BRITAIN. 



623 



for the same crime, and was committed to the Tower, 

 where he remained for two years. When he was 

 brought to trial, a dispute arose among the commons, 

 who were to be summoned to impeach him, which 

 prevented their appearance ; and he was discharged 

 for want of accusers. While these severities were 

 attempted against an humiliated faction, some popu- 

 lar disturbances, which, though transient and easily 

 suppressed, gave alarm to a timid and jealous govern- 

 ment, drew forth a most tyrannical edict against riot- 

 ing, which made it unlawful for even a group of peo- 

 ple to assemble on the streets. In this system of 

 proscription, exclusion, and jealousy, the Whigs were 

 only imitating the recent conduct of their adversaries, 

 but they improved upon the example ; they convert- 

 ed the Tories into Jacobites, and filled the nation 

 with tumult and discontent. The Earl of Mar, the 

 secretary of state for Scotland, professed an early al- 

 legiance to George, and procured a loyal address 

 from the Highland clans; but the contumelious refu- 

 sal of his overtures, and the fate of Oxford, Straffbrd, 

 Ormond, and Bolingbroke, drove him to despair. 



On repairing to the Highlands, he was joined by 

 10,000 men from clans or families disgusted at the 

 union, or attached to the hereditary descent of the 

 crown. With these he made himself master of Fife. 

 The Duke of Argyle, who commanded the troops in 

 Scotland, set out from Stirling to oppose him ; and 

 at Dumblane determined to give him battle, though 

 his forces did not exceed 3,500 men. The rebels ha- 

 ring attempted to surround his diminutive army be- 

 fore he could change his position, their center char- 

 ged his left wing, and were once repulsed ; but Glen- 

 gary, one of their chiefs, waving his bonnet, and cry- 

 ingout, " Revenge!" they made a second charge, with 

 such success, that General Witham fled to Stirling, 

 and gave out that all was lost. Argyle, however, 

 had, in the mean time, attacked with the right wing, 

 and driven the opposing wing of the rebels across the 

 Allen ; when he returned to that part of the rebels 

 which had been victorious. Neither army chose to 

 renew the attack, but drew off, each claiming the 

 victory. It was sufficient for Argyle to have inter- 

 rupted the em'my's progress, since to them delay was 

 defeat. Mar was soon deserted by numbers of his 

 irregular followers ; and the castle of Inverness being 

 delivered up by Lord Lovat, who betrayed his trust, 

 the cause of the pretender became desperate in the 

 north. Nor was it more successful in England. The 

 Earl of Di-rwentwater and Mr Forster took the field 

 on the borders of Scotland, and penetrated as far as 

 Preston, where their army was invested on all sides 

 by the regular forces under General Wells. They 

 at first repulsed the attack of the royal army ; but be- 

 fore the assault was renewed, surrendered at discre- 

 tion, after having in vain attempted to obtain terms 

 of .capitulation. Their leaders were brought to Lon- 

 don, and led through the streets pinioned and bound ; 

 while the common men were confined in Chester and 

 Liverpool. This desperate state of his affairs, did 

 not hinder James from hazarding his person among 

 his friends in Scotland. Upon his arrival at Aber- 



deen, with six gentlemen in his retinue, he was so- 

 lemnly proclaimed ; and soon after made a public en- 

 try into Dundee. 



After ordering thanksgivings in the churches for 

 his safe arrival, he abandoned the enterprise with the 

 same levity with which it had been undertaken ; and 

 he embarked for France, with the Earl of Mar and 

 other adherents. The rebellion was thus suppressed, 

 but the fury of the law was let loose in all its terrors 

 on the devoted prisoners. An act of parliament con- 

 trary to the custom of the constitution, was made for 

 trying many of them, not in Lancashire, where they 

 were found in arms, but in London ; and the habeas 

 corpus act was suspended. The Earls of Derwent- 

 water, Nithsdale, and Kenmuir, were sentenced to 

 death ; Nithsdale, however, escaped in woman's 

 clothes, which were brought to him the night before 

 the execution. 



Though the rebellion was thus extinguished, the 

 danger of the state was made a pretext for continuing 

 the parliament, and repealing the act by which they 

 were to be dissolved at the expiration of every third 

 year ; an outrage on the constitution at which the 

 people might murmur, but of which they could ob- 

 tain no redress. 



Domestic concerns being thus adjusted, and the 

 prospect of a dangerous enemy abroad having been 

 also dispelled by the death of Charles the Xllth, 

 at the siege of Frederickstadt, his majesty paid a 

 visit to his German territories, and entered into se- 

 veral alliances with the different powers of Europe ; 

 among which the most remarkable was the quadruple 

 alliance. It was agreed between the Emperor, 

 France, England, and Holland, that the Emperor 

 should renounce all pretensions to the crown of 

 Spain, and exchange Sardinia for Sicily with the 

 Duke of Savoy ; that the succession for the duchies 

 of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, should be settled 

 on the Queen of Spain's eldest son, in case the pre- 

 sent possessors should die without issue. This treaty 

 was generally thought unfavourable to the interests 

 of England, as it interrupted the commerce with 

 Spain, and destroyed the balance of power in Italy, 

 by throwing too much into the hands of the Em- 

 peror. England, however, fitted out a strong squa- 

 dron, in order to bring Spain to terms ; and as her 

 mediation was refused, it was resolved to support the 

 negotiations by fores. Sir George Byng, sailing to 

 Naples with 22 ships of the line, delivered that place 

 from the terrors of a Spanish invasion ; but learning 

 that the Spanish fleet had landed 30,000 men in Si- 

 cily, he returned westward, and after doubling Cape 

 Faro, came up with 27 sail of the line. The hostile 

 fleet, though so mucli superior, maintained only a 

 running fight, in which they lost 3 of their ships. 

 This blow produced a remonstrance on the part of 

 Spain, which France and England answered by de- 

 claring war against her ; but the failure of an enter- 

 prise for landing the Pretender, concerted by the 

 Duke of Ormond, and the Spanish minister Albero- 

 ni, occasioned by the dispersion of the armament bv 

 a storm, off Cape Finisterre, * together with the bad 



Britain. 



I. 



1715. 



James em- 

 l>arlc for 

 France, and 

 the rebel- 

 lion is sup- 

 prcssdl. 



George /. 

 visits Ger- 

 many. 



Naval 01- 

 gagemejr. 



* Two frigates, however, arrived in Scotland, with the Earls Marischal and Seaforth, the Marquif of Tuilibardinc, and 300 

 Spaniards. They were joined by some Highlanders; but on the attack of some regular troops from Inverness, the Highland* 

 f< * dispersed, the Spaniards threw down their arm?, and tile rebel leaders escaped to the continent. 



