[43] This document is printed by the special permission of the French Government. The original signed and sealed with seven seals is preserved in the National Archives in Paris.
[44] It was very disappointing to find that no trace of this list of Highland chiefs referred to could be discovered.
[45] Balhaldy’s Memorial, History of Clan Gregor, vol. ii. p. 359.
[46] See Appendix, p. 422.
[47] He died on January 29th (18th O.S.).
[48] That Fleury had proposed something is most probable. He had for some time been complaining of the ‘insults’—what to-day we call pin-pricks—with which the British Government had been annoying France in a time of peace. These pin-pricks culminated in June 1742 when a British army under Lord Stair landed in the Netherlands, with the intention of thwarting the French in their campaign against Austria.
[49] Infra, p. 16 n.
[50] ‘Il n’y a pas grand inconvénient que le ministre voie que le rempart de la mer ne met pas entièrement l’Angleterre à couvert des enterprises de la France.’
[51] Colin, p. 35.
[52] Infra, pp. 41, 42.