Nous sommes persuadés que l’on pourra y parvenir dans l’espace de trois mois après l’arrivée des troupes irlandaises et nous ne doutons point que notre patrie, réunie alors sous le gouvernement de son Roi tant désiré ne fasse des efforts qui donneront lieu à V.E. de prouver à S.M.T.C. que les Ecossais modernes sont les vrais descendants de ceux qui ont eu l’honneur d’être comptés pendant tant de siècles les plus fidèles alliés des Rois, ses prédécesseurs.

Nous sommes bien sensiblement touchés des mouvements que V.E. s’est donnés et qu’elle veut bien continuer pour faire entendre au Roi Catholique les avantages qu’il y aurait à agir en faveur du Roi notre maître dans la conjoncture présente. Nous avions cru que ces avantages ne pouvaient échapper aux ministres Espagnols; mais quelque travers qu’ils prennent dans la conduite de cette guerre, V.E. prend une part qui ne saura manquer de les en tirer heureusement et de frustrer l’attente injuste des nations qui sont prêtes à fondre sur les trésors du nouveau monde.

Nous en louons Dieu, Monseigneur, et nous le prions avec ferveur de vouloir bien conserver V.E. non seulement pour l’accomplissement du grand ouvrage que nous allons entreprendre sous sa protection mais aussi pour en voir les grands et heureux effets dans toute l’Europe aussi bien que dans les trois royaumes britanniques, auxquels son nom ne sera pas moins précieux dans tous les temps à venir qu’à la France même qui a pris de si beaux accroissements sous son ministère et dont la gloire va être élevée jusqu’au comble en faisant vigorer la justice chez ses voisins. Nous avons l’honneur d’être avec une profonde vénération et un parfait dévouement, Monseigneur, de votre Eminence, les très humbles et très obéissants serviteurs,

à Edimbourg, ce 13ème Mars 1741.

[Translation.]

Having learned from the Baron of Balhaldies of the happy success of the representations that we had instructed him to make to Your Eminence, with the approval of our legitimate Sovereign, we now hasten to send this Baron back with the proofs of our lively and respectful gratitude, and with the most solemn undertaking, both by ourselves and by those who are engaged along with us, to take up arms to throw off the yoke of the usurpation, that we are ready to fulfil faithfully all that was put forward in the Memorial, which my lord Sempill and the said Baron of Balhaldies signed with their own hands, and had the honour to place in the hands of Your Eminence last May.

The chiefs of our Highland clans, whose names we have sent at the same time with the number of men that each binds himself to furnish, will without fail keep their engagements, and we venture to be responsible to Your Eminence that there will be 20,000 men on foot for the service of our true and only lord, King James VIII. of Scotland, as soon as it will please His Most Christian Majesty to send us arms and munitions, and the troops that are necessary to guard those arms until we shall be able to assemble.

These 20,000 men will be able so easily to defeat or to destroy the troops that the Government employs at present in our country, and even all those that it may be able to despatch upon the first alarm, so that we feel entirely justified in hoping that with divine assistance and under the auspices of the most Christian King, the loyal Scots will be in a condition, not only in a short time to re-establish the authority of their legitimate King throughout the whole Kingdom of Scotland, and to sustain him there against the efforts of the partisans of Hanover, but also to aid powerfully in the recovery of these other States, which will be all the easier since our neighbours of England are not less wearied than we are of the odious tyranny under which we all equally groan; and we know that they are thoroughly determined to unite with us, and with any power whatever that would give them the opportunity they require to place themselves once more under a legitimate and natural Government. We are at present taking measures to act along with them.

As to the assistance that is necessary for Scotland in particular, we should have preferred that His Most Christian Majesty might have been willing to grant us French troops, who would have renewed among us the lessons of heroic bravery and incorruptible fidelity, that our ancestors have so often learned in France itself, but since Your Eminence thinks fit to send subjects of our King, we will receive them with joy as coming from him, and we will endeavour to make them feel the value that we attach to their devotion to our legitimate Sovereign, and the honour that they have acquired in treading so long in the footsteps of the best subjects and of the bravest troops in the Universe.