881 TAY CHAP. out of power, and the party attached to the -XIV. maxims of Louis the Fourteenth. Lord Mar was 1725. also at Paris, but no longer in James's confidence. For some time after the return from Scotland, he had been James's sole favourite; all business passed through his hands, or was entrusted to his creatures; and those that would not truckle to him were represented as factious and humoursome, and opposing their Prince's just authority. Not a few faithful old servants consequently retired from James's Court in disgust. But in passing through Geneva in 1719, under a feigned name, Mar was suddenly arrested by that Republic, and detained a prisoner, out of complaisance to the English ministers; this led to some overtures with his personal friend Lord Stair, then ambassador at Paris; and finding the Jacobite cause baffled and declining, he was not unwilling to stoop for favours to the government of George. "In my humble opinion," writes Stair," the taking him off will be the 66 greatest blow that can be given to the Pre"tender's interest; and it may be made use of to "show to the world, that nobody but a Papist can hope to continue in favour with him." The government would not go the length that Stair desired; but Mar was allowed a pension out of his forfeited estates, and the estates, by a simulated sale were suffered to revert to his family. Such, however, was the crooked temper of this man, that he To Secretary Craggs, May 29. 1719. XIV. 1725. endeavoured to seem equally a friend to each side; CHAP. he has been accused of revealing the secrets of his master; and at all events, it is certain, that, while professing his sorrow to King George, he wished still to be esteemed a Jacobite at Rome. He applied for and obtained James's permission to receive the indulgence of the English government; and when he found that he could gain no more favours from the latter, endeavoured again to conduct the business of the former. He caballed with Lord Lansdowne at Paris, and with some of his former friends from Scotland. But so far was he from recovering James's favour, that this Prince, like all weak men, ran into the opposite extreme, and looked with coldness and distrust on many of his most faithful followers, on account of their personal intimacy with Mar, even where that intimacy had been formed by his own direction, or resulted from his own partiality.* A feeble mind, however, can never stand alone; it requires a director as much as a creeping plant does a stake; and James immediately transferred his unbounded confidence to Colonel John Hay, brother of Lord Kinnoul, whom, in 1725, he declared his Secretary of State and Earl of Inverness. Next in favour came James Murray, son of Lord Stormont and brother of Hay's wife; he was at this time likewise made Governor of the Prince, and Earl * See the Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 561-600. Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 178. 201, &c. Atterbury's Letters to James. Appendix, &c. XIV. CHAP. of Dunbar. This triumvirate, then-the two Hays and Murray-ruled every thing at the little Court of 1725. James, and raised much dissatisfaction amongst his partisans. Inverness, according to a most respectable authority, "was a cunning, false, avaricious crea"ture of very ordinary parts, cultivated by no sort "of literature, and altogether void of experience in "business; with insolence prevailing often over "his little stock of prudence. The lady was a mere coquette, tolerably handsome, but withal "prodigiously vain and arrogant." * Of Dunbar it is admitted, that the character stood far higher; he was brother of William Murray, afterwards Earl of Mansfield, and like that brother had talents of the highest order, and well suited for public affairs, but he was injured at this time by his connection with the Hays. 66. The Pretender himself, though a mild, goodnatured, and well-meaning man, was still a Stuart, and not free from the especial curse of that race; when once prepossessed by any favourites, however worthless, he would see and hear nothing to their discredit, and considered all remonstrances against them as insults to himself. It was not long before his titular Queen, Clementina, a Princess of high spirit and blameless character, began to complain of the intolerable insolence with which she was treated by Inverness and his wife. Finding that she could obtain no belief or redress against them, she next applied to her husband's religious * Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 340. XIVA 1725. scruples by lamenting that the Prince's Governor, CHAP Dunbar, should be a Protestant! Nay more, she urged the same objection against Inverness, as minister, and was foolish enough to use an expression which James, with still more signal folly, afterwards published to the world:-" If he have not "true faith to God, can he be truly faithful to his "master?" * She declared that she would not live with her husband unless Inverness were removed; and at length, on the 15th of November, fulfilled her threat by leaving James's palace, and retiring to the Convent of St. Cecilia, at Rome. Her principal adviser was the veteran, and now unemployed, intriguer, Alberoni; one morning that ambitious priest was six hours and a half together, at her Convent.t Many explanatory letters and memorials were soon handed about on the part of James or of Clementina; he complained of her temper t, she of 66 * «In answer to what I say of Lord Inverness's fidelity she puts me the question, 'S'il est infidele à Dieu, sera-t'il fidele "'à son maître ?"" Circular letter of James, dated March 2. 1726. + Circular letter, March 2. 1726, and to the Duke of Rip perda, December 7. 1725. "Vous ne pouvez que vous souvenir avec quelle patience "j'ai souffert vos bouderies depuis plus de deux ans, et que "dans le temps où vous vouliez à peine me parler ou me re"garder, je n'ai pris autre parti que celui du silence."- James to Clementina, November 11. 1725. Yet Montaigne might have taught him that "Ceulx qui ont à négocier avec des "femmes testues peuvent avoir essayé à quelle rage on les jecte XIV. CHAP. his obstinacy; but it is very strange, that in this case the most voluminous flow of explanation and 1725. recrimination was not on the lady's side! 1 These mazes of conflicting statements would be difficult to pierce, and might wholly shut out the truth from us, did we not find a trusty guide in Lockhart of Carnwath. It is impossible to read the Memoirs and Letters of that gentleman without high respect and confidence in his character. A Jacobite from most conscientious principle-always pursuing what he thought the right, through good report and ill report - always telling the truth without fear or favour- he at last offended the Court of James by his frankness as much as the Court of George by his exertions. "It was," he tells us, 66 commonly reported and believed, that "Lady Inverness was the King's mistress, and that "the Queen's jealousy was the cause of the rup"ture; but I have been often assured, by persons "on whom I may depend, that whilst they lived "with the King they could observe nothing in "him tending that way, and did verily believe "there was nothing of that in the matter." Nor, in fact, do Clementina's own letters seem to speak of jealousy. But, with the same equal hand, does Lockhart proceed to condemn the intriguing "quand on oppose à leur agitation le silence et la froideur, et "qu'on desdaigne de nourrir leur courroux." Essais, livre ii. ch. 31. * Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 340. |