The act of settlement in favour of the Princess Sophia and her heirs, was a death-blow to the Jacobite interest, but still the hopes of the party were not extinguished. As James had given up all idea of dispossessing William, and even discountenanced any attempt to disturb the peace of the kingdom during his own life-time, the partisans of his family had given up every expectation of his restoration. But the death of King James, which took place at St. Germains on the 16th of September, 1701, and the recognition of his son by Louis XIV. as king, were events which opened up brighter prospects than they had yet enjoyed. The unfortunate monarch had, for several years, taken farewell of worldly objects, and had turned his whole attention to the concerns of eternity, dying ardently attached to the creed which, from principle, he had embraced. Of the arbitrary and unconstitutional conduct of James, at the period preceding the revolution, it is impossible for any lover of genuine liberty to speak without feelings of indignation; but it must not be forgotten that in his time the prerogatives of the crown were not clearly defined, and that he was misled by evil counsellors, who advised him to violate the existing constitution.
Nothing but the prospect of an immediate war with England could, it is believed, have induced Louis to recognise, as he did, the Prince of Wales as king of England, Ireland, and Scotland. William remonstrated against this act of the French king, as a violation of the treaty of Ryswick, and appealed to the King of Sweden, as the guarantee for its observance; but Louis was inflexible, and maintained in the face of all Europe, that he was not debarred by the treaty from acknowledging the title of the Prince of Wales, to which he had right by birth. He admitted that by the fourth article of the treaty he was bound not to disturb William in the possession of his dominions, and he declared his intention to adhere to that stipulation; but this explanation was considered quite unsatisfactory by William, who recalled his ambassador from Paris. The conduct of the French king excited general indignation in England, and addresses were sent up from all parts of the kingdom, expressive of attachment to the government. The English parliament passed two separate acts of attainder against the pretended Prince of Wales, as the son of James was termed, and the queen, his mother, who acted as regent. Great preparations were made for entering into a war with France, and William had concerted with his allies the plan of a campaign, but he did not live to see the gigantic schemes which he had devised for humbling the pride of France put into execution. He expired at Kensington on the 8th of March, 1702, in consequence of a fall from his horse about a fortnight before, which fractured his collar-bone. He had reigned thirteen years, and was in the fifty-second year of his age.
The accession of the Princess Anne gave satisfaction to all parties, particularly to the Jacobites, who imagined, that as she had no heirs of her own body, she would be induced to concur with them in getting the succession act repealed, so as to make way for her brother, the Prince of Wales. At first the queen seemed disposed to throw herself into the hands of the Tory faction, at the head of which was the Earl of Rochester, first cousin to the queen, who was averse to a war with France; but the Earl, (afterwards the celebrated Duke) of Marlborough, his rival, succeeded, through the intrigues of his countess, in altering the mind of her majesty, and war was accordingly declared against France on the 4th of May.
The Scottish parliament, to which the Duke of Queensberry was appointed commissioner, met on the 9th of June; but before his commission was read, the Duke of Hamilton objected to the legality of the meeting, the parliament having been virtually dissolved, as he maintained, by not having met within the statutory period; and having taken a formal protest against its proceedings, he withdrew from the house, followed by seventy-nine members of the first rank in the kingdom, amidst the acclamations of the people. The seceding members, thereupon, sent up Lord Blantyre to London with an address to the queen, but she refused to see him. This refusal highly displeased the people, whose resentment was still farther increased by a prosecution raised by the lord advocate against the faculty of advocates, for having, by a vote, approved of the secession and address. Several acts were passed by the parliament, one of the most important of which was that authorizing the queen to name commissioners for negotiating a treaty of union with England. An attempt was made by the Earl of Marchmont, the lord-chancellor, (better known as Sir Patrick Home of Polwarth) without any instructions from his colleagues, and even contrary to the advice of the commissioner, to alter the succession, by bringing in a bill similar to that which had passed in England for abjuring the Prince of Wales, and settling the succession on the Princess Sophia and her heirs; but as the ministry had no instructions from the queen, the bill was not supported. It is not improbable that Marchmont intended, by the introduction of this measure, to sound the disposition of the queen in regard of her brother.
The queen, by virtue of the powers conferred on her by the parliaments of England and Scotland, named commissioners to treat about a union, who met at the Cockpit, near Whitehall, on the 22d of October; but after some of the preliminaries had been adjusted, the conference broke off, in consequence of the Scottish commissioners insisting that all the rights and privileges of the Darien company should be preserved and maintained.
A partial change in the Scottish ministry having taken place, the queen resolved upon calling a new parliament, in the spring of 1703, previous to which she issued an act of indemnity in favour of every person who had taken any part against the government since the revolution, and allowed such of them as were abroad to return home. Under the protection of this amnesty many of the Jacobites returned to Scotland, and took the oaths to the government, in the hope of forwarding the interest of the Prince of Wales. At this time Scotland was divided into three parties. The first consisted of the revolutionists, who were headed by the Duke of Argyle. The second of what was called the country party, who were opposed to the union, and who insisted on indemnification for the losses sustained in the Darien speculation, and satisfaction for the massacre of Glencoe and other grievances suffered in the late reign. The Duke of Hamilton and the Marquis of Tweeddale took the direction of this party. The last, called Mitchell’s club, from the house they met in, was composed entirely of the Jacobites or Cavaliers. These were headed by the Earl of Home.[659] The two latter parties, by coalescing at the elections, might have returned a majority favourable to their views; but the Earl of Seafield, who had succeeded the Earl of Marchmont as chancellor, had the address to separate the Jacobites from the country party, and, by making them believe that he was their friend, prevailed upon them to throw their interest at the elections into the scale of the government. The parliament, however, which met on the 6th of May, was not so pliable to ministerial dictation as might have been expected, for although the royal assent was refused to what was called the act of security for limiting the power of the crown, “this session of parliament,” to use the words of Lockhart, “did more for redressing the grievances and restoring the liberties of the nation than all the parliaments since the year 1660.”[660] It was in this parliament that the celebrated patriot, Fletcher of Saltoun, first distinguished himself. The Earl of Marchmont again brought in his bill for settling the crown of Scotland upon the house of Hanover; but such was the indignation with which it was received by the house, that some of the members proposed that the bill should be burnt, while others moved that the proposer of the measure should be committed to the castle of Edinburgh. On a division the bill was thrown out by a very large majority.
After the prorogation of the parliament, the courtiers and the heads of the cavaliers repaired to London to pay court to the queen, who received them kindly, and conferred marks of her favour upon some of them. The Marquis of Athole, in particular, who aspired to be leader of the Jacobites, was made a duke, and invested with the dignity of a knight of the order of the Thistle, which she had just revived to enable her to extend the royal favour. Her policy seems to have been to gain over all parties to her interest; but she was soon made to believe that a conspiracy existed against her among the cavaliers to supersede her, and to place her brother upon the throne. The moving spirit in this plot, known as the Scotch Plot, was the now notorious Lovat.
ROBERTSON.