“The consideration of these unhappy circumstances, with the due regard we have to common justice, the peace and quiet of us and our posterity, and our duty to his majesty, and his commands, are the powerful motives which have engaged us in our present undertaking, which we are firmly and heartily resolved to push to the utmost, and stand by one another to the last extremity, as the only solid and effectual means for putting an end to so dreadful a prospect, as by our present situation we have before our eyes, and with faithful hearts true to our rightful king, our country, and our neighbours, we earnestly beseech and expect, as his majesty commands, the assistance of all our true fellow-subjects to second our attempt; declaring hereby our sincere intentions that we will promote and concur in all lawful means for settling a lasting peace to these lands, under the auspicious government of our native-born rightful sovereign, the direction of our own domestic councils, and the protection of our native forces and troops. That we will in the same manner concur and endeavour to have our laws, liberties, and properties, secured by the parliaments of both kingdoms; that by the wisdom of such parliaments we will endeavour to have such laws enacted as shall give absolute security to us, and future ages, for the Protestant religion, against all efforts of arbitrary power, popery, and all its other enemies.

“Nor have we any reason to be distrustful of the goodness of God, the truth and purity of our holy religion, or the known excellency of his majesty’s judgment, as not to hope, that in due time, good examples and conversation with our learned divines, will remove those prejudices, which we know his education in a Popish country has not riveted in his royal discerning mind; and we are sure, as justice is a virtue in all religions and professions, so the doing of it to him will not lessen his good opinion of ours. That as the king is willing to give his royal indemnity for all that is past, so he will cheerfully concur in passing general acts of oblivion, that our fellow-subjects, who have been misled, may have a fair opportunity of living with us in the same friendly manner that we design to live with them. That we will use our endeavours for redressing the bad usage of our troops abroad, and bringing the troops at home on the same footing and establishment of pay, as those of England. That we will sincerely and heartily go into such measures as shall maintain effectually, and establish, a right, firm, and lasting union betwixt his majesty’s ancient kingdom of Scotland, and our good neighbours and fellow-subjects of the kingdom of England.

“The peace of these nations being thus settled and we freed from foreign dangers, we will use our endeavours to have the army reduced to the usual number of guards and garrisons; and will concur in such laws and methods, as shall relieve us of the heavy taxes and debts now lying upon us, and at the same time, will support the public credit in all its parts. And we hereby faithfully promise and engage that every officer who joins with us in our king and country’s cause shall not only enjoy the same post he now does, but shall be advanced and preferred according to his rank and station and the number of men he brings off with him to us. And each foot soldier so joining us shall have twenty shillings sterling, and each trooper or dragoon, who brings horse and accoutrements along with him, £12 sterling gratuity, besides their pay; and in general we shall concur with all our fellow subjects in such measures as shall make us flourish at home, and be formidable abroad, under our rightful sovereign, and the peaceable harmony of our ancient fundamental constitution, undisturbed by a pretender’s interests and councils from abroad, or a restless faction at home. In so honourable, so good, and just a cause, we do not doubt of the assistance, direction, and blessing of Almighty God, who has so often succoured the royal family of Stuarts, and our country from sinking under oppression.”

A document better calculated to arouse the national feeling could not have been penned. Every topic which could excite a spirit of disaffection against the government then existing is artfully introduced, and enforced with an energy of diction and an apparent strength of reasoning admirably fitted for exciting the spirit of a people living, as they imagined, in a state of national degradation. But this manifesto which, a few years before, would have set the whole of Scotland in a flame, produced little or no effect in those quarters where alone it was necessary to make such an appeal.

FOOTNOTES:

[674] Rae’s History of the late Rebellion. Dumfries, 1718, p. 63.

[675] Culloden Papers, pp. 30, 31.

[676] Rae, p. 77.

[677] Gazette, 25th September, 1714.

[678] This document, which was signed by the chief of Maclean, Macdonell of Glengarry, Cameron of Lochiel, Macdonell of Keppoch, Sir Donald Macdonald, Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Mackenzie of Fraserdale, M’Leod of Contulick, Grant of Glenmoriston, Chisholm of Comer, and M’Pherson of Cluny, is as follows:—