has been denominated the quadruple alliance, by which peace was prescribed to the emperor, the king of Spain, and the king of Sicily, by France and England. Nothing could be more contradictory to the true interests of Great Britain than this treaty, which destroyed the balance in Italy, by the accession of power which it brought to the house of Austria. The whole, indeed, was nothing more than an expensive compliment to the emperor, who wished to add Sicily to his other dominions, and the consequences to Britain, were an immediate interruption of friendly and commercial intercourse with Spain, and, in a short time, a war with that monarchy.

The General Assembly of the church of Scotland was convened, according to appointment, on the fourteenth of May, 1718, John, earl of Rothes, commissioner, and William Wishart, principal of the college of Edinburgh, moderator. Nothing in the intercourse of this assembly with the government occurred, but moderation and mildness, nor was any thing of much public interest at this time brought under discussion. An extraordinary correspondence which had been maintained between the synod of Angus and Mearns, and the synods of Lothian and Tweedale, Perth and Stirling, Fife and Aberdeen, ever since the year 1701, it was now, from the improved and settled state of the former, considered expedient to discontinue. An act was also passed respecting the Auchterarder proposition, which had been condemned by the assembly of last year. The presbytery had been called to the bar of the commission, which had condescended to accept their explanation, had admonished them, and prohibited them to use the same expressions in time coming, all which was approved of by this assembly.*

War had now, in the end of the year 1718, been declared against Spain, and a descent upon England in favours of the pretender, was immediately planned by cardinal Alberoni, the minister of Spain. The chevalier de St. George, who had taken up his residence at Urbino, in the papal territories, secretly withdrew from that place early in the spring. Taking his passage from Netteno to Cagliari, he arrived there in the month. of March. From Cagliari, he proceeded to Rosas, in Cata

* Printed Acts of Assembly, 1718.

lonia, and thence to Madrid, where he was cordially received as king of England. Ten ships of war had already been equipped for his service, with transports, having on board six thousand troops, and twelve thousand stand of arms. This armament was confided to the duke of Ormond, as captain general of his most catholic majesty, and he was liberally furnished with declarations in the name of that monarch, justifying the part he had now taken, and, though he was invading the kingdom of Great Britain, assuring the people that it was only as an auxiliary to king James.

Timely notice of all this preparation was communicated to his Britannic majesty, by the regent of France, which he communicated to both houses of parliament, and received in return, the warmest assurances of support against all his enemies. Two thousand men were immediately landed from Holland, six battalions from the Austrian Netherlands, and the duke of Orleans proffered no less than twenty battalions for the defence of Great Britain, against this formidable attack. Proclamations were at the same time issued, offering five thousand pounds of reward for the duke of Ormond, one thousand for every attainted peer, and five hundred for every gentleman who should embark in his train. There was in the issue no need for these precautions. Ormond, having sailed from Cadiz and proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre, was there met by a violent storm, which totally defeated the whole expedition. The earls Marischal and Seaforth, the marquis of Tullibardine, some field officers, and about three hundred Spaniards, with a quantity of arms, ammunition, and money, embarked on board of two Spanish frigates at St. Sebastian, and sailed direct for the Island of Lewis. They were joined by a few Highlanders, landed in Kintail, and possessed themselves of the pass of Glenshiel, where they were met by a body of regular troops from Inverness, under the command of general Wightman. At the approach of the king's troops, they abandoned Glenshiel, and retired to the pass of Strachell, which they resolved to defend. They were attacked on the eighteenth of June, 1719, and driven from one eminence to another till night, when the Highlanders dispersed themselves among the hills, and the Spaniards surrendered themselves prisoners. Seaforth was dangerously

wounded, but was carried off by his followers, and, along with earl Marischal and Tullibardine, escaped to the continent.*

The same good providence on this occasion, as on many others, averted the danger that seemed impending over the best interests of Britain. The English Jacobites, taught prudence from their former experience, determined not to risk themselves till such time as Ormond had landed his forces, and was in a condition to protect them, of course there was not the smallest movement in that part of the kingdom. The Highlanders also, were shy to commit themselves. Marischal and Tullibardine had scarcely set foot on shore, when they quarrelled about the command, which could not fail to make the confidence of the people, which was not great at best, still less. Indeed, it appears that few, if any, except the immediate dependants of Seaforth, were prevailed upon to join them.†

Smollett's History of England. Douglass' Peerage of Scotland, by Wood, vol. ii. pp. 197, 484. Memoirs of the Chevalier de Johnstone,

xxxii.

+ This prudence on the part of the Scotish Jacobites, seems to have very narrowly escaped being overset by the machinations of their enemies. "A resolution having been universally taken not to move in Scotland till England was fairly engaged, this measure was very near being broke by a piece of odd conduct, of captain Straiton, at Edinburgh. There came, it seems, an unknown fellow to one Mr. Millas, tutor to Mr. Macdonald, younger of Glengarie, and told him, that being a servant to Cameron of Locheall, he came with him from Spain, and was set on shoar on the coast of Galloway, from the duke of Ormond's fleet as it passed by, with orders to goe and acquaint his master's friends to be ready to take up arms. Mr. Millns carried this fellow to captain Straiton, who with joy heard and gave some credit to what he so earnestly wished, and was soon confirmed in the truth therof, by a letter sent express by the viscount of Stormont, then at his house in Annandale, giving an account, that five or six days befor the date, a large fleet of tall ships, being no doubt Ormond's fleet, past by that coast, sailing with a fair wind directly for the west of England. Straiton having after this no remaining doubts, sent off an express to acquaint my lord Nairn, in Perthshire, that the duke was on the coast, and certainly landed by that time, and desireing his lordship to forward the good news to Marishall, and other proper persons in the Highlands, that noe time might be lost in drawing to the feilds; and, as he imparted it likewise to some in and about Edinburgh, the earl of Dalhousie, and some other gentlemen of that county, got on horseback, with a resolution to try if they could join Ormond, for they knew there was no possibility of getting up to Marishall; but I persuaded his lordship to stop at Selkirk on pretence of seeing the race, till I enquired further into the story,

We have already seen his majesty's ministers successfully enlarging the term of parliaments, from three to seven years, and now they formed a scheme for circumscribing the peerage, which, had it been carried into effect, would have had a still more serious influence upon the constitution. The dignity of the peerage, and the liberties of the people were, however, the ostensible reasons for making the proposal, and the fact of twelve peers, under the management of Oxford, having been created in one day, for the purpose of carrying a particular point, did not fail to be insisted on as demonstrating its necessity. On the last day of February, 1719, the duke of Somerset moved for leave to bring in a bill to limit the peerage in such a manner, "that the number of English peers should not be enlarged beyond six above the present number, which, upon failure of male issue, might be supplied by new creations. That instead of the sixteen elective peers in Scotland, twenty-five be made hereditary on the part of that kingdom, whose number, on the failure of heirs male, should be supplied by some other Scotch peers."

and sent him nottice; and I went instantly to Edinburgh, where, having examined Straiton's intelligence, I soon found he was deceived; for I did not think it probable that Ormond would allow such a fellow to come on shoar, when I knew he aimed at being himself the first messenger of his errand; besides having no credentials from his master, he could doe no service in the matter he pretended; and he gave no tollerable account of himself, not so much as knowing the name of the port in Spain from whence his master and he came with the fleet; from all which I concluded he was a rogue, that proposed by this story to get a little money, or that he was sett out by some of the government, (who, by this time, had certain assurances of the duke of Ormond's misfortune, tho' they did not own it) with a view of persuading some of the king's friends to leap at the bait, and goe to arms, and thereby afford a handle to ruin them. And, as for my lord Stormont's information, I was sure, if the fact had been as he represented, wee must, since the time he mentioned, being eight or nine days, have had the certainty of it, even in the publick letters; and I gave the less credit, when I perceived his lordship's letter was dated at one in the morning, about which time I knew he was apt to credit any news that pleased him. Having joynd all these considerations together, I immediately sent to stop Dalhousie; and I dispatched Mr. George Kinnaird with the utmost expedition to Nairn, to advertise him of the false intelligence which he had got; for which he gave me afterwards many thanks, as it was the means of saving him, and many others that were ready, and resolved to get speedily together and joyn Marishall. Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 22, 23.

The motion was seconded by the duke of Argyle, who had again been reconciled to the court, but, on the suggestion of the earl of Carlisle, who likewise supported the motion, the debate was adjourned to the second of March, on which day, earl Stanhope delivered a message from his majesty, of the following tenor:-" George R. His majesty being informed that the house of peers have under consideration the state of the peerage of Great Britain, is graciously pleased to acquaint this house, that he has so much at heart the settling of the peerage of the whole kingdom, upon such a foundation as may secure the freedom and constitution of parliament in all future ages, that he is willing that his prerogative stand not in the way of so great and necessary a work."*

His majesty, whose prerogative was so deeply affected by the scheme, having consented to it, it can excite little wonder that resolutions to the above effect were agreed to by the lords, and a bill ordered to be prepared by the judges, founded upon these resolutions. The bill, however, met with a most violent opposition, especially, as might naturally have been expected, among the commons, who could regard it in no other light than an attempt to shut them up in everlasting plebeianism. Sir Robert Walpole was particularly violent in his opposition, and his speech was published in order to heighten the public clamour against the measure. Sir Richard Steele, "whose pen," as Johnson remarks, "readily seconded his political passions," attacked the measure in a pamphlet, entitled the Plebeian, and his friend—Mr. Joseph Addison, being under the influence of his patron, Sunderland, defended it under the title of The Old Whig. His defence, however, had but little effect upon the public, it was found necessary to lay aside the bill for the pre

Campbell's Life of John, Duke of Argyle, pp. 282, 283.

+ Steele replied to Addison by a second Plebeian, in which he confined himself strictly to his subject, without taking any personal notice of his adversary. Addison's pride was hurt, probably because he felt he had the worst of the argument, and, in his reply, spoke contemptuously of "little Dickey, whose trade it was to write pamphlets." Steele, however, preserved his dignity, and " contented himself with quoting some lines of Cato, which were at once detection and reproof." Johnson's Life of Addison.