710 ENGL 
change in all the important offices under government. 
The duke of Marlborough, who had juft returned from a 
Voluntary exile, was reftored to his former ports, with 
lev era! new appointments'; the earl of Nottingham was 
declared prefident of the council, the great feal was given 
to lord Cow per, the privy feal to the earl of Wharton, 
and the viceroyalty of Ireland to the earl of Sunderland. 
At the fame time, lord Townlhend and Mr. Stanhope 
were appointed fecretaries of (late, Mr. Pulteney fecre- 
tary at war, and Mr. Walpole was made paytnufter to 
the army. The poll of fecretary for Scotland was be- 
flowed on the duke of Montrofe, and the duke of Ar¬ 
gyle was made commander in chief of the forces in that 
country. 
Thus the whig intereft obtained an afcendancy, both 
in and out of parliament; and they now proceeded to 
impeach the tory adminiftration, on account of the peace 
they had made with France. The earl of Oxford, the 
duke of Ormond, the earl of Strafford, and vifcount St. 
John lord Bolingbroke, were the firft called to account 
for the parts they had afted in this affair. Ormond and 
St. John fled ; but though Oxford, Prior, and fome 
others, were excepted out of the adt of grace, they all 
efcaped punifhment. The changes in the adminiftration 
had been effected without any diredt oppofition ;. but 
when the fir ft emotions of fear or of duty had fubfided, 
the malcontents of the jacobite faction broke out into 
various adts of fedition and riot in the metropolis. From 
London the infedtion gradually fpread to the more diftant 
parts of the kingdom, where infurredtions became gene¬ 
ral, though fortunately without much devaftation. But 
the commons, dreading the riling fpirit of revolt, ad- 
dreffed his majefty to take vigorous meafures for fup- 
p re (lingthe rioters ; the habeas corpus adt was fufpended, 
and a new adt was parted, by which it was now firlt de¬ 
creed, that if any perfons, to the number of twelve, un¬ 
lawfully aifembled, fliould continue together one hour 
after having been required to difperfe by a juflice of the 
peace, and had heard the proclamation againft riots read 
in public, they fhould be deemed guilty of felony with¬ 
out benefit of clergy. 
From England the prevailing difcontents fpeedily parted 
into Scotland, where the union had hitherto remained un¬ 
popular, and was not yet relifhed by the difaffedled. The 
Englifh jacobites fomented their averfion; and a corre- 
fpondence being eftablifhed between the jacobites of both 
kingdoms, prince Janies, called the pretender , and who had 
affumed the title of chevalier de St. George, was flattered 
with the hopes of feeing a majority in both nations de¬ 
clare in favour of his right to the crown. But the Bidden 
death of Louis XIV. was no fmall difappointment to the 
pretender. He had privately fupplied the chevalier with 
the means of fitting out an armament in the port of Havre; 
but the duke of Orleans, on whom the regency of the 
kingdom now devolved, adopted a new fyftem of poli¬ 
tics, and entered into the ftridteft alliance with the king 
of Great Britain. 
The partizans of the pretender, however, had gone too 
far to recede ; and an open rebellion firft began in Scot¬ 
land. The earl of Mar aflembled three hundred of his 
own vartfals on the Highlands, proclaimed the pretender at 
Caftletown, on September 6, 1715, and fet up his ftand- 
ard at Brae Mar, afTuming the title of lieutenant-general 
of the pretender’s forces. To fecond their attempts, 
two veflels" arrived in Scotland frorti the pretender, with 
arms, ammunition, and a number of officers, together 
with aflitrances to the earl, that he himfelf would fhortly 
come over to lead .bis forces. The earl, in confequence 
of this declaration, foon found himfelf at the head of ten 
thoufand men, well armed and provided. He fecured 
tile pafs of the Tay at Perth, where his head-quarters 
were eftablilhed, and made himfelf rnafter of the fruitful 
province of Fife, and all the fea-coaft on that (ide of the 
Frith of Edinburgh. He marched from thence to Dnm- 
blaine, as if he had intended to erofs the Forth at Stir- 
a n a 
ling-bridge; but there he was informed of the prepara, 
tions the duke of Argvle was making, who was railing 
Forces to give him battle. This nobleman, whofe family 
had fuffered fo much under the Stuarts, Hill poifeffed his 
hereditary hatred ; and upon this occafion he was ap. 
pointed commander in chief of the forces in North Bri¬ 
tain. The earl of Sutherland alfo went into Scotland tb 
raife forces for the fervice of government ; and many 
other Scottilh peers followed the example. The earl off 
Mar being informed that the duke was advancing againft. 
him from Stirling, he at firft thought it wifeft to retreat. 
But being joined by fome of the clans under the earl of 
Seaforth, and others under general Gordon, an expe. 
rienced officer, lie refolved to rifle a battle. 
The duke of Argyle, apprifed of his intentions, and 
willing to prove his attachment to the proteftant fuccef- 
fion, would not ftirink front the conteft, though his forces 
did not amount to half the number of the rebels. In the 
morning, he drew up his army, confiding only of three 
thoufand five hundred men, in the vicinity of Dumblaine ; 
but he foon found himfelf greatly outflanked by the ene¬ 
my. The duke perceiving the earl’s intention to furround 
him, was obliged to alter' hi_s pofition \ but on account 
of the deficiency of general officers, this was not done fo 
expeditioufly as to be completed before the rebels began 
the attack. The left wing, therefore, of the duke’s army, 
received the whole centre of the enemy, and ftipported 
the firft charge without ihrinking. It feemed even for a 
while victorious, as the earl of Clanronald, who com¬ 
manded, was killed on the fpot. But Glengary, who was 
fecond in command, undertook to infpire his intimidated 
forces ; and, waving his bonnet, cried out feveral times, 
“Revenge!” This animated the rebel troops to fucli 
bravery, that they followed dole to the points of the 
enemy’s bayonets, and got within their guard. A total 
rout began to enfue of that wing of the royal army ; and 
general Wethanr, their commander, riding full fpeed to 
Stirling, gave out that all was loft, and that the rebels 
were completely victorious. In the mean time, the duke 
of Argyle, who commanded on the right, attacked the' 
left of the enemy, and drove them before him two- miles,, 
though they often faced about, and attempted to rally. 
Having thus entirely broken that wing, and driven them 
over the river Allan, he returned to the field ot battle, 
where, to his great mortification, he found the enemy 
victorious, and patiently waiting" his return. However,, 
inftead of renewing the engagement, both armies conti¬ 
nued inactive, neither of them caring to renew the attack. 
In the evening, both fides drew off, and both claimed 
the victory. Though the pofteflion of the field was kept 
by the rebels, yet certainly all the honour, and all the 
advantages of the day, belonged only to the duke of Ar¬ 
gyle. It was fufficient for hitn to have, interrupted the 
progrefs of the enemy ; for, in their circumftances, delay 
was defeat. In faCt, the earl of Mar foon found his dif- 
appointments and his lodes increafe. The caltle of In- 
vernefs, of which he Itad been in poffeflion, was delivered 
up to the king by lord Lovat, who had till now profefled 
to act in the intereft of the pretender. The marquis'of 
Tullibardine forfook the earl, in order to defend his own 
part of the country ; and many of the Scottifli clans, fee¬ 
ing no likelihood of fuccefs, returned quietly home. 
From the time the pretender had undertaken this wild 
fcheme at Paris-, in which the duke of Ormond and lord 
Bolingbroke were engaged, lord Stair, the Englifh ambaf- 
fador at the French court, had penetrated all his defigns, 
and lent faithful accounts of all his meafures, and adhe¬ 
rents, to the miniftry at home. Upon the firft rumour, 
therefore, of an infurreCtion, the Britiih miniftry knprifoned 
feveral lords and gentlemen, of whom they had a fufpicion. 
The earls of Hume, W igtow n, Kinnou), and other fil lpeCted 
perfons, were committed to the caftle of Edinburgh. Sir 
William Wyndham, fir John Packington, Harvey, Combe, 
and others, with the lords Lanfdovvn and Duplin, were 
taken into cuftody in England ; but all thefe precautions 
were 
