THE ISLES AND THE COMMONWEALTH. 355 



warrants, but was obliged to rest content with the title 

 of Lord Macdonell of Aros. The reason why he never 

 secured the Earldom is sufficiently obvious. It was tardily 

 discovered or wilfully overlooked that on the forfeiture 

 of John, Lord of the Isles, the Earldom of Ross had been 

 inalienably vested in the person of the second son of the 

 reigning monarch ; whence the impossibility of conferring 

 the title upon any other subject Early in the eighteenth 

 century, Lord Ross of Halkhead made a similar attempt 

 to obtain the Earldom, but for a like reason, if for no 

 other, the attempt proved fruitless. 



The King plied the Macleods with soft words, just as he 

 plied Seaforth and Glengarry. Colonel Norman Macleod 

 of Bernera had joined him in spite of Macleod's sub- 

 mission to Cobbet and had urged him to erect a Royal 

 burgh in one of the islands ; but in a letter sent by Charles 

 through the Colonel to Talisker, the Tutor of Macleod, 

 evasion is again the chief feature. The convenient excuse 

 that there was no officer to prepare the requisite formalities 

 was once more employed, but the Tutor was encouraged 

 to persevere in his project, and to hope for the time when 

 the King could add " grace and favour " to it.* Thus did 

 Charles stimulate his Highland adherents with vague pro- 

 mises, which were not infrequently evaded when their per- 

 formance was inconveniently pressed. He was thoroughly 

 conversant with the art of hooking fish with glittering baits 

 of future rewards when the King should " come to his 

 own." 



It has been mentioned that Middleton succeeded in 

 obtaining, in October and November, a grant of money 

 from the States of Holland, and permission to send a 

 quantity of arms and ammunition to Scotland. Con- 

 current with Middleton's attempts to raise the sinews of 

 war, a gathering of Royalists had taken place during 

 September, in Stirlingshire, which Colonel Kidd, the 

 governor of Stirling Castle, attempted to suppress. In 



* Scoff. Hist. Soc., Vol. XVIII., p. 255. 



