The Baron of Balhaldies knows so perfectly our situation, the plans that we have concerted, and everything that affects us, that it will be unnecessary to enter into any detail. We implore Your Eminence to listen to him favourably, and to be assured that he will have the honour of reporting to you with the utmost accuracy.
If the ministers of the Government were only less suspicious of our actions or less watchful, we would willingly pledge all our belongings to defray the cost of this expedition, but as no contracts (of loan or sale) are binding by our customs unless they have been inscribed in the public registers, it is not possible for us to raise a sum that would be sufficient, with the necessary secrecy that present circumstances require. It is this consideration alone that prevents us from raising a fund for the necessary expense, the raising of which would bear further proof of our zeal, which we should give with pleasure, and of the confidence with which we place ourselves under the standard of our natural King; but the good of the service obliges us to restrain our wishes and to have recourse to the generosity of His Most Christian Majesty until it is possible to establish the royal rights in our country in a regular manner.
We are persuaded that it would be possible to accomplish this three months after the arrival of the Irish troops, and we do not doubt that our country, reunited under the Government of its king, so much desired, would make such efforts as would enable Your Excellency to prove to His Most Christian Majesty that the modern Scots are the true descendants of those who have had the honour of being counted during so many centuries the most faithful allies of the kings, his predecessors.
We are very sensibly touched by what Your Eminence has done, and will continue to do, to make the Catholic king understand the advantages that he would have in acting in favour of the King our master in the present juncture. We had believed that these advantages could not escape the notice of the Spanish Ministers, but whatever strange things they may have done in the conduct of this war, your Eminence is now acting in such a way as cannot fail happily to extricate them from the consequences of their mistakes, and to frustrate the unjust attitude of those nations who are ready to fall upon the treasures of the new world.
We praise God, Monseigneur, and we pray with fervour that He would preserve Your Eminence, not only for the accomplishment of the great work which we are going to undertake under your protection, but also that you may see the great and happy effects throughout Europe as well as in the three kingdoms of Britain in which your name will be not less precious in all time to come than in France itself, which has been enlarged so remarkably under your ministry; and that the glory of your name will be raised to the highest pitch by making justice flourish among your neighbours. We have the Honour to be, with profound veneration and perfect devotion, Monseigneur, Your Eminence’s very humble and obedient servants.
The promises of assistance from the French Court brought by Balhaldy, and the letter of acceptance by the lords of the Concert constituted the treaty between France and the Scottish Jacobites which formed the foundation of all subsequent schemes undertaken in Scotland. Even in the end it was detachments of the Irish regiments, whose use was originally suggested by Glenbucket, together with a Scottish regiment raised later than this by Lord John Drummond, that formed the meagre support that was actually sent over from France in 1745.
Balhaldy returned to France almost immediately, and in the winter of 1740-41, he went to England where he met the Jacobite leaders, of whom he particularly mentions the Earls of Orrery and Barrymore, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, and Sir John Hinde Cotton. With them he endeavoured to form a scheme of concert between the English and the Scottish Jacobites, but without much success.[45]
Murray taken into the confidence of the Concert.
It was not until after the signing of the letter to Fleury that Murray was taken into the confidence of the Jacobite leaders, and it was at this time that he first met Lord Lovat. This was also the occasion of his first meeting with Balhaldy; their relations at this time were quite friendly; Balhaldy handed over to Murray the negotiation of a delicate ecclesiastical matter with which he had been entrusted by the Chevalier.[46]
Another early duty was to raise money for the Cause, but to Murray’s mortification, he had to give up the scheme of a loan, because all the sympathisers to whom he applied declined to subscribe; not, they said, because they objected to giving their money, but each and all refused to be the first to compromise himself by heading the subscription list. At this time Murray was not permitted to undertake any active propaganda for a rising, as the associated leaders feared that by increasing the numbers in the secret there would be too great danger of leakage. The Associators preferred to keep such work in their own hands, and each of them had a district assigned to him.