Volume 3

427
retired from court, and on the 16th raised the standard of revolt in the High-
lands of Aberdeenshire without any appearance of opposition (r). Weakness
pervaded every department, while violence predominated in the cabinet. Brave
men meantime gathered round that standard with swords in their hands,
from every mountain and from every glen. Brigadier Macintosh, with 2,500
Highlanders, passed the Forth from Fife to North-Berwick on the 9th of
September, though several of the king's ships lay in that estuary. He imme-
diately advanced to Haddington; the Marquis of Tweeddale, the king's lieuten-
ant, retiring on his approach, and withdrawing the garrison from Seton-house.
Macintosh marched forward from Haddington to Leith, when he seized its
fortlet. The Duke of Argyle was too weak to assault him. Yet the High-
landers, seeing preparations made to invest them, evacuated the place, and
marching southward took possession of Seton-house, which could not be retaken
without artillery. Macintosh soon after marched forward to Kelso, in order to
co-operate with the Northumbrian insurgents. The divisions among the rebels,
the capture of the Lancashire Preston, and their doubtful conflict on Sberiff-
muir, broke the spirit of this rebellion, which soon after ended with the punish-
ment of its chiefs. Yet no good consequence ensued from those sad events.
Punishment did not operate as an example, the same weakness induced a similar
insurrection, and the safety of the state was again put by improvidence on the
doubtful cast of several battles.
The year 1745 saw a new insurrection of the same nature, but of more
dangerous progress. The standard of revolt was again raised within the recesses
of the Highlands. The rebels took possession of the metropolis of Scotland on
the 17th of September in the same year, whatever could be opposed to their
progress. General Cope, the king's commander, had marched from Edinburgh,
on the 19th of August, to seek the insurgents in their native wilds, and to
fight with men who had equal bravery and more zeal than his own troops,
under chiefs who knew how to command their obedience. He was glad to
avoid them by turning to Inverness on the right. The insurgents now
(r) When John, Duke of Argyle, was appointed to command the king's troops in North-Britain, he
represented to the king's ministers the inefficiency of the force with which he was to oppose such an
insurrection. On his way to Scotland he again wrote them for sufficient reinforcements, but without
effect. When he arrived at Edinburgh, he again represented the insufficiency of his army to meet the
insurgents, but his solicitude was deemed want of zeal. The Duke's letter to Stewart, which remains
in the paper office, records the zeal of the king's general and the imbecility of his ministers. Such
was the state of Scotland at that epoch, that the government was obliged to send down cash for paying
the king's troops.    Treasury Registers.
3 I 2