16. Charles's Wanderings.—Charles, whose foolhardy ambition had brought all this misery on his simple followers, passed five months in perilous wanderings. A great price was set on his head; but, poor as the Highlanders were, not one of them would stoop to win it by betraying him. At one time, when he was tracked by the soldiers, he was saved by a young lady called Flora MacDonald, who got a passport for him under the name of Betty Burke, her maid. In this disguise he escaped to Skye. After this he came back to the mainland, and lived for some time with seven robbers in a cave. They kept him hidden and supplied his wants as well as they could, and used to go in disguise to the nearest town to pick up what news they could. One day, as a great dainty, they brought him back a pennyworth of gingerbread. When he left them Charles joined two of his adherents, MacPherson of Cluny and Lochiel, and he and they stayed in a strange hiding-place called the Cage on the side of Ben-alder, till two French vessels appeared on the coast. In one of these he embarked, September 20, at Lochnannagh, the same place where, fourteen months before, he had landed. Thus Charles escaped to the Continent, but his memory was long cherished in the country that had suffered so much for him. He was compelled to leave France after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and ended an unsettled, discontented, dissipated life at Rome in 1788. His brother Henry, called the Cardinal of York, the last of the Stewart line, survived him nearly twenty years.
17. Penalties after the "Forty-five."—There was much greater severity shown after this rebellion than there had been after that in 1715. The Scottish prisoners were brought for trial to England for fear that they might meet with too much partiality in their own country. John Murray, of Broughton, who had been Charles's secretary, turned informer. Through him the secrets of this conspiracy which had been going on ever since 1740 were brought to light. Charles Radcliffe, brother to the Earl of Derwentwater, who had been beheaded in 1716, who had then escaped from prison, was retaken on board a French vessel carrying supplies to the rebels, and was put to death on his former sentence. The Earls of Cromarty and Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino were brought up for trial before the House of Lords. Cromarty and Kilmarnock pleaded guilty; Balmerino tried to save himself by a quibble about a flaw in the indictment, but this was overruled, and they were all three condemned to death. Cromarty was pardoned, but Kilmarnock and Balmerino were beheaded. Nearly a year after, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, was brought up for trial; he was found guilty, chiefly on the evidence of Murray, was condemned, and beheaded. He had acted a double part throughout, for, though he had taken part in all the plans of the rebels, he had taken care not to join them in person. Of those lower in rank about eighty were condemned to death, and great numbers were sent to the plantations. The last sufferer for the Jacobite cause was Dr. Cameron, brother of Lochiel. He escaped after 1745, but when he returned to England in 1753 he was seized and suffered death as a traitor, though he protested that he had never borne arms against the King, and had been with the rebel force only as a surgeon and not as a soldier. An Act of Indemnity was at length passed, in 1747, from which, however, eighty persons were excepted. Though the end of this unjustifiable and unfortunate rebellion was what every one must have foreseen, its temporary and unlooked-for success showed how necessary it was to take strong measures for breaking up the old Highland system. A Bill was passed for disarming the clans, and to forbid the wearing of the Highland dress, and at the same time heritable jurisdictions were done away with. The Episcopal Church, whose attachment to the Stewarts was well known, suffered severely. The Episcopal churches were destroyed, and the ministrations of the Episcopal clergy forbidden. Duncan Forbes, of Culloden, the President of the Court of Session, though a firm friend of the Government, distinguished himself throughout the rebellion by his efforts in the cause of humanity and justice. Before it broke out, he had done more than any other man to keep the rising down, and, after it had been crushed, he did all in his power to lessen the sufferings of the rebels and the severity of the Government. To the discredit of the ministry and of the country, his services were left unrewarded.
18. Abolition of Slavery.—In 1756 the lawfulness of negro slavery was first questioned in Scotland, and twenty years later it was settled that negro slavery should exist no longer. There were still, however, some natives of the soil who were in a state very little better. The colliers and salters were sold like serfs with the works in which they toiled. This shameful servitude was not the remains of ancient villanage, but had simply arisen out of custom. So strong, however, had the force of custom made it, that Parliament did not venture at once to sweep it away. It was settled that all the colliers and salters born after a certain date should be free, and those then at work after a certain term of service. In 1799 their freedom was established by law.
19. Attacks on the Romanists.—When the penal laws against the Roman Catholics in England were repealed in 1778, Henry Dundas, the Lord Advocate, proposed a similar measure for Scotland. On the strength of this, riots broke out in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In Edinburgh the mob destroyed the Roman Catholic chapels and the houses of several persons who were suspected of being Romanists. In Glasgow they destroyed a factory belonging to a Romanist. So great was the excitement raised throughout the country by the fanatics, who bound themselves together in Protestant Associations, and the property and persons of the Roman Catholics were treated with such violence, that they themselves petitioned that the Bill might be dropped. It was not till 1793 that a Bill was brought in and passed without opposition to relieve the Roman Catholics in Scotland from the penalties to which they were liable on account of their religious opinions.
20. Trials for Sedition.—The excesses of the French Revolution led to a reaction of feeling in Great Britain against all liberal opinions, as being likely to bring about a similar revolution in this country. This led to much injustice and oppression. Persons were charged with stirring up sedition on the slightest grounds, or on no grounds at all; were found guilty, and punished on the most scanty evidence. In Scotland the panic was even greater than in England, and the proceedings of justice more unjust. In 1793 Thomas Muir, an advocate, and Fyshe Palmer, a clergyman, were tried, and sentenced to transportation, the one for fourteen years, the other for seven, for no other crime than that of discussing Parliamentary Reform. Others suffered a like fate; and though these cases were brought before the House of Commons, and though the sympathy of the people was with them, they met with no redress. Braxfield, the Lord Justice Clerk, gained an infamous notoriety by his violent language towards the prisoners, and by the illegal sentences which he passed against them.
21. Reform Bill.—It was not till nearly forty years had passed, that the reforms, for suggesting which these men had suffered, and the need of which had long been felt, were at last carried out by the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832. By it the entire representation was remodelled. Up to this time the County franchise had depended not on the possession of land, but on the right of superiority over land which might be held by others. This right could be bought and sold, and was quite independent of property or residence in the county, so that in most cases there were but a handful of electors, in one county only one, to return the member. The franchise was now extended to all persons having property in the county to the value of 10l. yearly, and to certain classes of leaseholders. The case of the Burghs was even worse. Only the royal burghs were represented at all, and these were grouped together and returned one member only for each group. This member was elected by delegates chosen from the Town Council of each burgh, so that the election was really and truly in the hands of the Corporations. By the new Bill, Edinburgh and Glasgow were each to send two members to Parliament, the five towns next in importance were each to send one, while some changes were made in the grouping of the smaller burghs. The members for the burghs were to be elected by householders in the burghs paying 10l. yearly rent. The number of members was increased from forty-five to fifty-three.
22. Religious Sects.—When the Presbyterian polity was re-established by law in 1690 the Episcopalians took in some degree the place which had been held by the Covenanters. As they would not acknowledge William and Mary as lawful sovereigns, they were looked on as a dangerous and obstinate sect of dissenters, just as the Cameronians had been considered in the reign of James. They had been turned out of the churches, but they were forbidden to have private meeting-houses. In Queen Anne's reign an Act of Toleration was passed to protect such of them as would use the English Liturgy and pray for the Queen in the course of the service. After the Rebellion of 1715 new laws were passed against them; the validity of orders from Scottish bishops was called in question, and the ministration of all clergymen who were not licensed was forbidden. After the Rebellion of 1745 they fared still worse; many of their meeting-houses were burned or dismantled by Cumberland's soldiers. An Act was passed forbidding any clergyman to read the service to more than five persons at once, and no letters of orders were considered valid unless given by some Irish or English bishop. In 1755 a clergyman named Connacher was accused of illegally celebrating marriages, and, by an Act passed against the Covenanters in the reign of Charles the Second, he was banished, and forbidden to return on pain of death. Hence it came to pass that, just after the two kingdoms were politically united, they were more widely severed in religious opinion than they had ever been before, so that a conscientious member of the Church established by law in the one kingdom would have been looked on as a dangerous dissenter in the other. It was not till 1792 that an Act was passed relieving the Episcopalians from the penal laws in force against them. In 1784 Dr. Samuel Seabury, from Connecticut, was consecrated by three Scottish bishops, Petrie, Skinner, and Kilgour the primus, at Aberdeen, so that the Episcopal Church of America is an offshoot from the once proscribed and persecuted Episcopal Church in Scotland. Besides the Episcopalians there were many sects of Presbyterians who seceded from the Establishment chiefly on the question of patronage. At last, in 1843, the Church of Scotland split into two parties. This is called the Disruption. About ten years before this time Edward Irving, Minister of the Scotch Church in London, a very eloquent preacher, was forced to secede from the Presbyterian Church for holding extravagant views with regard to the power of speaking in unknown tongues and working miracles. His followers founded a new sect, which has since won many adherents in both kingdoms. In its rites and ceremonies it now resembles much more nearly the Roman than the Presbyterian Church.
23. The Disruption.—This division was brought about by a dispute about the right of patrons to force ministers on parishes, whether the congregations objected to them or not. The spirit of the Presbyterian Church had always been opposed to patronage. By the First Book of Discipline it had been laid down that the people should elect their own ministers; by the Second Book of Discipline, that they should at least have the right of objecting to any chosen for them by the heritors or landowners in the parish. After the Revolution, an Act of 1690 confirmed them in this privilege, but after the Union in 1712 the heritors, eager to regain what they thought their rights, obtained a repeal of this Act and the restoration of their former powers. In spite of the protests of the people and of the Church, this Act gradually became custom as well as law, and led to several schisms; for those congregations who did not choose to have ministers forced on them whom they did not approve, broke off, and founded separate sects. At length, in 1834, the Non-intrusion party, as those who were opposed to patronage were called, had a majority in the Assembly, and passed the Veto Act. This Act declared it to be "a fundamental law of the Church that no pastor shall be intruded on a congregation contrary to the will of the people," and that, if the heads of families object to any candidate presented by the patron, the Presbytery shall reject him. In the same year, Mr. Young was presented to the parish of Auchterarder, in Perthshire. Several persons objected to him, and the Presbytery, acting on the Veto Act, rejected him. The patron, Lord Kinnoul, appealed to the Court of Session for the enforcement of his civil rights and obtained a verdict in his favour; but the Presbytery appealed to the House of Lords. Here too it was given against them, but they still refused to make trial of Mr. Young. In another parish, Strathbogie, the presentee, Mr. Edwards, was objected to by the congregation, and the Presbytery refused to admit him to the parish. He also obtained a decree in his favour from the Court of Session, when the Presbytery yielded, and for this they were suspended and deposed by the General Assembly. From this it was clear that the majority in the Assembly were determined to go all lengths in resisting the civil power. In the end the Church had to yield, and to recall the illegal Veto Act. Rather than agree to this, in 1843, more than a third of the clergy left the Church. Their leaders were Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Candlish. Great numbers of the people went "out," as it was called, with their ministers, and the Free Church which was thus originated has ever since been the successful rival of the Establishment.
24. Social Progress.—The removal of the Government to London attracted thither not only all the Scottish nobles, but also all the wealthy and the ambitious commoners. Thus Edinburgh lost much of its importance through the Union, though it still remained the intellectual capital, where the members of the Courts of Law and of the University took the lead in society. Meanwhile Glasgow, the capital of the west, where the manufactures which were first introduced by Duncan Forbes had taken firm root, gradually rose to much greater importance in wealth and commerce. During this period two great elements of civilization, productive industry and intellectual culture, have done much to improve the Lowland population, among whom book-learning has always been in advance of material comfort. It was not till after the Rebellion of 1745 that the spirit of industry first began to animate the people. But the Highlands remained for some time in a very bad state. The spirit of the people was broken, and the severe climate, barren soil, and lack of minerals left them no resource but the fisheries. The Highland Society, founded in 1784, did much to improve the state of agriculture, by reclaiming the waste districts; and latterly great numbers of the people have emigrated. At the time of the Union Scotland was without agriculture, manufactures, or trade; since then she has risen to excellence in them all, and has produced some of the most useful inventions of modern times. James Watt, who perfected the invention of the steam-engine, and thus placed a new power in the hands of man, was born at Greenock in 1736. It was in Scotland that this power was first put to use for traffic by steam navigation. A small pleasure-boat, worked by a steam-engine, was tried on Dalswinton Loch in Dumfriesshire in 1788; another effort was made on the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1802; but the first steamboat actually used for traffic was the Comet, which began to ply on the Clyde in 1812. It was projected by Henry Bell, a house-carpenter in Glasgow. Many improvements in calico-printing and dyeing, and in all sorts of machinery, are likewise due to Scotchmen. Among others Macadam is noteworthy for originating that system of road-making which is now known by his name.
25. Literature and Art.—After the Union, the English dialect of the Lowlands ceased to be the language of literature and of the upper ranks in society. Thus the national literature of the country came to an end, and the works of Scotchmen went to swell the mass of English Literature. But even in this period Scotland has had, besides many smaller songsters, two poets peculiarly her own, who have sung in the dialect still spoken by the people. Allan Ramsay, born in Clydesdale in 1685, began life as a barber's boy in Edinburgh; he then turned poet and bookseller, and besides his own poems, which were very popular, he collected and published the songs and ballads of the forgotten bards of earlier days. Nearly a century later lived Robert Burns, the peasant poet, a cotter's son, born in Ayrshire in 1759. His genius overcame the disadvantages of his humble birth, and inspired innumerable songs, which place him in the first rank among poets of all nations, and will win for him an abiding place in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen as long as a Scottish tongue is left to sing them. Adam Smith, who by his "Wealth of Nations," published in 1776, may be said to have founded the science of Political Economy, was born at Kirkaldy, and was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow; and about the same time Dr. Robertson, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, wrote several historical works of great merit. David Hume, the infidel philosopher, was born at Edinburgh in 1711. He is best known as the author of a popular but untrustworthy History of England. Tobias Smollett, the humourist, was a native of Cardross. Besides several very clever novels, the best of which are "Humphrey Clinker" and "Roderick Random," he wrote a complete History of England from the first historical mention of Britain down to the year 1768. The latter part of this history is now generally added to the History by Hume, who did not carry his work down to later times than the Revolution. Hugh Blair, a Presbyterian divine, wrote "Lectures on Belles Lettres" and several volumes of sermons which are still highly esteemed. Dugald Stewart, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, was distinguished as a scholar and philosopher. His chief works are the "Philosophy of the Human Mind" and "Outlines of Moral Philosophy." Among Scottish artists who rose to eminence during this period are Allan Ramsay, the son of the poet, Runciman, Raeburn and Sir David Wilkie, born in Fifeshire in 1785. He chiefly excelled in painting scenes from rural life, and was limner to the King for Scotland. Of poets who wrote in the English of the south, Scotland can lay claim to James Thomson, the author of "The Seasons," "The Castle of Indolence," and some tragedies; to Beattie, the author of "The Minstrel;" and to Thomas Campbell, born at Glasgow in 1777. His imaginative poem, "The Pleasures of Hope," laid the foundation of his fame. It is written in a graceful and highly-finished style, but is far surpassed in originality and spirit by the ballads which he wrote to commemorate the "Battle of the Baltic" and the other actions of the French war. John Galt deserves to be remembered as the author of some clever novels, the best of which are the "Ayrshire Legatees" and "The Entail." Nearer to our own time Walter Scott, the poet and romancist, gave to English literature its best works of fiction, and at once introduced and perfected the modern novel. Among writers of fiction Miss Ferrier must not be forgotten. In her witty, satirical novels, "Marriage," "Destiny," "The Inheritance," she has left admirable pictures of Scottish life and manners. John Lockhart, the son-in-law and biographer of Scott; John Wilson, Professor of Moral Philosophy in Edinburgh, the Christopher North of the "Noctes Ambrosianæ;" his friend and contemporary James Hogg, the poet, better known as the "Ettrick Shepherd;" the two Alisons, father and son, the elder the author of the "Essay on Taste," the younger of the "History of Europe," may all be reckoned among Scotchmen who have done honour to their country by their literary labours. In the world of science Scotland has been represented by James Ferguson, the astronomer, Hugh Miller, the great geologist, who began life as a stonemason; Sir David Brewster, who is famous for his discoveries in optics, and many others. Mungo Park, the African explorer of a past day, and Dr. Livingstone, who in our own time has worked so long in the same field of discovery, were both also born in Scotland. But now that the two nations have become so closely united, national jealousy and national pride are both alike well-nigh forgotten, and Scotchmen are content to throw their energy and talents at home and in the colonies into the common stock of British glory.