternative being compulsion to serve in the army in America. By the same statute the wearing of highland dress by any except officers and soldiers was made punishable with six months' imprisonment for a first, and seven years' transportation for a second offence. This statute was declared by Dr. Johnson, who visited the highlands in 1773, to have been "universally obeyed ". The second was an act of indemnity for those involved in the late rebellion, from which, however, eighty names were excepted. The estates forfeited by attainted traitors were applied to the encouragement of Scottish agriculture, manufactures, and fisheries. Schools were established, the linen industry and stocking weaving taught,' and the population trained to peaceful pursuits. Culloden thus marked the end of one system and the beginning of another. to-day. From its consequences arose the Scotland of 1 Reports of commissioners and trustees for fisheries and manufactures in Scotland (1757-60), Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 35,891, ff. 61, 74, 25 G. II., c. 41. CHAPTER XXV. THE PELHAM ADMINISTRATION. XXV. LESS than a month after the defeat of the royal army at Fal- CHAP. kirk a ministerial crisis arose. The king had never cordially acquiesced in the ascendancy of the Pelhams and specially disliked the Duke of Newcastle, who was "not fit," he declared, "for a chamberlain to a petty court in Germany". He resented their growing disinclination for the war, arising out of the popular disgust on account of its ill success and of the inefficiency of the Dutch troops. Both George and the Pelhams began to look round for aid. On February 5, 1746, Newcastle submitted to the king proposals for strengthening the ministry by the inclusion of Cobham's friends, among them Pitt as secretary at war. The king perused the list without objection till he came to Pitt's name, and then rejected the whole. He turned to Lord Bath who counselled resistance. George offered him the treasury, and Granville a secretaryship of state, and entrusted them with the task of organising a ministry. A general resignation of offices followed, and Bath and Granville discovered that they could not fill the vacancies. On the 12th, after two days' tenure of office, Bath resigned. The Pelhams were now in a position to insist on their own terms. The king - must no longer run counter to them nor look for advice elsewhere than to his official counsellors. Pitt must be given office. On the 14th, Granville resigned the seals; the crisis was over and the supremacy of the Revolution families was reestablished. Upon one point, however, the king remained obdurate. He would not concede to Pitt a place in the cabinet. Pitt, with profuse professions, declared himself conformable to the king's will and accepted the valuable sinecure of joint vicetreasurer of Ireland. In less than three months Pitt's compliance was rewarded. |