CHAP. X. 1714. 38. ation of the and sup pression of the insurrection. who on this occasion acted on the Hanoverian side-a disaster which, by depriving them of the northern capital of the Highlands, appeared to render the condition of the insurgents altogether desperate. * Meanwhile Cadogan, having collected an overwhelmRe-embark- ing force at Stirling, commenced his march to the northPretender, ward, in the midst of snow, and in a season of uncommon rigour. Argyll was with the vanguard; and he was so discontented by the intelligence of the preparations for the abandonment of Perth, which were received as they bivouacked on the snow amidst the smoking ruins of Auchterarder, that his chagrin was visible to all the bystanders. When the order to retreat towards Aberdeen was first issued, the indignation among the Highlanders at retiring before their enemies was so vehement that it almost amounted to open mutiny. "What," said one of them, "did you call us to arms for? Was it to run away? What did the king come here for? Was it to see his people butchered by the hangman, and not strike one stroke for their lives? Let us die like men, and not like dogs! We must take the person of our monarch out of the hands of his present timid counsellors; and then, if he is willing to die like a prince, he will find that there are ten thousand gentlemen of Scotland who are not afraid to die with him!" But though "The Duke of Argyll grows so intolerably uneasy that it is almost impossible to live with him any longer. He is enraged at the success of this expedition, though he and his creatures attribute to themselves the honour of it. When I brought him the news of the rebels being run from Perth he seemed thunderstruck, and was so visibly concerned with it that even the foreign officers in the room took notice of it. Since the rebels quitted Perth, he has sent for five hundred of his Argyll men. Not one of them appeared when the rebels were in Perth, when they might have been of some use."-Cadogan to Marlborough, Feb. 4, 1716; CoXE, vi. 335. CHAP. X. 1714. these heroic sentiments did honour to the brave men who uttered them, and showed what means had been at the disposal of the leaders of the insurrection, they could not supply the present deficiencies. The army was without either fuel or provisions; ammunition was becoming scanty; and the superiority of the enemy, both in numbers, artillery, and cavalry, was overwhelming. A retreat was therefore agreed to on the 29th, and promulgated on the 30th. In sullen despair the Highlanders obeyed the dreaded summons-but such was their indignation that most of the clans separated on the road; and when they reached Aberdeenshire, all appearance of an army was at an end. The Pretender himself gave the slip to his attendants, and embarked at Montrose, on the night of the 4th of February, with Lord Mar, and arrived in safety at Gravelines. His last act was to send a sum of money, the remains of his slender resources, to the Duke of Argyll, to be applied in indemnifying the cottagers in Auchterarder, whose houses had been burned by his orders, " So that I may at least have the satisfaction of having been the destruction of none, when I came to free all." Marlborough forbade all pursuit of the Highlanders into their hills, well knowing that no army could maintain itself there, and putting in practice an opinion which he had expressed years before in Flanders, "That if he ever commanded against the Highlanders, he would never be at the trouble of following them into their hills, to run the risk of ruining an army by fatigue and want, but Sinclair's would post himself so as to starve them if they kept 343. Matogether, or till, by their natural inconstancy, they 285. Berseparated, after which every one would do his best to 259. get terms."1 Mem. MS. hon, i. 276 wick, 257 CHAP X. Thanks to the foresight and arrangements of Marlborough, and the vigour of the Government, the insurrection was now suppressed, and the Hanoverian family Ction firmly seated on the throne. But the disaster did not stop here; the days of real mourning were to begin. « Ah, no! for a darker departure is near; The war-drum is muffled, and harnessed the bier." In Scotland, few prisoners of note were taken, and the annals of its courts are not stained by unnecessary or lamentable severity. But it was otherwise in England ; and Walpole, who was prime-minister, though by no means, as his subsequent long career proved, inclined to severity, deemed the risk run too great, the escape made too narrow, to permit lenity to be generally extended to the prisoners. Two noblemen and twenty-six commoners died on the scaffold for fidelity to their sovereign in misfortune. Six peers were indicted; and as their accession to the rebellion was self-evident, they all pleaded guilty except Lord Wintoun, who was convicted on trial, but afterwards escaped. Great interest was made by persons of the highest rank in favour of the unfortunate noblemen who had been convicted; many of the leading Whigs openly declared on the side of mercy; and so strongly was the public mind moved that petitions for their reprieve were thrown out only by a majority of seven in the Commons, and actually carried by one of five in the Lords. Alarmed with this unexpected opposition, Wade, i, the cabinet respited three of the noblemen-Lord Nairn, Las Com the Earl of Carnwath, and Lord Widdrington-but ordered the execution of Derwentwater, Kenmure, and Nithsdale, the following morning.1 Nithsdale escaped from the Tower in woman's dress the night before the stitut. Hist. (0,363, Mation, i 285 291. execution; but the two former were destined to seal their faith with their blood. CHAP. X. 1714. 40. of Derwent Kenmure, 1716. They did so, and did it nobly. The scaffold, covered with black, was erected on Tower Hill, already stained Noble death by the blood of the first and the noblest in English water and story. Derwentwater was the first to suffer he turned Feb. 24, pale as he ascended the fatal steps, but his voice was firm, and his demeanour steady and composed. He passed some time in prayer; and then rising up, declared that he died a Roman Catholic; that he deeply repented his plea of "guilty," and expressions of contrition at his trial; and that he acknowledged James III., and him alone, as his rightful sovereign. "I intended," he added, "to wrong no one, but to serve my king and country, hoping, by the example I gave, to have induced others to do their duty; and God, who sees the secrets of my heart, knows I speak the truth. I am in perfect charity with all the world: I thank God for it; even with those of the present Government who have been the most instrumental in my death." He then took off his coat, and told the executioner he should strike when he repeated for the third time the words, "Lord Jesus, receive my soul!" He then laid down his head, gave the sign, and the executioner severed it at one blow. Lord Kenmure evinced equal firmness in the last hour. He was attended to the scaffold by his son and two clergymen of the Church of England. He also expressed regret at having pleaded guilty at the trial; offered up a prayer for James III., whom he declared he owned as his lawful sovereign; calmly knelt down at the block, and his head was severed from his body at two blows. The subordinate offenders, in number twenty-four, died 294-297. with equal dignity and resolution.1 1 Mahon, i. CHAP. X. 1714. These melancholy and yet heart-stirring details suggest one consideration of general and lasting importance to mankind; this is the expedience and justice of all civilised nations revising their civil code, and abolishing on this sub- entirely the punishment of death in purely political impolicy of offences. Crime alone is the fit object of punishment; 41. Reflections ject, and death for political crimes. and the essence of crime consists in a wicked or felonious intent. Political acts, however hostile to the ruling power, are not necessarily the result of such intent; on the contrary, they are often produced by the noblest feelings which can fill the breast, and, when successful in the end, command the eternal admiration and gratitude of mankind. Witness frequent allusion, in after times, to the cause for which Hampden bled in the field, and Sidney on the scaffold; the undying admiration for the heroism of Wallace, the achievements of Tell. In vain does the historian* say, with emphatic brevity, that "he who has bravely ventured, has justly forfeited his life;" in vain does the lawyer repeat, that "treason is the greatest of all crimes, because it leads to the commission of all the others." The sense of justice in the human breast has long since rejected such doctrines— common sense detected their fallacy. If they were well founded, quarter should never be given in war, but prisoners all be massacred in cold blood; for every one in battle ventures his life; and no one need be told that murder, robbery, and conflagration, follow in the footsteps of hostile armies. All parties, in the future ages of the world, will probably have an equal interest in introducing such a mitigated code of civil hostility, for none can foresee how soon they may themselves be constrained to invoke its protection: the ruthless code has so long been in force only because security has steeled * Gibbon. |