retreat of the Jacobites and the approach of Cumberland, the acting
Chief of the Grants was not sitting on the fence.

The Grant estates were in two distinct portions, those around Castle
Grant in Strathspey and those in Urquhart and Glenmoriston on the
western side of Loch Ness. Although the Strathspey Grants were
accounted a Whig clan, the Grants of Urquhart and Glenmoriston were
notoriously Jacobite. When the Rising took place, Ludovick Grant wrote
to his outlying retainers, not forbidding them to join the Prince, but
peremptorily forbidding them to move without his sanction. Eventually
they went ‘out’ in spite of his orders, but the Strathspey men stood
loyally by their chief.

The whole story of the rising in Urquhart and Glenmoriston and the
action of Ludovick Grant towards the Government and his clansmen has
been told within recent years in a most interesting volume by Mr.
William Mackay,[84] to which the reader is referred. The narrative
printed here is Grant’s own _apologia_ to the Government, prepared
with legal assistance after the Rising. The text tells its own story,
but four points may be referred to here, points which it gave Ludovick
Grant much trouble to explain. First, when Sir John Cope marched north
in August 1745 he passed within ten miles of Castle Grant, yet the
young chief neither visited him nor sent him assistance.[85] Second,
when President Duncan Forbes asked him to furnish two independent
companies for the service of Government, he declined, on the ostensible
ground that two companies were too insignificant a contingent for so
important a clan as the Grants. He eventually was persuaded to send
one company,[86] whose only service was to garrison Inverness Castle
under Major George Grant, Ludovick’s uncle. The castle surrendered to
Prince Charles in February after two days’ siege, and the commandant
was dismissed the service. Third, Grant marched his men to Strathbogie
to attack Lord Lewis Gordon’s men in December without orders from Lord
Loudoun, then commanding in the north,[87] for which he incurred Lord
Loudoun’s censure. Fourth, when Grant had gone to Aberdeen in March,
five of his principal gentlemen made a treaty of neutrality[88] with
the Jacobites under Lord George Murray and Lord Nairn, by which the
Prince’s people were to get supplies from the Grant country in return
for protection from raiding.

This narrative is occasionally referred to in Sir William Fraser’s
_Chiefs of Grant_, but is not included in that work. The text is
printed from the original manuscripts in the Public Record Office.

THE CASE OF THE REV. JOHN GRANT AND OF GRANTS OF SHEUGLY

To show his zeal for the Government after Culloden, Ludovick Grant
marched his Strathspey men, eight hundred strong, into Urquhart and
Glenmoriston, and under threat of fire and sword arrested his clansmen
who had been ‘out.’ The fighting men were handed over to the Duke of
Cumberland, and most of them were transported. Grant of Sheugly and his
eldest son had not actually been out but were accused of urging their
people to join the Jacobites. They were sent to London as prisoners
along with the Reverend John Grant, minister of Urquhart. Ludovick
asserted to the Duke of Newcastle that the minister ‘was at all their
consultations and never attempted to dissuade the people from joining
the rebells, but on the contrary gave over praying for his Majesty, and
after the battle of Culloden he concealed some of the rebells and had
their money in keeping.... Mr. Grant concealed from me where three of
the rebells were hid by his direction....’[89]

The reader will find the minister’s own story in the text, and must
judge of its truth. Perhaps Grant protests too much, for Mr. Mackay
informs me that the tradition of the parish is that he was a thorough
Jacobite. It is perfectly evident, however, that the Attorney-General
and the Solicitor-General thought lightly of the case both against the
minister and young Sheugly, or they would never have remitted them to
the court at Edinburgh, when it was notorious that no Scottish jury
would convict a Jacobite.

The prisoners, on December 4th, ‘sisted [surrendered] themselves
in court [at Edinburgh] to answer for alleadged Rebellion and all
such matters as on his Majesty’s behalf should be objected against
them.’[90] They were admitted to bail and there the matter ended.

The Presbytery records show that no ecclesiastical proceedings were
taken against the minister, though probably that does not mean much.
At that time it may well be believed that every minister and elder in
the Highlands sympathised with the hunted Jacobites. The only minister
of the Church of Scotland who was dealt with for disloyalty in the
’Forty-five was Thomas Man, minister of Dunkeld. He was tried before
the Commission of General Assembly in May 1747. The libel against him
was found relevant, and the charges partly confessed or found proven.
The sentence was gentle--five months’ suspension from his duties.[91]

The manuscript of this case is preserved in the Record Office.

GROSSETT’S MEMORIAL AND ACCOUNTS

Walter Grossett[92] of Logie was the grandson of a certain Alexander
Grossett, or Grosier, or Grosiert, a Frenchman, who came over to Great
Britain in the Civil Wars and served King Charles I. in the army. He
settled in Scotland, and died there, leaving a son Alexander. This son
purchased the small estate of Logie, near Dunfermline. He was an ardent
Covenanter, and retired to Holland at the time of the persecutions.
Alexander left an only son, Archibald, who married Eupham Muirhead, a
daughter of the laird of Bredisholm, in North Lanarkshire, by whom he
had three sons; of these Walter was the eldest. Through his mother,
he was a cousin of Sir John Shaw of Greenock, and was also nearly
connected with the families of Lord Blantyre and the Earl of Cathcart.

In 1745 this Walter Grossett was Collector of Customs at Alloa, an
office he had held for seventeen years. He was exceedingly active in
his vocation, and very successful in the prosecution of smugglers. A
short time before the Rising, at great risk to himself, he made one
of the largest seizures of smuggled tobacco ever made in Scotland,
thus enriching the Treasury by several thousand pounds.[93] Early in
the ’Forty-five, eight days before Prince Charles entered Edinburgh,
Grossett was commissioned by Lord Advocate Craigie to seize the boats
and shipping on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth to prevent
their falling into the hands of the Jacobite army, then assembling
at Perth. Apparently his performance gave satisfaction, for he was
promoted to be Collector at Leith, and he was constantly employed
thereafter by the military authorities and the Lord Justice-Clerk,
both in executive work and in secret service. His services were so
highly approved by the Duke of Cumberland that H.R.H. promised him
‘his countenance on every occasion.’[94] After the suppression of the
Rising, he was employed by the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State,
to collect evidence for the prosecution of the rebel lords and other
Jacobite prisoners, and to escort the witnesses for the prosecution to
London. For his services to Government he was promoted to the office of
Inspector-General of Customs in 1747, on the recommendation of the Duke
of Cumberland.[95]

Grossett must have been a man of great personal courage, for he went
about with his life in his hand. On one occasion, it is related, he
saved the life of his cousin Sir John Shaw by entering the Jacobite
camp (it is not stated when or where) and carrying him off in the
disguise of a Jacobite officer.[96] His enemies, whether Jacobites
or smugglers, perhaps both, wreaked terrible vengeance on his house
and his family, treating his wife so harshly that she died shortly
afterwards.[97]

It is pleasant to find on record a friendly action of Grossett to
a condemned prisoner. Patrick Murray, a goldsmith of Stirling, was
taken prisoner at Airdrie in November 1745 by some country people.
To Grossett, who was present, he declared that he surrendered in
accordance with Marshal Wade’s proclamation of 30th October offering
his Majesty’s clemency to all rebels who would surrender before 11th
November.[98] Grossett had been summoned to Murray’s trial at Carlisle
as a witness for the defence, but was prevented from being present
owing to his secret services detaining him in London. Murray was tried
on September 24th, 1746, found guilty, and condemned to death. The
terms of his surrender were not pled at his trial, and Grossett sent in
a memorial stating the facts of the arrestment:[99] it was of no avail,
Murray was executed on November 15th.

Grossett tells the story of his executive work and of the expenses
he incurred in the pages printed in this volume. He mentions that he
gave evidence in 1747 at the trial of Lord Provost Archibald Stewart
for losing Edinburgh to Prince Charles, but he does not mention the
lines in which he is held up to shame and ridicule, along with the
magistrates and the clergy of Edinburgh, in a poem published after the
trial, which was burned by the hangman, and which brought the printer
to the pillory and to ruin:

    ‘And stupid Gr--t next must take the field,
    And He, (with fifty,) swore he would not yield,
    To those brave Hundreds (who deserv’d the rope,)
    That did beat Thousands under Sir J--n C--pe.’[100]

Judging from the report of the Duke of Cumberland’s Secretary and the
Solicitor to the Treasury (p. 400), Grossett’s claim for £3709 was
justified. I have, however, failed to discover if the sum was actually
paid, and family papers throw some doubt on this. In a memorandum by
his eldest son it is stated that he was a sufferer for his services to
Government by many thousand pounds. This may mean that his claim was
never liquidated, though after the report of the official scrutineers
that hardly seems probable. It is more likely that young Grossett
refers to the legal expenses incurred by his father in defending
himself against the ‘scandalous Libells and groundless and vexatious
lawsuits,’ which he had to meet as the result of his anti-Jacobite and
anti-smuggling zeal, together with the loss of professional perquisites
referred to on pp. 336 and 337.[101]

A gauger has always been a most unpopular personage in Scotland, and
Grossett rendered himself doubly odious by his action as informer
against the unfortunate Jacobite prisoners. He was the victim of shoals
of frivolous actions in the courts, brought by persons determined to
wear him out in law expenses. He was strongly advised by the Secretary
of State to leave the country and go abroad for a few years, and he was
told that the Treasury would give him full pay as Inspector-General
during his absence on leave. How long this leave on full pay continued
I do not know, but Grossett went to Italy. His wife had been a Miss de
Vlieger, the daughter of a Dutch merchant and Government financier, and
it may be that this fact stimulated Grossett to international financial
enterprise. Along with the Earl of Rochfort, British minister at the
Sardinian Court, and other gentlemen, he entered into silver and copper
mining adventures in Savoy, which proved utter failures. He returned to
England a completely ruined man, and died broken-hearted, in 1760, at
his son’s house in London.

Walter Grossett had been heir-presumptive to his uncle, John Muirhead
of Bredisholm, the last of the male representatives of that ancient
family and of the Muirheads of that Ilk. Muirhead had helped Grossett
in his mining speculations, and had become so involved that he was
obliged to sell the reversion of the estate in order to live. He wished
the property kept in the family, so he sold it to Walter Grossett’s
nephew, the son of his youngest brother, James, a prosperous merchant
of Lisbon, who assumed the name of Muirhead. James’s son John married a
granddaughter of Lord George Murray--Lady Jean Murray, daughter of the
third Duke of Atholl.[102] He is the ancestor of the family which, in
the female line but retaining the name of Muirhead, still possesses the
property of Bredisholm.

Grossett’s second brother, Alexander, was a captain in Price’s
regiment, and served on the staff at the battle of Culloden, where
he was killed under circumstances related in the text (p. 336). His
wife and children are on the list of recipients of gratuities from
a Guildhall Relief Fund collected for sufferers in the campaign of
the ’Forty-five (see Appendix, p. 429). The entry reads, ‘Captain
Grossett’s widow and 4 children, £150.’ It was the largest individual
sum distributed.

Grossett’s narrative seems truthful and straightforward. Although
presented in the unusual form of a commercial invoice, it is
particularly interesting and useful in giving details of minor
events of the campaign not generally mentioned, or at least not
detailed elsewhere. He, however, would convey the impression that
his enterprises were always successful, which was not the case. For
instance, the Jacobites were successful in securing the passage of
the Firth of Forth, yet Grossett does not make the reader understand
this in his long account of the operation at pp. 353-358, and the same
applies to other passages. Yet the description does not differ more
from the Jacobite accounts than in modern times do the descriptions of
operations as narrated by opposing belligerent generals.[103]

Two services he was employed on are worthy of special notice--the
release of the officers on parole (p. 364), and his participation in
the distribution of the Guildhall Relief Fund (p. 374). The former
service had been originally destined by Hawley for the company of
Edinburgh volunteers under the command of John Home (author of
_Douglas_), by whom it was indignantly refused.[104] The latter,
which is described in the Appendix, is particularly interesting at
the present time of war, when similar funds are being distributed for
similar purposes.

The manuscripts of the ‘Memorial,’ the ‘Narrative,’ and ‘The Account
of Money’ are in the Record Office. A remarkable coincidence procured
the Correspondence printed on pp. 379-399. After the ‘Narrative’ was
in type, my friend, Mr. Moir Bryce, President of the Old Edinburgh
Club, sent me a packet of letters, most of them holograph, to look
over and see if there was anything of interest in them. To my surprise
and gratification, I found they were the identical original letters
that Grossett quotes as authority for his transactions. Mr. Bryce, who
had purchased the letters from a dealer, knew nothing of the history
of their ownership. He subsequently generously presented me with
the collection. The Report of Fawkener and Sharpe was lent to me by
Miss Frances Grosett-Collins, Bredisholm, Chew Magna, Somerset. Miss
Grosett-Collins also kindly lent me some family papers from which,
along with documents preserved in the Record Office and the British
Museum, these brief notes of her ancestor’s career have been compiled.

ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLES OF PRESTON, FALKIRK, AND CULLODEN

This is a beautifully written manuscript of sixty-two folios, small
quarto, by Andrew Lumisden, private secretary to Prince Charles when
in Scotland. Certain documents bound up with the manuscript give its
history. It was originally written for the information of John Home,
author of the tragedy of _Douglas_, when engaged in writing his history
of the Rebellion. After Home’s death, it was presented by his nephew,
John Home, W.S., to Macvey Napier, Librarian of the Signet Library.
In 1840 Napier presented it to Mr. James Gibson Craig, W.S., because,
as he says in a letter, he ‘has a just taste and value for such
documents.’ On Mr. Gibson Craig’s death in 1886, it passed into the
collection of his partner Sir Thomas Dawson Brodie, Bart. On his death,
it came into my possession by purchase.

Andrew Lumisden was a grandson of Andrew Lumisden, episcopal minister
of Duddingston, who was ‘outed’ at the Revolution. In 1727 the latter
was consecrated bishop of Edinburgh, and died six years later. The
bishop’s third son, William, was educated for the bar, but he ‘went
out’ in 1715, and, refusing to take the oaths to Government after
that Rising, he was unable to follow his profession, but practised
in Edinburgh as a Writer or law agent. He married Mary Bruce, a
granddaughter of Robert Bruce, third of Kennet. To them were born two
children, (1) Isabella born in 1719, who, in 1747, was married to
the young artist Robert Strange, whom she had induced to join Prince
Charles’s Life Guards, and who afterwards became the most famous
British engraver of his time, and was knighted by George III.; and (2)
Andrew, born in 1720, the author of this ‘Account.’

Andrew followed his father’s profession of Writer, and when Prince
Charles came to Edinburgh in 1745 he was, on the recommendation of his
cousin Sir Alex. Dick of Prestonfield, appointed private secretary to
the Prince, and accompanied him throughout the campaign. After Culloden
he was attainted. He concealed himself for some weeks in Edinburgh,
escaped to London, and thence to Rouen. Here at first he suffered
great privation, but succeeded in obtaining a French pension of 600
livres, which relieved his immediate wants. In 1749 he went to Rome,
and in the following year he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the
Old Chevalier. On the death of James Edgar, in 1762, he succeeded him
as Jacobite Secretary of State. The Old Chevalier died in 1766, and
Lumisden was for a time continued in his office by Charles. The great
object of Charles’s policy was to be acknowledged by the Pope as King
of Great Britain, a title which Clement XIII. refused him in spite of a
powerful appeal by Cardinal Henry, Duke of York, to his Holiness.[105]
Charles, smarting under the indignity, became intensely irritable,
and gave himself up more and more to self-indulgence. In December
1768 Lumisden, along with two other Scottish officials, was summarily
dismissed for refusing to accompany his royal master to an oratorio
when that master was intoxicated.[106] Leaving Rome, he settled in
Paris, where he moved in the highest literary and artistic circles. In
1773 he was allowed to return to Great Britain, and five years later he
received a full pardon.

Lumisden, who was never married, continued to spend much of his time
in Paris, accounted ‘a man of the finest taste and learning,’ living
the life of a dilettante, and paying frequent visits to London and
Edinburgh.

There is a pleasant anecdote told of him at this time, which reflects
the kindly feeling borne by King George III. to irreconcilable
Jacobites. It is very similar to the well-known story of King George’s
message to Laurence Oliphant of Gask, told by Sir Walter Scott in the
Introduction to _Redgauntlet_. It must be remembered that to their
dying day both the laird of Gask and Andrew Lumisden never referred to
King George except as the Elector of Hanover. The story of Lumisden is
told in a family paper[107] by his great-niece Mrs. Mure (_née_ Louisa
Strange), and may be given in that lady’s own words.

    A valuable library was about to be dispersed in Paris, which
    contained a rare copy or edition of the Bible, and George III.
    commissioned his bookseller, Mr. Nichol, to procure it for him
    at a certain limit as to price. Mr. Nichol, intimate with Mr.
    Lumisden, whose literary character qualified him to pronounce
    as to the authenticity and value of this work, employed him to
    examine, and, on approval, to make this purchase, which he did,
    obtaining it at a far lower price than had been mentioned. The
    king, delighted with his acquisition, asked Mr. Nichol how he
    had managed to get it. Mr. Nichol replied he had ‘applied to
    a friend of his much connected with literature, whom he could
    trust,’ etc., etc. ‘Well, but who is your friend,’ said the
    king, ‘I suppose he has a name?’ ‘A gentleman named Lumisden,
    your Majesty,’ said Mr. Nichol. ‘Oh!’ replied the king, ‘the
    Prince’s secretary.’ The king, with true courtesy, never called
    Charles Edward aught but ‘the Prince.’ ‘Yes, your Majesty,’ said
    Mr. Nichol shyly, ‘the same.’ ‘Well, Nichol,’ said the king, ‘I
    am much obliged by the trouble Mr. Lumisden has taken; pray,
    make him my compliments, and tell him so; and I should like to
    send him some little token of this. What shall it be?’ Nichol
    suggested ‘a book, perhaps,’ and it is said the king laughed and
    said, ‘Oh, yes! a book, a book! that would suit you!’ However,
    the message was sent, and Mr. Lumisden’s reply was, that he
    should be gratified by the possession of a copy of Captain Cook’s
    _Voyages_, then just published, in which he took a deep interest,
    and considered they owed their success to the individual
    patronage given them by the king himself.

    A very handsome copy of Anson’s and Cook’s _Voyages_, in nine
    quarto volumes, was sent to Mr. Lumisden by the king. They were
    left by Mr. Lumisden to my father [Sir Thomas Strange], and he
    bequeathed them to his son James, now Admiral Strange, in whose
    possession they are. [Written in 1883.]

In 1797 Lumisden published a volume at London entitled _Remarks on the
Antiquities of Rome and its Environs ... with Engravings_, his only
literary legacy excepting this account of the battles in Scotland. I
have failed to discover at what period of his life this manuscript was
written.

Lumisden died in Edinburgh in 1801. His usual lodging had been in the
Luckenbooths, the very heart of the old town, but he had recently
changed his quarters to the then new Princes Street, and to the very
newest part of that street, the section west of Castle Street. To the
imagination it seems strangely incongruous, yet as a link between the
past and the present not entirely unfitting, that this aged partisan
of the House of Stuart, probably the last Scottish gentleman who
personally served that dynasty whose capital was the ancient city,
should meet his death in the newest part of that modern street which is
the glory of the Edinburgh that the Stuarts never knew.

ORIGINS OF THE ’FORTY-FIVE

PAPERS OF

JOHN MURRAY OF BROUGHTON

    A COPY OF ORIGINAL PAPERS written by JOHN MURRAY, Esq., Secretary
    to the Young Pretender, containing a History of the first Rise
    and Progress of the Late Rebellion from the End of the year 1742
    to 1744.

    _N.B._--The original is written by Mr. Murray’s own hand and
    was found after the Battle of Culloden, and seems to have been
    originally design’d as Memoirs, etc.

_Copy of a shattered Leaf belonging to the original Manuscript_

[Sidenote: Edgar to Murray]

During all this winter[108] my Lord T[ra]q[uai]r,[109] as I observed
before, was at London with Lord Semple[110] and Mr. Drummond,[111]
and the gentlemen in the Highlands immediately concerned in his
Majesties affairs were employed in cultivating his interest amongst
their vassals and neighbours, which was the more easily done as the
most part of that country are naturally Loyal and at the same time ...
run so high against the Government, that any scheme proposed ... was
most acceptable. It seems after his Lordship had been there sometime,
he wrote a letter to his Majestie, in answer to which I received one
enclosed to me from Mr. Edgar,[112] dated the 5th of July 1742, which
was this.... It is a long time since I had the pleasure of writting
to you which has been occasioned by my knowing you was informed of
everything by Bahady, and that being the case I did not care to ...
venture all ... time when I shall ... to say to you as I ha ... view
of recommending them ... for Lord [Tra]q[uai]r to your care ... of it
with much satisfaction ... to assure you of my best respect and of the
longing I have to tell you by word of mouth how much I am yours. As
Lord T[ra]q[uai]r has been lately at London and knew there how things
were going it is useless for me to enter here ... matters and as the
King has particular directions to give you ... sent I shall add nothing
... but by his Majesties Com ... kind compliments ... that the family a
... I am with all my h....

After his Lordships return ... taken to inform the Highlands of the
favourable situation there seemed to ... from the information he had
got from Lord Semple and Drummond ...

_The rest of this page torn away._

_Copy of another shattered Leaf_

Which message tho’ they began to languish a little, yet kept up their
spirits. As nothing is more common than for people to believe what they
wish and hope for, however specious the encouragement may be. Upon
Mr. Drummond parting with His Lordship at London, he assured him he
would write particularly whatever Resolutions the Cardinal[113] should
come to after his arrival, imagining, as he said, that the promises
they had gott in England from the King’s friends there would suffice
to determine the old man to act strenuously in his Majesty’s favours;
upon which we waited impatiently to hear from him. In the beginning of
Winter Locheal came to town with whom I had occasion often to converse
on these subjects, and always found him the man the most ready, and
willing chearfully to enter into any scheme that would conduce to His
Majesty’s interest: and must here declare that I really believe he is
the most sincere honest man the Country produces, without the least
shew of self interest. After several months had passed without my
hearing from Rome, or any letters coming from My L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r
received one from Mr. Drummond about the beginning of December and
dated . . . of . . . which alarmed us very much, as it gave us ground
to believe that things were much nearer Action, than we had any notion
of, and indeed it seemed to us only fitt to be written a few weeks
before a descent; but to make the reader Judge, I shall here insert a
letter itself.

Copy Mr. Drummond’s letter to the Earl of T[ra]q[uai]r dated
the     1742.

_The rest awanting._

_Copy of another torn Leaf in Manuscripts_

As there was nothing in this letter but a general assurance of the
French Design without either specyfying the number of the Troops,
Arms, Money, Ammunition or even the fixed time, My Lord T[ra]q[uai]r
and the Laird of Lochiel[114] considering how unprepared the Country
was to join in any such attack attempt, and that from the contents of
the letter it was impossible to give any positive directions to the
Gentlemen of the Highlands, together with the near prospect they had of
a landing, which must of necessity have proved abortive had it really
happened. They thought it absolutely necessary they should be presently
informed of everything, but the difficulty was how to accomplish it.
There was no opportunity to write, the time of an answer uncertain,
and from the indistinct letter already received they had no great
reason to expect anything in writing very satisfactory ... upon which I
offered to go ... and then learn distinctly ... the Resolutions of the
... fully informed ... but as this was not to ... having the opinion
of ... who were the most ... in his Majesties Interest ... a letter
wrote by ... which went to him by ... likewise one to S[ir] J[ames]
C[ampbell][115] their advice and opinion, and during the intervall we
had severall conversations all tending to acquaint us particularly
of what had been carried on for sometime before by Lord Semple, Mr.
Drummond and then received by me as one of these who had been the first
in the Country to form a Concert, binding themselves by oath not to
discover their schemes to any but one of themselves, or the persons
agreed upon to be received amongst them by the Consent of the whole.

I had for a long time before been pretty well acquainted with who were
the principle people concerned in all the present transactions, without
knowing there had ever been any such formal Combination. I gave my
word of honour faithfully to keep these secrets, and then they told
me the rise of the Story what assurances they had given the French by
the hands of Drummond and Lord Semple after making terms with the King
himself, that nobody should be acquented with their procedure without
their consent. I was like wise informed

_The rest of this Page not legible._

The weather at this time happening to be very stormy, the express did
not return for two weeks longer than we expected; but upon receiving
his Lordships answer which he approved of the proposal, I sett about
making ready to sett off, and accordingly took journey about the 10
or 12 of Jany. 1743, upon the pretence of talking with the Duke of
Queensberry[116] then at London concerning a process I had with the
Earl of March,[117] to whom his Grace had been Tutor-in-law.

On the Friday I left Edinburgh and went to Traquair and so through
Tweeddale to York, where I stop’d to talk to the D[uke] of P[erth]
one of the Concert, and acquaint him with my journey and received
his commands. The principal part of my transactions was to make
myself fully acquainted with the French Resolutions, to give them all
encouragement possible, and to write to his Majesty acquainting him
that the Gentleman in the Highlands being informed that my L[ord]
M[arischal],[118] whom his Majesty had honoured with the Command, was a
man of a very high and forbidding manner, and exceedingly positive in
his way, they were afraid least such procedure might create differences
and heart burnings amongst them; wherefore he prayed his Majesty would
send over General Keith,[119] who they understood was of a very mild
and humane temper and in whose abilitys they had great confidence.
When I came to York his Grace the D[uke] of P[erth] approved highly of
my going over and gave me a great many injunctions[120] how to write
to the King, which is needless here to put down as they all tended
to prevent differences in case matters came to be put in execution.
I then went to London, where I only stayed some few days, and sett
out of on Munday about 12 o’clock to Dover where I arrived the same
night about 9 o’clock, and found a Packet ready to sail. As the wind
was then pretty fair, I was in hopes of getting next morning pretty
early to Calais, but it changed a little after we was at sea, so were
oblidged to make for Boulogne, this made me exceedingly uneasy as I
was instructed to go privately to Paris without the knowledge of any
of the people who were at Boulogne, and now in all probability we were
to land in broad daylight where I must infallibly have been known; but
luckily we were becalmed all that day, and did not arrive till about
three in the morning. I stayed there till about five, when I got a
chaise and set out for Paris, where I came on Friday morning and went
to McDonald’s the Banquier,[121] and enquired for Mr. Maxwell, which
was the name Drummond then went by. I immediately went to him this same
day before dinner, and found him greatly surprised at my Coming, but
said it was very lucky as it might be a mean to quicken the French in
proceeding; when they saw how forward and anxious the Country was to
come to action. Upon my arrival at London I heard of Cardinal Fleury’s
death, which was a very unlucky incident; for these two Gentlemen had
it left in their power to assert, that had not that happened, every
thing would certainly have been performed, and not then in my power to
advance anything positively to the contrary. I went with Mr. Drummond
in the evening to Lord Semple who I had never seen before: he received
me very civily and enquired about the situation of the Country which I
told him was very favourable; but as the letter Mr. Drummond had wrote,
gave us to understand that the Cardinal had determined to put things
in execution sooner than we had any cause to expect, never having had
anything encouraging before, and that by that letter, we was told of no
particulars, it was judged necessary I should come over to know how
things were to be executed: and particularly, what assurances of every
kind we might depend upon; so as the Gentlemen of the concert might be
able upon my return to sett immediately about preparing the Country
for their reception. He then agreed with Mr. Drummond that my coming
over was well timed, but that he was afraid it might require some time
before the French could be brought into it, as in all probability their
schemes would be entirely altered by the Cardinal’s death; that all
his views consisted in keeping peace, but that there was a party of
younger people about court, who had gained a good deal upon the King,
which together with his own natural disposition and heat of youth
inclined him to war. At the same time he said it was lucky that he had
observed the Cardinal’s Decline, and had persuaded him to impart all
the affairs that concerned this Country to Mr. Amalot,[122] by which
means they would be but little stop as to the King or Ministery being
acquainted with whatever related to us, as Mr. Amalot was continued as
Minister of Forreign Affairs. A great deal more of this kind passed,
and upon my not being able to tell them minutly what every individual
of the Concert had done in the particular District alotted them, Mr.
Drummond complained that I had not been fully informed of all their
Scheme. I in the meanwhile did not reflect upon the Cause of his making
such reflections against Lord T[ra]q[uai]r, who was the person that
informed me of their Concert; but it has often occurred to me since,
that they laid great stress on all the little pieces of information
they gott of the Gentlemen’s procedure in Scotland, and everything
they gott took care to make a mighty matter of it to the King: and Mr.
Drummond did not fail as he has often told me himself, to write in the
strongest terms to his Majesty, of their great success, which he knew
must always redound so far to his advantage, as he had taken care to
make the King believe he was the person who had sett all in motion, and
that it was upon his plan that they acted, and their success mostly
owing to following the Scheme he had laid down to them. I then told
them it would be necessary as the Cardinal was now dead that I saw Mr.
Amalot, and heard what Resolutions they had taken, to be able to inform
the King’s friends of what was to be expected. Lord Semple told me that
Mr. Amalot was then at Versailes, but would be in town on Sunday when
he would talk to him, and inform him of my being sent over, and gett
him to fix a time when I might have an audience, he accordingly was
with him on the Sunday and, as he told me the same evening, could not
see him for ... and when he did tell him, he took it very ill that he
had been made wait so long in his Out-chamber; that although his Master
was not upon the Throne and so did not keep his Ministers publickly at
Court, yet he thought using these he employed in his service in that
shape was treating him ill and not like a Prince as he really was. That
Mr. Amalot made excuses from his being so little in Paris all week,
and consequently hurryed all the while he was there; but fixed no time
when to see me, so his Lordship went by himself to Versailes that week,
where he stayed a night or two and returned to town. I went out some
days after along with him and Mr. Drumond to see Mr. Amalot who was
first to talk to with the King and then return me his Majesty’s answer,
but was told from day to day, that he could not have an opportunity
of talking with the King. So was oblidged to return to Paris without
seeing him.

I wrote a pretty long letter to the King acquainting him with the
reasons of my coming over and hoping his Majesty would pardon my
leaving the Country without his Permission, but not to be too tedious
by mentioning all the different conversations I had with his Lordship
and Mr. Drummond during my stay which were all to the same purpose,
together with the most severe Reflections and Invectives against the
Dutches of Buckingham[123] and Lord Marshal with Coll Cecel,[124] Coll
Brette[125] and Ch. Smith[126] and all those who were of a contrary
party from them, alledging it was entirely owing to their having given
in Ridiculous Schemes to the Cardinal demanding vast numbers of men,
money, cannon, etc., sufficient to conquer the Country, which made the
Old man have a mean opinion of the power of the King’s party and put
a stop to his realy putting in execution ... required of him; and at
the same time assuring me that these people were most unjust to the
Cardinal in alledging that he was not hearty and sincere in the King’s
interest, for that he had often professed that he would willingly lose
his own life in the cause, that there was nothing he had so much at
heart next to the Interest of his own Master, and that he had even
cryed[127] with concern in speaking of the misfortunes of the King’s
family, and notwithstanding he had a very mean opinion of the other
party, yet the Memorials they had given instruct him so much that it
cost Lord Semple the utmost[128] pains and trouble to perswade him of
the contrary, but they had after some time succeeded so effectually
that he was determined to send over a body of troops to England and
designed Mr. Mailebois[129] should return to Flanders for that purpose;
but that the party at Court which opposed him had influenced the
King to make him march his Army into Westphalia which occasioned the
Neutrality for Hannover; that this was so opposite to his Schemes,
and he was sensible that a general war must ensue, and France thereby
brought into great difficulties, that together with the King’s loose
way of living, having at that time taken the third sister for his
mistress, had certainly broke his heart, for he had been observed from
that moment to decline, and dyed soon after.[130]

Having spent some days at Paris in hearing such like storys, I went
again to Versailes where we were still put off till the night I left
it. When we had an audience of Mr. Amalot I told him that the Gentlemen
in the Concert in Scotland,[131] having from time to time received
assurances from the late Cardinal of Troops, Arms and Money, had been
continualy expecting to hear that a final Resolution was taken but upon
being informed of the bad state of health the Cardinal was in,[132]
they had done me the honour to send me over instructed to represent
the situation of their affairs to the Ministry and to acquaint them
they had wrought so effectualy with the Country in general and their
Vassals in particular that they could raise near thirty thousand men
and were able to make themselves masters of the Country in six weeks
or two months. Upon which he interrupted me and said that they were
satisfied the Scots were able to do a great deal but that they must
have assurances from England, but at the same time he said he did not
well understand the possibility of engaging so many people without
letting them into the secret. Upon which Lord Semple explained the
matter to him, I then mentioned to him the number of men, arms, etc.,
we expected in Scotland together with the place of their landing and
method proposed for their acting he said if things were gone into there
would be no difficulty of arms, money, etc., but seemed to be ignorant
as to the place of landing or indeed the particulars of the scheme and
which confirmed me in this; some things that L[ord] Semple mentioned to
him he knew nothing about and he owned he had not read the memorials
but promised to do it and gave us to understand that nothing could be
undertaken without encouragement from the English and assurances of the
troops upon their landing having provisions of victuals and carriages
which we took pains to show him that from the frequency of the touns
upon the coast and the trade there continually carried on they could
not fail of, and then told me he had not gott time to talk seriously
and fully with the King, but that his Majesty desired him to assure me
he had the King my master’s interest very much at heart and so soon as
he could do it safely and with his Honour, he would; and told us to
believe it that he could easily loss 10,000 men, but that he would not
undertake it rashly as his being foiled in a thing of this kind would
not be consistant with the Honour of his Crown and desired we might
think very seriously of what we was about and take care not to bring
ruin upon ourselves and the Country by a rash attempt,[133] and so we
parted and so we came that same night to Paris.

Next day I again wrote to the King a few lines wherein I told him I
thought Mr. Amalot had done as much as he could at the present juncture
and that I thought the information I had gott was well worth my while
of coming over and sure enough it merited the journey, for by this
I had it in my power to assure our friends in Scotland there was no
determinate Resolution taken; and at the same time the manner in which
Mr. Drummond told me he had taken to engage the Highland Gentlemen
seemed to me very good and practicable. As I was then but little
acquainted with business imagined it might have the same effect upon
these in the Low Country and indeed was so much prevented with the good
character of L[ord] Semple and Mr. Drummond had amongst those concerned
in his Majesty’s affairs in Scotland that it never came into my head
to doubt of anything they advanced; in which opinion I partly remained
till my L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r’s return to Scotland in Octr. 1743 that
same year.[134]

From what Mr. Amelot had told us the next thing to be done was
endeavouring to form a Concert in England, by which they might be
able to give such encouragement to the French and such assurance of
joining upon their landing together with victuals and carriages as
might then oblidge the King to declare one way or other. To execute
this Mr. Drummond and I sett out from Paris the end of Febuary and
gott to London by the way of Dover in four days and a half. The method
he proposed was to bring my L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r to London and to work
the point by him as he was acquainted with all the principal Torries
and desired I would go to York and gett the D[uke] of P[erth] to send
express for him and that I would return with a Resolution to stay
there for some time to be an assistant to his L[ordship] and him; but
this I refused to go into as the reason I had given out for my journey
would not suffice to detain me any time, so rather chuse to go to
Scotland myself and shew my L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r the necessity there
was for his coming up. In the meanwhile I was employed in endeavouring
to learn from Coll. Cicel and Mr. Smith the objections the Dutches
of Buckingham and her party had to L[ord] Semple, and as I was pretty
well acquainted with them both I easily made myself master of all they
had to say against him, which I then thought quite frivolous from
the favourable notion I had of L[ord] Semple. As to the particular
accusations laid against him I shall say nothing of them here as I
shall put down the Copy of a letter I had the Honour to write to the
King some litle time after my arrival in Scotland wherein I mentioned
them all.

I sett out from London[135] the 18th of March, came in by York, where
I saw the D[uke] of P[erth] who was much disappointed upon what I
told him, stayed 24 hours there and came to Edinburgh the 21st. I
immediately inquired for L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r and finding he was in
Perthshire with his brother-in-law L[ord] J[ohn] D[rummon]d I sent an
Express to him, in the meantime I mett with L[ochie]l and acquainted
him of all that had passed and particularly of the Scheme he proposed
to raise money whereby to pay his father-in-law’s pension; he was far
from being pleased with the French delays and not satisfied with the
Cardinal’s sincerity and likewise heartyly vexed there was no money for
Sir J[ames] who then stood in great need of it. However the only thing
to be done was for L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r to go to London and endeavour to
bring in the English which would in a little time satisfie us whether
the French really intended us their assistance or not. On the 16th of
the month L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r came to toun, to whom I told all that
had passed and his Lordship agreed to go to London. Upon conversing
with his Lordship[136] I told him that he ought to push Mr. Drummond’s
getting that money, for if he did not make his word good in that trifle
it would be a means to make folk doubt all the other things he had
advanced. His Lordship sett out from his own house on the Sixth of
Aprile and I sent the bond Mr. Drummond desired signed by L[ochie]l
and I to the D[uke] of Perth who signed it likewise and sent it to
L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r[137] at London, which is still in Mr. D[rummon]d’s
Custody, but no money raised during my being at London after my return
from Paris, Mr. C. Smith delivered me a packet from Rome, but as its
contents could not be obeyed till I came home, thought it more proper
to insert it here tho’ posterior to the Receit of it.

Copy of a letter from Mr. Edgar of ... mber the 22nd, 1742.

[Sidenote: Edgar to Murray]

    SIR,--Upon what Mr. Charles Smith has told me from you on the
    subject of the Bishops[138] upon what he says himself and as the
    opinion also of other friends the King has thought seriously
    on the matter and is pleased to settle it as you proposed, as
    you will see by the enclosed paper signed by him under another
    name and a letter from me to Bishop Ratrae;[139] yours covering
    it both are write in closs Cypher, but as I am unwilling that
    the Cyphers we use together should be put into any third hand
    whatsoever, I have wrote the enclosed packet by the Cypher Coll.
    Urquhart[140] informed me he had recovered from amongst the late
    Earl of Dundonald[141] papers before his death. I really look
    upon this Cypher to be a safe one and that there is no Copy of
    it but what you and I have, it was originally sent to Mr. Robert
    Freebairn[142] and he gave to the Earl of Dundonald and I am
    perswaded neither the one nor t’other made a Copy of it which
    would not be an easie task nor allowed any to be made by any
    other body, I remmember Coll. Urquhart after he had recovered
    that Cypher asked me if he should send it to me, or what he
    should do with it, and in return I desired him to keep it by him
    and give to the King’s friends who had a mind to write to his
    Majesty and wanted a Cypher to do it by, by which means the new
    one I sent him (now used by you and me) would be a Virgin One
    unseen and untouched by anybody, I thought it was necessary
    to say thus much to you on the Cypher in Question. The Packet
    I now send you is open, therefore may if you please look into
    it yourself, but as I reckon you wont care to be at the trouble
    to decypher it I wish you would seal the packet and deliver it
    with ... of the Cypher into Mr. Rattrae’s own hands. I shall
    only add on this subject that I know I need not recommend to you
    to take care of your own safety in this matter and that as few
    as possible and these only of whom you are sure know anything
    that we have the least dealing in it, for tho’ our Clergy be
    well meaning honest men, yett many of them have not the gift
    of Secrecy and holding their tongue, which is a mischief I am
    sure you will guard against. I don’t know indeed what to say to
    you on certain affairs, I live in good hopes they will still go
    well, when anything favourable is certain you will hear of it
    much sooner from Bahady and L[ord] Semple than you could from me;
    which is the reason I write so seldome to you, I am unwilling to
    venture a letter in this critical juncture unless when necessary
    as it happens in the present case. I should be glad you informed
    me of what you heard or know of Drumelzier’s[143] brother he has
    not write to me since he mett with his brother and I have heard
    nothing about him since he went home. Drumelzier, I fancy, may
    have told him the substance of what you communicated to him of my
    letter to you concerning him, which he may have taken very ill
    of me and which has made him write no more to anybody in this
    place. The family is well and the King charges me with many kind
    compliments to you. Longing to have you in my Arms. I am well all
    with my heart.--Sir, etc.

It was not long after his Lordship’s departure that I had an occasion
to send a letter to Rome when I wrote as below.[144]

Mr. Narsom’s letter to Mr. Edgar dated the       Day of       1743.[145]

[Sidenote: Murray to Edgar]

    This is the first opportunity I had to write since I left Paris
    otherwise you may beleive I would not have failed to lett you
    hear from me long e’er now. I received yours of the 22nd of
    Novr. from Mr. Smith at London but as Mr. Rattrae has not been
    in town not finding any sure hand the two enclosed papers are
    still in my Custody, but I am informed he intends soon in this
    place, when I shall take care to deliver them with the Cypher; I
    am very hopefull his Majesty’s making choise of him will prove
    a means of uniting them together as they have for some time ago
    addressed him as the eldest of the Colledge to take inspection
    of the Diocess during the Vacancy; I return you my most sincere
    acknowledgements for your good advice as to my Behaviour with
    them which you may depend upon I’ll strickly follow and by what
    I wrote you of Mr. Keith’s[146] procedure you will be still more
    convinced of the Necessity I am under to act cautiously with
    them. I understand my Lady Clanronald lately received a letter
    from L[ord] J[ohn] D[rummon]d with the contents of your last
    to me which was immediately told Keith so that Mr. Rattrae’s
    Election was known before my Arrival here. I am sorry L[ord]
    T[ra]q[uai]r should keep such correspondence but there are some
    people continue long young and consequently ought to be looked
    upon as Children.

    Upon my return to London having the fortune to be entirely
    trusted by Coll. Cicel and Mr. Smith, I made it my business to
    inform myself as particularly as possible of their grounds of
    Quarrel with L[ord] Semple, when I found they both agreed in the
    following Accusations, 1mo. That he had been employed by means
    of the Dutchess of Buccingham and Coll. Cicel to transack some
    little affairs and from that time had assumed to himself the
    Character of Minister for the King’s friends in England. 2d. That
    by his Behaviour to Or[mon]d and L[ord] Marshall he had entirely
    disobliged them whose friendship he ought by any means to have
    Cultivate. 3tio. He had been grossly deceived by the Cardinal
    who had made him believe twenty things he had no intention of
    Performing. 4to. He was so credulous in beleiving the Cardinal’s
    assertions as to write from time to time in terms only fitt
    some weeks before an invasion. 5to. He seemed to ack the part
    rather of a French than Brittish minister. 6to. He seemed to
    turn his politicks into a kind of Mechanicks and made a trade
    of them. 7to. He contradicted himself not only in a different
    but even in the same letter, by saying that the Cardinal was
    so well satisfied with the offers made him and the information
    he had gott that he desired no further and in the same letter
    advises Coll. Cicel still to inform him further so that he might
    determine the Cardinal more and more to act in his Majesty’s
    favours. 8to. He acted imprudently by transmitting to Coll. Cicel
    the Commissions sent him by the King to dispose of in so large
    a Packet that Mr. Smith could not conceal them in the Ship and
    at the same time wrote a long letter with a great many trifles
    of what had passed betwixt him and the Cardinal in Closs Cypher
    who, he insinuate, he entirely managed and all relating to the
    Commissions in plain English. 9to. His coming over was not only
    without the knowledge of but disagreeable to the King’s friends
    in England, that my L[ord] Barramore[147] and he were vastly
    uneasy about it and gave him all the Civil usage and fair Words
    they could in Prudence so as to make him leave the place least
    he should be taken up. 10to. He is not trusted by the King’s
    friends in England. 11to. He was not even trusted by the Cardinal
    notwithstanding he pretended he had so much to say with him and
    given this instance that he, the Cardinal, sent a proposal to the
    King’s friends by Mr. Bussie[148] at London of landing a body
    of Swedes[149] in the Country which he seemed greatly surprised
    at when told by L[ord] Barrimore and that he should afterwards
    have greatly repented telling him, imagining when he went over
    he would make a handle of this information to show how he was
    trusted by the English. 12to. That Coll. Cicel told him at
    parting that provided the Cardinal was explicite he would inform
    him of everything that was necessary but as he saw that was not
    like to be the case he never had wrote him anything which was
    sufficient to show him he was not trusted and that he and L[ord]
    Barrimore particularly complained of L[ord] Semple’s intruding
    himself into the management of their affairs, and Lastly that he
    was quite drunk with his ministerial office and acted so high
    and mightily a part as even to intermiddle betwixt the King and
    Dutchess of Buckingham. These so far as I can remember are the
    sum of their Accusations, which I could have reduced into the
    compass of a few lines were it not I thought it my duty to write
    in as plain and minute a manner as possible whatever I have
    learnt having an Eye to nothing but truth and to give the King
    all the information in my power so that if I have acted out of
    my sphere I hope you will interceed for my forgiveness. I only
    beg leave to say that from the little knowledge I have of L[ord]
    Semple I take him to be a man of great honour and possessed of
    much greater abilities than any of his Accusors.[150]

    I parted with L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r about a fortnight ago when he
    sett out for London with a view to bring the English to Concert
    matters so as to be able to act this summer. The Gentlemen of
    the Concert are highly dissatisfied with their behaviour they
    say they have been ready to act for some years past, putt to a
    great expense in Cultivating a friendship and intimacy with their
    Vassals, keeping a great many otherwise useless fellows in their
    Grounds and often obliged to give very advantagious [terms] to
    their tennants for fear of disobliging them, whereas on the other
    hand they, the English, do nothing but make a noise and complain
    of their Oppression.

    The situation of things are such at present that had they any
    Resolution att all they would almost without stroke of sword
    putt an end to the cause but in place of that they draw a cross
    one another and run into little political partys so that if
    they are not brought to engage heartyly so as to be able to
    act this summer we give up all hopes of ever bringing them to
    act in Concert with us. Had the King’s friends in a body used
    means to favour the Restoration they could not have done it to
    better purpose than the present Government. There are now 16,000
    men out of the Country, 6 Regiments more partly gone, the rest
    going, only about twenty thousand in England[151] nine parts
    of ten of which are as raw and undisciplined as those to come
    against them, The Duke of Hannover[152] going over and in short
    every soul--Whigg and Torry, Republican, etc.,--disobliged and
    irritated to the last degree, so that we to be sure are able to
    do more of ourselves at this juncture then we could do with the
    assistance of 10000 men were these Troops returned.

    L[ochie]l with whom I have Occasion often to talk on this subject
    gives it as his Opinion that the Highlanders have now for so
    long time been in hopes of something being done and now seeing
    so fair an Opportunity, will probably unless brought into Action
    once this Summer or harvest give up all thought of ever seeing
    a Restoration and he is afraid every one will do the best they
    can by endeavouring to catch at part of his Country before she
    sink entirely and I am really affraid it will be the case with
    some of the least steady amongst them. He is thoroughly convinced
    that with 20,000 Stand of arms his Majesty or the Prince with a
    good General and some Officers att our head, Scotland is well
    able to do the whole affair, and indeed it is not only his, but
    the opinion of several others I talk to in this place upon that
    subject, as in this case none would be exempt from carrying arms
    and things are now quite changed from what they were formerly
    when a simelar proposal[153] was made. This I could not fail
    acquainting you with least L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r’s journey don’t
    take effect and this irrecoverable opportunity lost by the
    further delay of the English, and indeed any delay may prove of
    the worst consequence as the death of either L[ord] L[ova]t or
    Sir J[ames] C[ampbell] who are both old men will greatly weaken
    if not entirely ruin the Concert as there are few to be found
    who can fill their places. L[ochie]l desires me to mention the
    great use General Keith would be off. The Highlanders having
    got the same notion of him they formerly had of Lord Dundee.
    Drumelzier and his Brother have been all this winter at Tangiers
    and propose to pass all the Watters where General Keith and Lord
    Crawford[154] were tho’ some people imagine D[rumelzier] will
    come home upon account of his Lady’s death,[155] they give it out
    here that Mr. Hay is very well. I wrote a letter two weeks ago to
    L[ord] Marshall a Copy of which with the Motives that induced me
    to write you shall have first occasion but the bearer being ready
    to sett out putts a stop to my doing of it at present.--I am,
    Yours, etc.

The ship not sailing as soon as I was made believe I took the
opportunity of writing Mr. Edgar the reason of my writting to L[ord]
Marshall I shall here subjoin with a Copy of the Letter I wrote his
Lordship.

[Sidenote: Murray to Edgar]

    SIR,--When Mr. Smith and I happened to be frequently together at
    London he took reason to complain of the letter my L[ord] Semple
    had wrote to L[ord] Marshall and particularly of that paragraph
    where my L[ord] hints that possibly the Scots folks were offended
    with my L[ord] Marshall not taking sufficient notice of them in
    proportion to the regard they had shown him he insisted greatly
    an invincible attachment his Lordship had for the King....

    _The rest of this page not legible._

    Upon this I thought I should be greatly to blame if I lost
    any opportunity that occurred to better his Majesty’s affairs
    by endeavouring to reconceal and unite his friends so that as
    I imagine his Lordship authorised Mr. Smith to talk upon a
    suspicion that there might be some grounds for what L[ord] Semple
    advanced and thereby to reconceal himself to his countrymen I
    was resolved as we say to putt a Thorne in his foot as he knows
    I am instituted by the King’s friends here and would not advance
    anything contrary to their Sentiments. You will be surprised I
    should write this to you in so closs a Cypher....

    _The rest of this page not legible._

    After reflecting upon what you had been so good as to inform me
    off I could not fail to write the enclosed as I have all the
    reason in the World to believe you my friend, so I take the
    liberty to beg that after perusal in case you find it not too
    assuming and in a stile sufficiently respectly you will be so
    good as take the trouble to deliver it with an appology.... [_Not
    legible._]

    (_Signed_) J. BROUN.[156]

[Sidenote: Murray to Earl Marischal[157]]

    MY LORD,--I heartyly regreted it was not in my power when so near
    as London to do myself the honour of waiting upon your Lordship
    for Reasons I beg Mr. Smith to give and at the same time assure
    your Lordship that without the honour of being known to you
    there was none who had a more hearty and sincere Regard for your
    Lordship’s property.... [_Not legible._] my Lord, abstracting
    from your many private Virtues makes you dear to every true
    Scotsman and from what I could easily learn gives your Lordship
    great weight with the English. This, my Lord, encourages me to
    suggest of what use you may be att this juncture to his Majesty’s
    affairs by uniting those people together who to my great concern
    I found (so far as I could judge) quite inactive, diffident
    of one another and distrustfull of those they employ. Your
    Lordship’s being so near them will I hope make the work short
    as well as Effectual, and in my poor Judgement were there any
    unanimity, any harmony and concord amongst them it would easily
    be in our power to shake off the yoke of Bondage and Slavery we
    now groan under; this, my Lord, I propose with great submission
    to your Lordship’s serious reflection and experience, I shall
    only add that as I have no other in any thing I do but to promote
    the real Interest of my King and Country so I have all the reason
    in the world to believe that healing the wounds and cementing the
    differences now subsisting amongst our Neighbours is the greatest
    ambition of our countrymen and must render their gratitude to
    your Lordship for so great a work unalterable. I begg your
    Lordship will pardon my presumption in writing without being
    asked and believe I am with the most sincere regard and esteem,
    My Lord, etc.[158]

These two preceding letters I gave to my L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r on the 5th
of Aprile 1743, the day before his Lordship sett out from his own house
to London which he was to show Mr. McGregar who told my Lord that this
was not a time to send such letters and besides that the letter to Lord
Marshall was not such an one he proposed, by which means they never
went. I shall here mention what occurred to me what was the reason for
Mr. McGregars stoping them never having any further reason given than
the above and not knowing even that till L[ord T]raq[uai]r’s return
to Scotland, during the short stay I made att London after my return
from Paris in company with Mr. McGregar as I said before I made it my
business to learn of Coll. Cicel and Mr. Smith all the Complaints they
had against Lord Semple and Mr. McGregar which I generally communicated
to him being then fully perswaded of their Honesty and Abilitys. Upon
telling him what Mr. Smith had said in relation to Lord Marshall he
purposed I should write to his Lordship a Letter in the same Stile
Lord Semple had done, purposely to let him know how little he was in
favour with his Countrymen and show him how much their liking depended
upon his being well with them two, and att the same time to acquaint
him that his Countrymen’s regard went no further than so far as he
should act entirely conformable to the King’s will, he saying that
Lord Marshall pretended to stand entirely upon his own legs from the
great Number of Admirers he had in Scotland, and imagined that unless
he was the sole manager of the King’s affairs his Majesty’s subjects
would not be brought to act for him, in short that he looked upon
the King’s interest to depend upon [him] alone. I suppose he thought
by my writing in this stile to draw something from Lord Marshall
undervalueing of his Countrymen whereby to hurt him with the generality
but particularly with those of the Concert who had first employed and
still supported him, whereby he might verify to them what he had so
long advance against his Lordship, but this was a thing I refused for
many reasons; first that it must hurt the King’s affairs to create
differences amongst his friends of which their then subsisted too many;
secondly it was running myself headlong into a party quarrel, a thing
I ever had the worst oppinion off; and thirdly, not to be too tedious
in giving many more, it was a thing I had not the smallest tittle to
do. But on the contrary I thought it was a fair opportunity of uniting
people together and commencing a Correspondence with Lord Marshall
whereby if I gain his friendship and confidence I [should] thereby be
enabled to inform the King of the pleas of both partys without letting
either of them know of it, which is acting a part some people may think
odd as it is seemingly playing with both hands, but in my Eyes not
only honourable but my duty, when for the King’s interest, I receive
from time to time letters from L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r when att London
informing me in his way of his success with the English; but as there
was nothing material in them and that they were signed by himself I did
not care to keep them in case of accidents. Some time in the month of
June I received the following letter from Mr. Edgar with two enclosed
from the King himself in answer to two I had wrote when at Paris.

Copy Mr. Edgar’s letter, dated March 14th, 1743.

[Sidenote: Edgar to Murray]

    SIR,--You will see by the enclosed I send you from our friend
    Mr. Edwards (he means the King) that he leaves me nothing to say
    in return to your two letters of the 18th and 25th of february.
    This Packet is sent open to Lord Semple to forward to you, you
    will see it is write in his Cypher, a Copy of which I know Mr.
    McGregor left with L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r so I reckon you may easily
    gett this read, for suppose you may have that Cypher in your own
    Custody. You will be glad to know that the family is well, I
    heartyly wish you all health and happiness and longing to have
    the pleasure of Embracing you, I am with great Esteem, etc.

Letter from the Chevalier to John Murray.

[Sidenote: The Chevalier de St. George to Murray]

    I received a few days ago yours of the 18th of February and am
    far from disaproving your comming into France att this Time.[159]
    The Settling of a Correspondence betwixt us on this Side of
    the Sea and our friends in Scotland may be of consequence in
    this juncture I hope you will have concerted some safe method
    for this effect with Lord Semple before you leave him and
    that once determined you will I think have done very well to
    return home where you may be of more use than abroad. I shall
    say nothing here of what’s passing in France of which you will
    have been informed by Lord Semple, and you may be well assured
    that depends upon me to induce the French to assist us as is
    reasonable to hope they will if their be a general war. But if
    they ever undertake anything in my favour, I shall to be sure
    have little warning of it before and by consequence I fear it
    will be impossible that General Keith can come in time into
    Scotland how much soever both I, and I am perswaded himself also,
    desires it because you will easily see that one of his rank
    and distinction cannot well quite the Service he is in either
    abruptly or upon an uncertainty. I remark all you say to me on
    that subject and when the time comes it shall be my care to
    dispose all such matters in as much as in me lys for what I may
    then think for the real good of my Service and for my friends
    Satisfaction also for in such sort of particulars it is scarce
    possible to take proper Resolutions before the time of Execution.
    I had some time ago a proposal made me in Relation to the Seizing
    of Stirling Castle[160] what I then heard and what you now say
    on that subject is so general, that I think it is not impossible
    but that the two proposals may be found originally one and the
    same project; I wish therefore you would enter a little more
    into particulars that I may be the better able to determine what
    directions to send. As to what is represented about the Vassals
    I suppose what you mean is the same with what I have inserted
    in a draught of a Declaration for Scotland I have long had by
    me, viz., That the Vassals of those who should appear against my
    forces on a landing should be freed of their Vassalidge and hold
    immediately of the Crown provided such Vassals should declare for
    me and join heartyly in my Cause. As this is my intention I allow
    my friends to make such prudent use of it as they may think
    fitt. Before you gett this you will probably have received what
    was wrote to you from hence about the Scotts Episcopal Clergy
    so that I need say nothing on that subject here more than that
    I hope the steps taken by me will give satisfaction and promote
    union in that Body.

    It is a great comfort to me to see the Gentlemen of the Concert
    so zealous so united and so frank in all that relates to my
    service and I desire you will say all that is kind to them in
    my name, I remark you have advanced one hundred pounds of your
    own money[161] for Sir J[ames] C[ampbe]ll which I take very well
    of you but I desire you would not give me any more proofs of
    that kind of your goodwill towards me and as for what is past I
    look upon it as a personal Debt and shall take care that it be
    repayed, I remark what you say about the difficulty their is of
    raising money I foresaw that would be no easy matter and think it
    should not be insisted upon, I think I have now taken notice of
    all that required any answer in what you wrote to me and Edgar
    and shall add nothing further here but to assure you of the
    continuance of any good opinion of you and that your prudent and
    zealous indeavours toward my service shall never be forgott by me.

    (_Signed_) J. EDWARDS.[162]

    Dated _March 11th, 1743_.

At the same time came the following:--

[Sidenote: The Chevalier to Murray]

    Since I wrote to you on 11th I have seen what you wrote to Edgar
    of the same date; I remark what you say on extending a Concert
    in the Low Country and the Method[163] it has been done in the
    Highlands such a measure may be a great advantage to the cause
    and therefore I cannot but much approve of it, provided it be
    gone about with great prudence and Caution, which I earnestly
    recommend to you not only on your own account but mine also, for
    we must in this juncture carefully avoid anything that may give
    the Government any jealousie or pretence to molest our friends. I
    am well pleased to observe what you say of L[ochie]l and if you
    have occasion make him a kind Compliment from me and the Prince,
    this is all I have to add or present in this paper.

    Signed as befor and dated 14th, 1743.

In the first letter I wrote to Mr. Edgar after my return home I told
him that the Packet for Bishop Rattrae was still in my Custody being
informed that he intended to be soon in town so thought it fitt to
delay doing any thing in it till he should come, accordingly whenever
I heard of his arrival I went immediately to the Country where the
Cypher Mr. Edgar mentioned there was, and brought it to town with
me but to my Surprise found it did not answer. Yett I nevertheless
resolved to deliver the Packet to him att the same time reading the
paragraph in mine concerning it so sent for Mr. Rae[164] one of the
Presbyters in Edinburgh and told him I wished to see Mr. Rattrae and
desired he would go to him and acquaint him with my intention and make
an appointment for me which he agreed to do next mourning. He came to
me on the morrow and told me had missed him but would indeavour to find
him sometime that day upon which he left me and found him dinning with
his daughter Mrs. ---- so delayed it till next morning, but when he
went was informed by his daughter Mrs. Clark in whose house he lived
that he had been taken ill the night before of an Epidimical Distemper
that at that time raged almost all of over Europe of which he died in
three or four days illness, by which means that Packet still remains in
my Custody, never since having gott any directions about it. From that
time I have keept my Resolution of never having any more to do with
the Clergy, for when I was asked some few days after by Mr. Rae what I
thought they should do in their present situation, I told him I thought
they should draw up a full and distinct state of their [affairs]
without neglecting the least thing and send it to the King leaving him
to determine without any further representations, but shunned writting
or taking any Commissions about it, nor do I since know any of their
procedure none of them having ever spoke to me on the subject.

About this Time the Duke of P[erth] came from England and as L[ochie]l
and [I] had often Schemed together what we ourselves were able to
do in the present posture of affairs and seemed to agree in Opinion
that should the french disapoint us we were more able to restore the
King by our own strength during the absence of the Army than with the
Assistance of 10,000 men were our Troops once returned, for which
reason did the English fail to give the assurances to the french they
required, but we should gett the people at home to take it in hand
by themselves. With this View I had already wrote Mr. Edgar on that
Strain and now we agreed to sound the Duke of P[erth] on the same
Subject which we did and found him abundantly forward. He was then
going to the Country and Sir A[lexander] Mc[Donal]d[165] was with his
brother-in-law A[irl]y so desired the Duke would try him and some days
after had a letter from hime wherein he said that he had spoke to him
as was agreed and found him very keen that he said the sooner it was
done the better and in place of 700 men which his Uncle carried with
him in the year 1715 he would now bring 1200. At the same time when his
Grace was talking to us in Edinburgh on this subject he said the people
in that part of the Country where he had come from very honest and
that the Mayer and Aldermen had spoke to him in the strongest terms,
which he then told us, and desired I might acquaint the King of it, so
I desired his Grace would putt it in writting and that I should not
fail to transmit it to his Majesty; upon which he went to another room
and brought me a sheet of paper mostly write which I did not care to
transmitt in his own words but abridged it; however shall say no more
of it here as I will putt down the letter I wrote the King and another
to Mr. Edgar. I must only observe that I read the Duke’s memorial to my
L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r att his own house upon giving him some paper he had
putt in my custody att his leaving Scotland, at which time his Lordship
and I agreed to put it in the fire as the letter I had wrote and which
I att the same time read to my Lord contained the substance of it, this
I have frequently repented since, as his Grace’s memory did not seem to
serve him exactly to what he had wrote. In answer to his Majesty’s I
wrote the following, Dated July 5th, 1743:--

[Sidenote: Murray to the Chevalier]

    SIR,--I had the honour of your Majesty’s commands some weeks
    ago of the 11th of March. I communicated the paragraph of your
    Majesty’s relating to the certainty of General Keith’s coming to
    Scotland to the Duke of P[erth] and L[ochie]l who are equally
    well satisfied with what your Majesty is pleased to say on that
    subject. Your Majesty’s Declaration with regard to the Scotts
    Vassals and the Liberty you are most graciously pleased to grant
    of insinuating so much to them give L[ochie]l extream pleasure
    being convinced it will tend greatly to promote your Majesty’s
    interest. The Duke of P[erth] desired me to acquaint your Majesty
    that the Mayer and Aldermen of York had freely opened their
    minds to him on the Subject of the Restoration and gave him a
    Commission humble to Represent their Loyalty and firm attachment
    to your Majesty’s cause. They engage that upon hearing of your
    Majesty’s aproach with a Sufficient Body to support them they
    will raise 10,000 men in that County and have no doubt of an
    equal Number from the Countys Adjacent. There are two gentlemen
    one of them a present member the other was last parliament but
    declined it these have the Sole management of the County and
    did they appear would certainly be followed by every one in it.
    His Grace had not the good fortune to see them they being at
    London but left them his Compliments by some of their friends
    who assured him they were ready upon your Majesty’s desire to
    enter into any Scheme to promote your Majesty’s interest. His
    Grace desired me likewise to inform your Majesty that he is fully
    convinced and may almost affirm that upon shewing an order from
    your Majesty to treat with them they will sign any declaration
    or assurance of whatever Nature shall be thought most for your
    Majesty’s interest and to have the Mayer and Aldermen, at least
    those of them upon whose Secrecy they can the most depend to
    do the like. In the Duke’s Memorandum to me he neglected the
    two Gentlemen’s names. As the Election of their Mayer goes
    by Rotation it falls next year upon a Whig which his grace
    thinks can be of no consequence as none of that Kidney have any
    Interest, in the town, but he was told that notwithstanding the
    custom, if your Majesty desired it they would indeavour to have
    another chosen. I shall incroatch no further upon your Majesty’s
    time having wrote to Mr. Edgar but beg leave to subscribe myself
    with the greatest Veneration and Duty your Majesty’s, etc.

Letter to Mr. Edgar, dated July 5th, 1743.

[Sidenote: Murray to Edgar]

    Since I had the pleasure of receiving your last letter the Duke
    of P[erth] returned from York after having gott a very possitive
    and harsh Refusall from the Lady to whom he was making his
    addresses, during his stay there he had some commissions from the
    Mayer and Aldermen to the King with which I had the honour to
    acquaint the King by the enclosed amongst others they begged he
    might offer their humble Duty and assure him of their unalterable
    Regard to his Interest. They intended to send his Highness the
    Duke[166] the freedom of their toun in a Gold Box as the highest
    mark of their regard for his Highness who does them the honour to
    bear the Name of their Town but being afraid least a discovery
    should be made by Workmen or others who would render them the
    less usefull to his Majesty they must humbly beg his Highness
    would look upon the Compliment as real and Honour them with his
    Acceptance.

    L[ochie]l and I spoke to the Duke upon the supposition we should
    obtain no assistance from France how far he thought it would be
    prudent at this juncture to undertake the King’s Restoration
    ourselves. Upon his Grace’s approving of the scheme, I proposed
    when he went to the Country he should talk to Sir A[lexander]
    M[acdonal]d upon the same, which he accordingly did, and sent an
    answer to L[ochie]l wherin he says that found him entirely of the
    same Opinion, that he seemed to think there was a necessity for
    it, and that it ought to be done as soon as possible and that
    in place of 700 men his Uncle brought with him in the year 1715
    he would engage to bring 1200. I could not fail to acquaint you
    with his Opinion, he being the most reserved cautious man I ever
    knew, and the least apt to say or do anything rashly, everybody
    is of Opinion the Government designs by all methods to Ruin the
    Highlands which to be sure makes the Gentlemen fond to have
    something done before it be out of their power to be of service,
    especially as there are some of them whose Estates are so low
    such as G[lengar]ry C[lanranal]d A[p]p[i]n C[ap]p[oc]h that they
    will be obliged either to sell their lands or conform to the
    Government through necessity; and am very credibly[167] informed
    that Ca[p]p[oc]h was this Winter at London on a Scheme of raising
    an independent Company. Since Mr. Smith came to this place he
    has insisted with Lo[chie]l to go over to see Lord Marshall who
    he tells him has had several different accounts of the State of
    the Highlands so that he is very anxious to talk to him upon
    that head. L[ochie]l excuses himself from going but told me Mr.
    Smith supposed his Lordship was informed of everything by the
    King and that the State given in by Mr. Drummond was just he is
    certain; but now things are much better and that Mr. Drummond
    rather erred in making the number too small[168] being determined
    to advance nothing but what he could answer for. I had a letter
    lately from my L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r wherein he seems to hint that
    his Majesty’s friends in England are in a way of acting with more
    vigour and unanimity than they have hitherto done. I hope they
    are now become sensible of their weak and groundless prejudices
    against Lord Semple (a Catalogue of which I sent you in my last)
    as well as of the necessity there is to act Vigorously and
    Resolutely for his Majesty’s Restoration. It would seem L[ord]
    T[ra]q[uai]r and Mr. Drummond have not judged it fitt to send
    my letter to L[ord] Marshall (a Copy of which I sent you in my
    last) for I have never had the smallest hint of it from Mr. Smith
    neither has L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r taken occasion to mention it in
    any of his Letters to me. Upon Bishop Rattrae’s coming to town
    I went immediately to the Country for the Cypher when I found
    it did not in the least correspond to that Coll. Urquhart must
    certainly have been mistaken. I nevertheless resolved to deliver
    the letters att the same time showing him the paragraph in mine
    relative to him and to tell him the cause of the mistake, but
    this day I sent one of his Brethern to acquaint him that I would
    wait on him in the afternoon, he was abroad and the next day
    when I sent again found he was taken ill of a Pluirisy of which
    he died two days after[169] which to be sure is a very great
    misfortune and not the less so that Mr. Keith is now Senior
    Bishop, what they are now doing or intend to do I don’t know I
    have sent you the Cypher inclosed but retained the Letter till
    further Orders.

    We had great rejoicings some days ago on account of a Battle
    said to be gained by the Allies in Germany,[170] but by latter
    Accounts, the Case seems to have been that the Army of the
    Allies had gott too far into the Country and finding a Scarcity
    of provisions (especially amongst the English) they resolved to
    return from whence they came when they were attacked by a body
    of French to the number of 25,000 or thereabouts, some write
    they intended to attack their rear and harrass them on their
    march, others they proposed intercepting 12,000 Hannoverians
    and Hessians that were on their march to join the Army, but
    whatever was their Intention they attacked our foot. Whereupon a
    very smart engagement ensued, wherein both partys seem to have
    suffered severely. The French repassed the river and we continued
    our march and are now gott near to frankfort where its said the
    Emperor is and talks of a Suspension of Arms I wish too good a
    peace may not ensue. You certainly cant help laughing when you
    consider with what Vigour and Success we carry on our war with
    Spain. Never was a poor Country in so miserable a Condition as
    we are in att present, neither Money nor Trade nor Credit, nay
    nor so much as the smallest degree of honour or Character left
    us. The Duke of P[erth]’s Stay here was so short that I could
    not gett him to explain his Scheme of Seizing Stirlling Castle,
    but I wont neglect the first opportunity to have it from him. I
    am Still obliged to continue the old Cannal of Correspondence
    not being able while att London to find any Safe Conveyance from
    thence, but I hope Lord T[ra]q[uai]r will have effectuated that
    before his return; I have now write everything that occurrs to me
    I wish may not already have tired you.--So with hearty prayers
    for the familys wellfare and all friends with you and that we
    may soon meet on a Solid and happy footing, I beg that you would
    believe that I ever am, etc.

        Dated _July 5th, 1743_.

    _P.S._--I had almost neglected to tell you that while I was att
    London I ordered a Countryman of ours to work Six pair of the
    finest Silk-Stockens he could possibly make, which as they are
    home manufactory and finest I believe were mad in the Island I
    have ventured to send them by Mr. Smith to Rome hoping the Prince
    will do his Country and me the honour to accept of them.

My Lord T[ra]q[uai]r having now been three months att London and we all
that time receiving no Material accounts of Success things looked as if
this Summer would be Spent as well as the former without any Resolution
taken of coming to Blows in the Autumn or Winter which made all those
of the concert very uneasy but particularly my Lord L[ova]t, so that he
seemed to give up all hopes of the Schemes ever succeeding and wrote
to L[ochie]l several Letters wherein he resolved to settle his affairs
and go to London where, after he had sollicited an appeal he intended
to lodge against Chisholm, he would then go over to France with his
son. L[ochie]l was so good as show me the most of his Letters and from
some things he said, but particularly a paragraph in one of them we had
reason to conjecture he proposed to end his days in a Religious house;
this we were the more easily induced to believe as his Lordship had now
lived to a great age during the most of which he had acted a part in
the world not looked upon by the Generality of Mankind in a favourable
light. We therefore agreed that L[ochie]l Should write him dissuading
him from his design but at the same time he seemed so positive that
it was thought Necessary to acquaint the King of it as his Majesty’s
orders appeared to us the only mean whereby to prevent his journey,
knowing that his leaving the Country would be of the worst Consequence
as there was not a man in that part of the Country capable to manage
it but himself and in general that his appearing publickly in Arms for
the King must be of great Service, for which Reasons the first Occasion
that occurred I wrote to the King dated September 5th 1743:

[Sidenote: Murray to the Chevalier]

    SIR,--I had the honour to write to your majesty the 5th of July
    last which I hope is come Safe. I have of late seen several
    Letters from Lord L[ovat] to L[ochie]l wherein he Express great
    Anxiety and impatience that things are not like to come to a
    conclusion. I take it to be upon that account that he has settled
    his affairs att home and is now taking leave of his friends with
    a Resolution of going this Winter to London there to solicite
    an appeal and from thence to France with his Son. Your Majesty
    will see at first View all the inconveniencys that may attend
    such a procedure more readily than I can express, he being the
    only man in the Country capable to manage that part of the
    Country alloted him, and indeed I am afraid from a paragraph in
    one of his Letters that he has some thoughts of Ending his days
    in a monastry Since he thinks he cannot do it in your Majestys
    Service. Affairs abroad seem now to tend more and more to a War
    with france which Should it happen will I hope putt a Stop to his
    journey, but failing that I am apt to believe nothing will do
    save your Majestys orders, etc.

    To Mr. Edgar.

    _September 5, 1743._

[Sidenote: Murray to Edgar]

    SIR,--I gave you the trouble of a pretty long Letter the fifth
    of July last, since which I have not had the pleasure of hearing
    from you. Lord T[ra]q[uai]r is still att London but proposes to
    be soon down here, which I heartily wish, some folks being vastly
    anxious for his return expecting upon that Event to be intirely
    satisfied as to what may be hoped for from the Kings friends in
    England. Upon the Highland deserters being shott att London,[171]
    which has greatly disobliged their Countrymen, I took it upon
    me to acquaint some of the Gentlemen that it was his Majestys
    pleasure they should endeavour to prevent as much as possible
    any of their followers from inlisting in the Service of the
    present Government. This I thought the more necessary as a great
    many of them have been carried out of the Country for some years
    past, the Dutch having gott several hundreds upon their last
    Augmentation.[172] My Lord K[e]n[mur]e is returned from Portugall
    perfectly recovered. I said some obliging things to him in his
    Majestys Name of gaining the Cameronians (amongst whom he lived)
    to his Majestys Interest. I am very sensible what a fickle Sett
    of people they are and how difficult an undertaking of this kind
    may prove. Yett as Sir Th[oma]s G[ord][o]n of E[arls]t[o]n,[173]
    a leading man amongst them two years ago, spoke to the late Lord
    of the precarious Situation of the present Government, and in
    case of a Restoration begged his protection, this Lord seemed
    the fitter person to learn his present Sentiments. Your Friend
    Sir J[ames] S[tewar]t[174] who deservedly well liked by all his
    acquaintances is to be married to Lord W[emy]ss eldest daughter,
    a Match made by Lord E[lcho][175] who left this the beginning of
    Summer and I understand, is now at Boulogne, so that I had no
    opportunity to deliver the Compliments his Majesty and the Prince
    honour him with. I beg you will believe me, etc.

    Some time in the month of August the Laird of Mc[Leo]d[176] came
    to Edinburgh and told L[ochie]l on his way here, who desired he
    might see him, and that he had several Commissions to us, so
    desired he would make an appointment with me. When L[ochie]l
    spoke to me of it I agreed to ride out with him on the Saturday
    to Peggie Vints where he proposed to dine and see a son of Lord
    L[ovat]s who was then at the School of Preston,[177] but we were
    both afraid from his saying that he had several Commissions
    that his Lordship had been too open with him, contrary to the
    engagement all these of the Concert had come under to one
    another; for which reason we resolved to be very cautious
    and determined, in case we found it as we suspected, to say
    nothing of it to him. We according mett, dined in the Country
    and adjurned to the Tavern in Edinburgh where we resolved to
    give him leave to say or ask as few questions as possible and
    took occasion to speak a good deal on the present miserable
    Situation of the Country, and tell him that we thought him one
    of the fittest Persons we knew to instigate the English to join
    heartily for promoting the Kings interest, being both a highland
    man and one of power in the Country; and at the same time told
    him it was his Majestys pleasure that the Chiefs of the Clans
    should allow none of their men to leave the Country. To which
    he answered that he and Sir A[lexander] Mc[Donal]d had taken
    care to let none of theirs inlist, and said a good deal of his
    readiness to serve the King so soon as an occasion should offer,
    and that he had already during his being att London made it his
    business to incite and encourage the English to every thing that
    cou’d conduce to his Majestys interest; and as to Lord L[ova]ts
    commissions, they turned out only to inquiring about Lord
    T[ra]q[uai]r and what news or good hopes he had. From this time
    nothing passed worthy the noticeing, I had some compliments from
    Lord L[ova]t in his letters to L[ochie]l wherein he acquainted
    him with the success he had in a Circuit he made over the Country
    and then gott a Letter or two from himself on these subjects and
    desiring his Majesty might be acquainted with it and at the same
    time saying he was resolved to continue at Home in expectation of
    something satisfactory upon my Lord T[ra]q[uai]r’s return. Upon
    this I wrote the following Letter to Mr. Edgar, dated October
    28th, 1743.

[Sidenote: Murray to Edgar]

    SIR,[178]--I has the pleasure of writing to you the fifth of
    last moneth with one inclosed to his Majesty, which makes me give
    you the trouble of this to acquaint you that upon L[ochie]ls
    repeated Letters to Lord L[ovat] together with Copys of my Lord
    T[ra]q[uai]rs from London which I sent him, he is determined not
    to stir from home this Winter. I should be greatly to blame did I
    neglect to inform you that his Lordship has been most assiduous
    this Summer to promote his Majestys Interest in his district so
    that I have great reason to believe that he is sure of all those
    he engaged for. He seems to be in great spirits upon account of
    his success in his Circuit he lately made over the Country when
    he gained most of the Monroes,[179] a people as little to have
    been expected as any in the Highlands. He keeps an open table by
    which means he is become very popular, and I believe, generally
    speaking, has more to say than any in that Country. L[ochie]l is
    still here expecting every day Lord T[ra]q[uai]rs arrival etc.
    His Lordship, to the best of my Remmembrance, came to Scotland
    sometime in the moneth when L[ochie]l and I immediately mett with
    him. He acquainted us that Mr. Drummond had left London a great
    while before him and promised so soon as he gott to Paris that
    the King of France and his ministers should be acquainted with
    the favourable accounts he had to give of his Success and that
    he would forthwith inform Lord T[ra]q[uai]r of every Resolution
    that was taken. His Lordship likewise told us what had passed
    during his Stay at London, which I shall not pretend to give
    a particular detail of, having no authority to intermeddle
    with, nor ever had, any particular concern in what regarded the
    English; so shall leave it to his Lordship to give a particular
    account of his Negotiations in that Country, if he shall think it
    necessary. I shall only mention here that his Lordship informed
    us that he had talk’d with the principal people of the Tory
    party some of which were very timerous, others such as Lord
    Bar[rymo]re very ready to join in any thing that could conduce to
    forward the Restoration, and that he had frankly offered, when
    they proposed a sum of Money to be ready to the Value of £12,000
    which was scrupled at by some, to provide it himself. That Lord
    O[rre]ry[180] I had made two several apointments with him and
    Mr. Drummond, neither of which he keept, but Stept out of Town
    without Seeing of them. But I must observe that from all I can
    Remmember of the Story no particular Concert was formed nor was
    their any appearance given the french of meeting with provisions,
    Carriages and horses att their landing, as Mr. Amalet proposed at
    Versails; for to the contrary when         was spoke to who lived
    in the neighbourhood of where they proposed to land, concerning
    the providing of these several Necessary he said he had no Idea
    that any thing had been so suddenly designed for the King, so
    could make no promises. Mr. Butler, the Gentleman sent over by
    the King of France to enquire into the Situation of the Country,
    was introduced by his Lordship to the most of the people. He
    knew and was sent to the Country to a meeting at Litchfield
    Races there to meet with Lord B[arrymor]e, Sir W[atkin Williams]
    W[ynn][181] where he was with about 80 or more gentlemen all of
    them but one reckoned honest people, which to be sure gave a
    good aspect to the party in general; but nevertheless I don’t
    see he went away with such a satisfactory account as Mr. Amalet
    seemed to require. He assured my Lord he had several Instructions
    from the King himself, but I wish his principall Errand may not
    have been to purchase horses with a View to the Kings equipage
    for the insuing Campaign, he having bought to the value of 3 or
    4000£. This reflection may seem harsh but I cannot reconcile
    their bestowing that sum upon horses for which he said they had
    no Occasion only by a way of blind and not allowing the prince
    not above one half of it for a whole years expences, and I don’t
    think it would be just to argue in opposition to it that they
    then knew nothing of the Campaign his Majesty intended to make.
    The french are rather too far sighted not to allow them to design
    so short a while as some moneths before hand. In short from his
    Lordships return till the moneth of february we had no Letters
    from france. In the interim L[ochie]l went to the Highlands when
    he acquainted Sir J[ames] C[ampbell] and Lord L[ova]t with all
    yt had passed and that we soon expected the french would come to
    a final determination one or tother. We spent the time greatly
    shagerin’d, vex’d to have no Accounts of any kind considering
    that Mr. Drummond promised at his leaving London in Company with
    Mr. Butler to write over immediately. Att last we received two
    letters, one inclosing another Copy, of which I shall insert Copy
    of Mr. Drummonds Letter to the Earl of T[ra]q[uai]r, dated ...

After I had made this answer with the Consent and advice of the Duke of
P[erth] and was signed by them, the nixt day being Ash Wedensday[182]
his Grace resolved to leave the place being apprehensive that as the
newspapers were there very full of the french preparations he might
be suspected and seized and so not in his power to appear when any
thing came to be done. My Lord T[ra]q[uai]r, att whose Lodgings I had
the Honour to meet his Grace that mourning, was very much against
his leaving the place in such a hurry, and on that day especially. I
likewise took the Liberty to remonstrate to him a little against it but
all to no purpose and he accordingly sett out about Eleven O Clock and
went that night the Length of Dumblain. This was immediately looked
upon by the people of the Government with a very jealous Eye and the
more so that his Brother Lord J[oh]n had come to Scotland some little
time before upon a Scheme of raising a Scots Regiment for the french
Service, stayed only ten days or little more at Edinburgh and went from
that to the Highlands to solicite the Gentlemen there to be assisting
to him in making his Levies. It unluckily hapened for the Duke that
upon the back of Lord J[oh]ns going to the Country the Government began
to be alarmed with the Accounts of the Princes being come to france and
the intended invasion in his Majestys interest which made our little
Ministers conjecture that Lord J[oh]n had been sent over with the
accounts of it to the Highlands and consequently that the Duke had left
the town with an intention to foment an insurrection in the Country.
This was made no secret of, being publickly talked of immediately upon
the Duke disappearing two days, so after his leaving the town a servant
of his was dispatched to London with the Letter I had wrote to Mr.
Drummond their being no other means of conveiying one to him but by
express, we not having any settled Cannal of Correspondence from hence
there. This I think was about the 8th or 10th of february [1744]. My
Lord T[ra]q[uai]r stayed some days in town after, designedly to create
no suspicion.

In about a week or so after I went on a Sunday Evening to see Mr.
H[a]y[183][184] who, when I was talking in a ludicrous way of the
paragraph in the papers about the manner in which his Highness had left
Italy, he told me in a very serious way that it was no Joke and said
that the sooner I went to the Country the better as my living quietly
at home would give no suspicion to the Government, but if I stayed any
time in town he did not know what might happen, that upon his honour he
had not heard me mentioned, which perhaps was owing to my near Relation
with him, but that att that same time I was suspected to correspond
with Rome. I told him I intended to stay some days longer in Town and
would so soon as I had formerly proposed, that I had no cause of fear
and so would not run away, and as to their suspecting my corresponding
with Rome, that I laughed at but thanked him for his kind concern. I
was not at all sorry to find they were so alarmed and afraid, which to
me appeared a sure sign of their weakness, and indeed their fear for
some days after increased to the most abject pusilanimity. His saying
that he had not heard me mentioned was telling plainly that they had
been consulting of who were the persons first to be laid hands; and
I am apt to believe had the management of affairs been left to Lord
Arniston,[185] Sir John Inglis,[186] Commissioner Arthburthnet[187]
and the rest of the present Ministry there would have been little
lenity shown any Body they had the least reason to suspect. But
affairs were afterwards taken out of their hands and putt into these
of Justice Clerks,[188] who tho’ as Violent a Whig yet not so hott
and Violent a Man. I went next day, being Munday, in the morning to
wait of General Guest, who then Commanded in Chief in Scotland[189]
with a View to hear what a Notion or Idea he had of matters. He told
me that the Repeal of the Habeas Corpus Act was expected that night
by the Post, but added that, was it come, upon his honour he did not
know a man he suspected enough to lay up, which I was exceedingly
well pleased with. Also att the same time I could have marked out a
great many and the general seemed not in the least to be affraid and
laughed att the hurry and confusion the other folks were. I was taken
very ill that day after dinner and gave up thoughts of going to Mr.
Hunters of Poolmood’s Burrial[190] which was to be on the Thursday,
and I was desired out by the Widow on the tuesday, which evening about
six O Clock Mr. Mc[Douga]ll[191] brought me a Letter directed to the
Countess of T[ra]q[uai]r. As I was then expecting one every day from
Mr. Drummond, as he had promised in his last, I began to suspect a
little notwithstanding it had come by the Common Post, a very odd
method of Conveyance. In such a critical juncture I opened it when I
found a blank Cover and Still directed as before. This confirmed me
in my suspicion and under that I found a Letter for my Lord which I
immediately opened and tho’ partly in Cypher, could easily understand
that things were directly to be putt in execution. This struck me a
good deal as I said I would not go to the Country. However, I sent Mr.
Mc[Douga]ll with directions immediately to sent the Letter off to Lord
T[ra]q[uai]r and to desire D. C[     ]n[192] to come down as of no
design and tell me I might go to the Country next day if I pleased,
which he accordingly did and hyrred a Chaise, not being able to ride.
In the mean while Sir J. S[tewar]t came to see me, who I acquainted of
it and att the same time wrote a Letter to Lord K[enmu]re who I had
spoke to the Munday before, desiring him to meet me at T[ra]q[uai]r
the thursday night as likewise one to Mr. J[oh]n Mc[leo]d[193] telling
him I thought it would be fitt to send Sir J[ames] C[ampbe]lls son to
the Highlands, who his father designed should serve him therein being
assistant to raise the Country. I accordingly sett out next mourning
for the Country and the day following Lord T[ra]q[uai]r mett me at
Polmood and shewed me the Letter when decyphered which I shall here
give a Copy off, and att the same time a Letter he had received the
night before by express from Edinburgh telling him that their was
a Warrant out to apprehend him which determined his Lordship to go
immediately to the D[uke] of P[erth]. Upon which so soon as the Burrial
was over we came to my house, where I wrote a Letter to Lord K[enmu]re
desiring he would follow us next mourning to Hartrie[194] where we
intended to sleep that night and sent it Express to T[ra]q[uai]r with
other Letters of my Lords, expecting Lord K[enmo]re would be there that
night, but he nevertheless continued the whole time in Edinburgh. We
set out next day from Hartrie which was the fryday, that the french
fleet was dispersed and the Transports run a Shore,[195] and the night
after gott to Drummond Castle, from whence his Grace sent immediately
an express with the Copy of the last Letter we received to L[ochie]l.
We continued som weeks there always in Expectation to hear of a landing
and in the mean time heard that several informations was given in
against the Duke of Perth as having numbers of armed men about his
house which was absolutely false. At last a party of 150 foot and
30 Horse were sent from Stirling to make him Prisoner, but he had
intelligence of it and went out of the way.[196] All this time Lord
T[ra]q[uai]r was sculking about the Country having returned from the
jaunt he had made over the Highlands.

After staying in that Country till the beginning of Aprile, without
receiving any Accounts from abroad and giving up all hopes of a
Landing, I left my Lord T[ra]q[uai]r there and came to Stirlingshire
where I stayed about three weeks and so came to Edinburgh, and from
that went to the Country the 11th of May. In the beginning of June,
when Lord T[ra]q[uai]r returned, I went to wait of him, and being very
uneasy to think we had received no accounts from Abroad, I said if I
could afford the expence I would go over on pretence of seeing the Army
in flanders and so see the Prince myself and learn distinctly what
situation things were in. This his Lordship was well pleased with but
I did not say anything positively, but upon Reflexion by the Road, I
thought it was hard that people who had been for so long concerned in
the Kings affairs and putt to so great Charge about it with the hazard
of their Lives and fortunes should now be left in the dark as to every
thing. Wherefore I resolved to do it, and next day wrote a Letter to
my Lord telling him that if the Duke of P[erth] would give me a 100£
I would be att the rest of the expence myself and go over and in case
his Lordship approved of it, he would be so good as meet me at Peebles
on Saturday, which he did, and after talking with him I came home and
sett out the same night about     O Clock and gott to Drummond [Castle]
next afternoon. The Duke immediately agreed to the thing and gave me
an order for the money. About this time came a letter from Lord Semple
to Lord T[ra]q[uai]r by way of an account of their precedure in the
Spring, which I went to T[ra]q[uai]r and assisted his Lordship to
decypher, but was so little to our satisfaction that my Lord still
thought my going over more necessary than before. About this time I
received a letter from St[uar]t of Ard[shie]ll,[197] telling me that
he would have come to the Country to wait of me but his dress made him
remarkable, being in Highland Cloaths, but as he had comed to Town
purposely to meet with me, he hoped I would give him a meeting, and yt
he had seen L[ochie]l lately. I went to town in a day or two after and
dined with him. His Errand was to know of me if I had gott any Accounts
lately, and what hopes I had. I did not think it att all proper to
let him know any thing of my having seen such a letter as Lord Semple
had wrote, nor indeed that any Accounts had come; for in that case he
would have expected something positive. But I put him off by telling
him I imagined the french were resolved to renew the Expedition soon
and so friends did not care to write least any discovery should ensue,
but could easily see that the Answer was not att all satisfactory. I
returned that same night to the Country, and during a few days that I
stayed, prepared for my journey.

N.B.--_This is a fragment of a letter written by Mr. Murray to the
Pretender soon after the miscarriage of the French Expedition._

[Sidenote: Murray to the Chevalier]

    It was looked upon by some as certain, and thought necessary
    by all, that Mr. Watson[198] should come over, as he was the
    person who had gone through the whole Highlands and gott the
    engagements of the Several Gentlemen at his first leaving
    Scotland, and surely had any of them been so little as to flinch
    from what they engaged to him, he was the natural and indeed
    the only person that could have upbraided them into their Duty.
    My Lord says he could trust to no conveyance, and so could not
    soonner give us any information your Majestys friend is here,
    upon Mr. D[rummond] not coming, expected immediately after the
    Embargo was taken of in france that some one or other would
    have been dispatched to our Coasts with an account of what had
    passed, and what was to be hoped for, that so we might have
    regulate our fortunes Conduct accordingly. The neglect of this,
    Sir, greatly surprises your Majestys friends in generall, and
    gives the Gentlemen in the concert a good deal of Umbrage, as
    they thereby think themselves slighted and neglected, whereas,
    they being the first promoters of the whole scheme, they humbly
    think entitled them to have the most expidetious information.
    His Lordship next supposes that we are fully satisfied of the
    french sincerity, which indeed is entirely otherwise, especially
    from the Reasons he assigns that it was owing to the commandants
    neglect or disobedience to his Instructions. We never can bring
    ourselves to believe that any man (especially a french subject)
    grown old with an untainted and great Reputation, durst have
    disobeyed what seems to have been the only Material part of his
    Instructions to block up Portsmouth, and surely, if not for
    this one Errand his Voyage to the Chunnel must rather do harm
    than good, which was evidently seen by the Government being put
    timeously upon their Guard. As to his next paragraph relating to
    the frenches cautious delay purposely to see what Influence the
    powers of the Court would have upon your Majestys friends here,
    and that the above cautious delay was grating to the Prince;
    no wonder indeed his Royal Highness had too penetrating an Eye
    not to see that it would be impossible to recover this Time and
    opportunity he was losing. But what really quite astonishes us
    is his Lordships saying that from the light it was represented
    in, their caution seemed to be well grounded. We cant pretend to
    take their Reasons to [heart] as they are not told us, but we are
    affraid they consist more in plausible pretences, dressed up with
    a little french Rhetorick, than in strong and solid Arguments.
    We are in this Climate generally accustomed to the plainer sort
    of speach, and we cannot help thinking ourselves judges of it.
    Did not the french Court know of Comns.?[199] Did they not know
    that that Majority would pass all Bills that might seem their
    Master? Did they not know that the repeal of the Habeas Corpus
    act would naturally be the first step and that by that Repeal
    they were enabled to take up every person they suspected? Did
    they not know that the principal men in England, of your Majestys
    friends, were in the house and that not one of them durst object
    to any method that was proposed as their offering. Such would
    have been an open declaration of their principles, and must
    consequently have caused their confinement. Did they not know
    that the English are a fickle sort of people, and that they had
    a natural abhorence of the french nation, and thay could not
    be ignorant that this was giving them time to frighten them by
    the fear of a french Influence that State pretence and thereby
    to make friends in the City of London. If they were Ignorant of
    all these they ought surely to have been told, and we must be of
    opinion that these as such Indisputable Reasons that no Sound
    Arguments could be adduced to confute them, which, when rightly
    observed, makes their Schemes of delaying it for a little time
    appear vain and frivolous pretences and absolutely contradictory
    to all Right Reason. We are convinced that his Royal Highness,
    keeping so quiet has effectually deceived the Government, that it
    is entirely owing to his own matchless address, and indeed upon
    decyphering the Letter My Lord T[ra]q[uai]r and I thought that we
    was in the next line to have had orders to keep in readyness to
    favour a discent to be made, upon the D[uke] of H[amilton] and
    the Dutch troops going over; but to our unexpressible Surprise
    he proposes new assurances to be given both from Scotland and
    England. In the name of Wonder what can all this mean? Where
    are the Grounds? Where the Reasons, where the necessity leading
    to such a demand? The assurances from Scotland were thought
    sufficient by the K[ing], by C[ardinal] F[leury] and by Mr.
    Amalot. From the first moment the assurances carried over by Mr.
    Butler last year from England were thought sufficient, otherwise
    the french would not have carried the Expidition so far. If this
    is the case (which we have all along been made believe) what is
    the necessity for any Renewal of them? What a horrid and Gloomy
    prospect must such a Scheme carry along with it, things have been
    carried on for some years with great Secrecy and caution, tho’
    with danger of Life and fortune to those concerned, and must they
    now recommence such another tedious and dangerous Negotiation?
    I am afraid, Sir, if your Majesty should find it necessary it
    will be next to impossible, at lest my Lord T[ra]q[uai]r never
    can take a hand doing any thing in England, he is already
    strongly suspected and it wanted but little he was not taken up
    some moneths ago. The express he sent to London with a Letter
    to Watson[200] was seized, which was occasioned by one from him
    which left us quite in the dark as to what assistance we were to
    have, and that within 3 weeks of the Expidition, but not till he
    had delivered his Packet; and had he not luckyly said he believed
    it Related to a marriage which was then the talk of the town,
    his Lordship had surely been arested. But if the English are so
    well satisfied with the procedure of the french, and the open
    discovery of any plot, why cant they find one amongst themselves
    to do the Business? I shall be sorry to think they have only a
    view to gain time till they see whither they are able to carry
    on the War in spite of Brittain, and then tell us that the Zeal
    shown for the present Government in the time of the Expidition
    contradicts all the assurances we advanced to the contrary, which
    will be the Result of their Cautious and well delay for a little
    time. This is harsh, but other people have seen, and I have read
    of france doing the like in other cases. As to the troops to
    be landed in Scotland, suppose it to be impossible to converse
    with all the concert on it att any time in two moneths, and all
    present not to be done at all, yett I can take upon me to affirm
    that they still continue in the same mind as to every Article.
    3000 men landed, one half near Sir J[ames] Cam[pbe]ll to command
    Argyle Shire, the other half near Inverness, a L[ochie]l may join
    them to command the north, or if the one half can’t reach near
    to Sir J[ames] C[ampbell], lett them be all landed together with
    4 feild pieces, 15 or 20,000 Stand of Arms, Gones, Pistoles and
    broad Swords, yett from the inquiry I have made I am satisfied
    10,000 Guns or less, 10,000 Broad Swords and as many Pistoles
    will sufficiently do the Business, as all the Isles are lately
    Armed with Guns and most of them Swords, Likewise, as for the
    Inland Country, they want Swords and Pistoles very much. It
    gives us great uneasiness that my Lord M[arischal] should be so
    unhappy as to fly in the face of every Scheme, if he himself
    does not project. _Sed quos Deus vult perdere dementit prius_,
    but we cannot help thinking oddnt, when the money was had to
    pay Sir J[ames] Mr. Watson did not care to remit it. This to be
    sure required no Conveyance, a Bill was sufficient. He knows the
    miserable Situation he is in, and tho’ the rest of the Concert
    are in no such Indigent Situation, yett their Circumstances are
    not so opulent as to assist him. The Gentlemen in the Highlands
    were so desirous to know if any accounts were come that Locheal
    gave a Commission to St[ewart] of A[rdshiel] who came expressly
    to meet with me and indeed I was so Anxious for the Situation of
    your Majestys friends, that I resolved upon a journey abroad to
    inform myself of every thing, upon the pretence of going to see
    the Army to some who had a title to be a little more Curious upon
    pretence of making more interest for a Company in the Dutch in
    case of any new levies, so that it was an accident I either mett
    with that Gentleman or saw my Lord S[emple] letter. He complained
    heavily that we had no Accounts from abroad, and indeed I never
    had more difficulty to excuse our friends. However, I told that
    our having none looked well as it portended that the expidition
    had surely suffered some short delay from the bad weather that
    had happened at the time, and as it was soon to be resumed,
    they thought it needless to send us any information in case of
    discoveries, which nevertheless cou’d observe did not entirely
    Satisfie him. My Lord T[raquair] desired me to assure your
    Majesty that there is nothing he would not undertake which
    might     further your Majestys interest but that he cannot come
    from his own house to Edinburgh without being suspected, which
    renders it impossible for him to negotiate any thing in England,
    and at the same time desires me to observe that he cannot
    reconceal that part of my Lord S[emple’s] Letter, where he tells
    him that nothing will be fixed with relation to the expidition
    till he hear from him with his proposals of fresh assurances
    from your Majestys friends here. In short, Sir, I must say that
    this letter is of such a nature that I do not take it upon me to
    intimate it to the Gentlemen in the Concert as in the present
    Situation Your Majestys Wisdom, the inexpressible Character the
    Prince has acquired as being of so brave and enterprising a
    Spirit, together with their own Suspence and hopes are what keep
    up their Spirits, but was I to make it knowen to them I am afraid
    it would throw them into a fatal Despondency, so till I have your
    Majestys orders am resolved to keep it private. Never was there
    a people more anxiously concerned about a princes happiness and
    welfare than this nation when she heard of Highness imbarkation,
    nor do I believe Scotland ever made a more unanimous Appearance
    than they would have done then, provided the Conditions promised
    them had been performed, but we have been told here, how justly
    I won’t say, that there was only 3000 Muskets designed for us
    without any troops, indeed, we are able, at any time, to command
    our own Country with Arms and officers, especially now when there
    is only four Regiments of foot and two of Dragoons, and each of
    these 100 Men draughted to flanders. I am sorry to be obliged
    to trouble your Majesty with so long a paper, but I am hopefull
    your Majesty will be of opinion our present Situation required
    it especially after receiving the inclosed, nor do I fear your
    Majestys being angry upon that account as I most humbly beg
    leave to say that an honest and loyal Subject can never explain
    himself too fully and Clearly to a wise Prince, and since the
    Receipt of Lord S[emple] letter I am more fully resolved to make
    my journey abroad as I think there is more Reason for full and
    pointed explications on every Article, and if I don’t thereby
    hurt your Majestys affairs of what at present I have no idea I
    shall be quite indifferent as what may be the consequence with
    regard to myself, being Void of all other Views but that of
    promoting your Majestys Interest, which I shall ever endeavour
    to do att all hazard. I most humbly beg this letter may not
    be made known to my Lord S[emple] and Mr. W[atson][201] least
    it unreasonably make differences amongst those concerned in
    your Majestys affairs, but if sending them a Copy will in your
    Majestys opinion be of any Service, I can with great Satisfaction
    sacrifice the private Regard of any man to the trueth and to my
    King and Country.

_This seems to be a Copy of a Letter which Mr. Murray wrote after his
return from France and Flanders in the Moneths of September or October,
1744, To the young Pretender, then in France._[202]

[Sidenote: Murray to Prince Charles]

    SIR,--It gives me the most Concern I should have been so long
    in this Country without having it in my power to acquaint your
    Royal Highness with what has passed since I left France, except
    in the short Letter I was necessitate to write from London under
    Cover to Mr. Lumly or Maxwell.[203] I dont now remember whilst
    being then able to find no other conveyance and since my Arrival
    here, there has been no Occasion till the present tho’ I have
    laid myself out to find one, as I might not so distinctly as I
    incline, acquaint your Royal Highness of every thing by way of
    letter. I have taken the Liberty to write in form of a journal
    with opinions of the several Persons I have had occasion to talk
    to.

    I sett out from Senlis[204] on Wednesday morning and on Thursday
    night came to Brussels. From thence I went next day to Termonde,
    where I mett with 636, 616, 1614, 12, 30, 1392,[205] who I spoke
    to as ordered by Mr. Burnet.[206] He seemed a little Timerous at
    first, but nevertheless promised to do all in his power with his
    Brother Officers, and to write Mr. Fisher[206] under the name
    of Burnet subscribing himself Cuming. On the Saturday I went to
    425, 1876, 1614,[207] in Company with Mr. 434, 1054, 1730,[208]
    to whom I spoke all night and found him so frank as to give me
    his word of honour that he would come over immediately upon my
    writing to him that he would use his Interest with the 1495 of
    his 598, 1614,[209] and go to Charleroy and talk with Some of
    Coaliers[210] and promised likewise to Send me over a list of
    the recruiting officers for this year, with a mark to those that
    might be spoke to. From that came to Rotterdam on Saturday where
    he informed me that there was nothing easier than to gett Arms of
    all kinds by applying to any Jew att Amsterdam who would oblige
    himself upon a penalty to give any number att whatever port in
    Holland we desired, and that as this was done dayly, it would
    create no Suspicion. There mett with 1389, 1051, C13,[211] to
    whom I repeated what had passed from the time I left him, and
    delivered him two letters from Mr. Burnet[206] with which he
    seemed exceedingly well pleased. I had many conversations with
    him on these Subjects, and upon the whole he was, and still is
    of Opinion that the English will not be brought to enter upon
    any Scheme without a foreign force, and that Mr. Burnet’s[212]
    coming to Scotland without their concurrence must be of the
    worse consequence, as from that quarter alone their did not
    appear the least probability of Success; for which reason, if the
    french do not putt in Execution the following Spring what they
    proposed the passed, he proposes as the dernier Resort to make
    an offer to the King of the Crown of Scotland upon the footing
    of the Antient Allience with France; but of this I shall say
    nothing, leaving to him to explain it himself, and as to raising
    a Sum of money is of Opinion it will be very difficult, if at
    all possible. On the friday Se-en night,[213] after leaving
    Senlis I arrived att London and nixt morning went to wait of Mr.
    Moore[214] but missed him, however in the evening I gott him at
    home but found him quite a different man from what I had left
    him, very reserved and did not offer to show me any letter he
    had received during my Absence tho’ Martin[215] informed me he
    had given him one the post before. I then talked to him a little
    different of the frenches intentions, at least for this Winter
    season, to which he answered he looked upon the King of France
    as a man of honour, and that to be sure he would not give Mr.
    Fisher[212] such promises if he did not seriously intend to serve
    him. I endeavoured to show him from the then Situation of the
    french officers that it was unreasonable to expect it, but all
    to no purpose. Then I told him that Mr. Fisher desired Letters
    so and so adressed should Morris,[216] this he said was not in
    his power for he did not know the person in the City forwarded
    them, but promised to speak with Martin, who was acquainted
    with, and usually carried his Letters, who was acquainted with
    him. I nixt spoke to him of raising a Sum of money to purchase
    Arms as likewise a few thousand pounds for Mr. Burnets[217] Own
    Use who was much pinched by the small allowance he had from
    Mr. Adams.[218] He told me that was what he could say nothing
    off, but that he knew their had been a Sum remitted to him last
    Spring by the way of Amsterdam. I then asked him to suppose
    the case that the french would do nothing, whether he imagined
    Saville[219] would join heartily with Sanderson[220] to bring
    about 407. Smith;[221] to which he answered as before, about the
    money that he knew nothing about it and so would not give his
    Opinion. Upon which I enjoined him upon Mr. Burnets[217] Name
    to mention that to none but whom Mr. Bright[222] and he should
    agree upon his Coming to Town, and desired to know how soon he
    thought that should be, which he still answered as before. From
    all which I could plainly see he had gott his Lesson from the
    other side. What made this the more obvious to me, in talking of
    raising money to purchase Arms, I told him it would be absolutely
    necessary, for tho’ in Diepe[223] we had men and them very
    willing to fight, yet we had no money, and Arms for not above
    7000 if so many; A number far inferior to what I had before told
    him would appear. Upon which he immediately indeavoured to catch
    me by saying he hoped I had got no bad news from Doit[224] to
    Occasion my Diminishing the number of Loyalists which obliged me
    to explain the matter by telling him that in 1829, 1274, 1381,
    1721,[225] a Gentleman [whose] following consisted perhaps of
    800 had not arms for above one half and so of the rest, by which
    means they all in general when spoke to, declared they were not
    Armed. This, he no doubt did with Intent to find me out in a
    Contradiction which he could not have failed to represent to his
    friends on the other side by the first post, who would have
    made their own use of it with Mr. Burnet.[226] Two days after,