As soon as it was determined to remain in Scotland till the army should be reinforced, every measure was adopted that could tend to increase it. Letters were despatched to the Highlands, and other parts of Scotland, containing the news of the victory, and urging immediate aid; and messengers were sent to France to represent the state of the prince’s affairs, and to solicit succours from that court. Officers were appointed to beat up for recruits, and every inducement was held out to the prisoners taken at Preston to join the insurgents. Many of these, accordingly, enlisted in the prince’s army, and were of considerable service in drilling recruits, but before the Highland army left Edinburgh, almost the whole of them had deserted, and joined their former companions at Berwick.[960] The principal person selected by Charles to go to the Highlands, on the present occasion, was Mr. Alexander Macleod, a gentleman of the Scottish bar, who carried along with him a paper of instructions, dated the 24th of September, and signed by secretary Murray.[961] By these instructions, Macleod was directed forthwith to proceed to the Isle of Skye, to assure Sir Alexander Macdonald, and the laird of Macleod, and other gentlemen of their names, that the prince did not impute their not having hitherto joined him, to any failure of loyalty or zeal on their part, for his father’s cause; but to the private manner in which he had arrived in Scotland, which was from a desire to restore his royal father without foreign assistance—that he was ready still to receive them with the same affection he would have welcomed them, had they joined him on his landing,—and that as they well knew the dispositions of the Highlanders, and their inclination to return home after a battle, they would be sensible how necessary it was to recruit the army with a strong body of men from their country. After giving them these assurances, Macleod was directed to require of these chiefs to repair with all possible speed with their men to Edinburgh, where they should be furnished with arms. In case they were found refractory, Macleod was directed to use all proper means with the gentlemen of their different families, to bring them to the field with as many followers as possible,—that to encourage them to take up arms, he was to acquaint them that the prince had received undoubted assurances of support from France and Spain,—that the Earl Marischal was expected to land in Scotland with a body of troops,—that the Duke of Ormond was also expected in England, with the Irish brigade, and a large quantity of arms, ammunition, and money,—and that before passing the Forth, he had received letters from the Spanish ministry, and the Duke of Bouillon, containing positive assurances of aid. In conclusion, Macleod was ordered to assure these gentlemen that the encouragement and favour which would be shown them, if they joined the prince’s standard, would be in proportion to their loyalty and the backwardness of their chiefs. He was likewise directed to send for the chief of Mackinnon, and to tell him that the prince was much surprised that one who had given such solemn assurances, as Mackinnon had done, to join him, with all the men he could collect, should have failed in his promise. As Macleod of Swordland, in Glenelg, who had visited the prince in Glenfinnan, had there engaged to seize the fort of Bernera, and to join Charles with a hundred men, whether his chief joined or not, the messenger was instructed to ask him why he had not fulfilled his engagement. The result of this mission will be subsequently noticed.
Seated in the palace of his ancestors, Charles, as Prince Regent, continued to discharge the functions of royalty, by exercising every act of sovereignty, with this difference only between him and his rival in St. James’s, that while King George could only raise troops and levy money by act of parliament, Charles, by his own authority, not only ordered regiments to be raised for his service, and troops of horse-guards to be levied for the defence of his person, but also imposed taxes at pleasure. To give eclat to his proceedings, and to impress upon the minds of the people, by external acts, the appearances of royalty, he held a levee every morning in Holyrood-house, and appointed a council which met every morning at ten o’clock, after the levee was over. This council comprised the Duke of Perth and Lord George Murray, the lieutenant-generals of the army, O’Sullivan, the quarter-master-general, Lord Pitsligo, Lord Elcho, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Secretary Murray, and all the Highland chiefs.[962]
As nothing could injure his cause more in the eyes of the people than acts of oppression on the part of his troops, one of Charles’s first acts after his return to Edinburgh, was to issue an edict granting protection to the inhabitants of the city and the vicinity, in their persons and properties; but farmers, living within five miles of Edinburgh, were required, before being entitled to the protection, to appear at the secretary’s office, in Holyrood-house, and grant bond that they should be ready, on twelve hours’ notice, to furnish the prince with horses for carrying the baggage of his army to Berwick-upon-Tweed, or a similar distance, according to their plowgates. By another proclamation put forth the same day, viz. the 23d of September, he denounced death or such other punishment as a court-martial should order to be inflicted on any soldier or person connected with his army, who should be guilty of forcibly taking from “the good people of Edinburgh,” or of the country, any of their goods without a fair equivalent to the satisfaction of the parties. These orders were in general scrupulously attended to, though, in some instances, irregularities were committed, under the pretence of searching for arms. The greater part, however, were the acts of persons who, though they wore the white cockade, did not belong to the army.
Besides the clergymen of the city, a considerable number of the volunteers had deserted their homes in dread of punishment for having taken up arms. To induce these, as well as the ministers of the city, to return, Charles issued a proclamation on the 24th of September, granting a full pardon to all or such of them, as should, within twenty days after the publication thereof, present themselves to Secretary Murray, or to any other member of the council, at Holyrood-house, or at such other place as the prince might be at the time. A few volunteers only took advantage of this offer.
When the Highland army first approached the city, the directors of the two banks then existing, had removed all their money and notes to the castle, under the apprehension that the prince would appropriate them to his own use. As great inconvenience was felt in the city by the removal of the banks, Charles issued a proclamation on the 25th of September, in which, after disclaiming any intention to seize the funds belonging to the banks, he invited them to resume their business in the city, pledging himself to protect them. He declared that the money lodged in the banks should be free from any exactions on his part; and that he himself would contribute to the re-establishment of public credit, by receiving and issuing the notes of the banks in payment. The banks, however, declined to avail themselves of the prince’s offer; but when applied to for money in exchange for a large quantity of their notes in possession of the Highland army, the directors answered the demand.
As the wants of his army were many, the next object of the prince’s solicitude was to provide against them. Anxious as he was to conciliate all classes of the people, he had no alternative on the present occasion, but to assess the burghs of Scotland, in sums proportionate to the duties of excise drawn from them. He accordingly sent letters, dated the 30th of September, to all the chief magistrates of the burghs, ordering them, under pain of being considered rebel, to repair, upon receipt, to Holyrood-house, to get the contributions to be paid by their respective burghs ascertained, and for payment of which, he promised to assign the duties of excise. For immediate use, he compelled the city of Edinburgh, on pain of military execution, to furnish his army with 1,000 tents, 2,000 targets, 6,000 pair of shoes, and other articles, to the value of upwards of £15,000, to liquidate which, a tax of 2s. 6d. per pound was laid on the city, and in the Canongate and Leith. From the city of Glasgow he demanded £15,000, a sum which was compromised by a prompt payment of £5,500. The prince, at the same time, despatched letters to the collectors of the land-tax, the collectors and comptrollers of the customs and excise, and to the factors upon the estates forfeited in the former insurrection, requiring all of them, upon receipt, to repair to Holyrood-house with their books, and to pay such balances as might appear upon examination to be in their hands,—the first and last classes, under the pain of rebellion and military execution, and the second class, besides the last-mentioned penalty, under the pain of high-treason. Charles, at the same time, seized all the smuggled goods in the custom-houses of Leith and other sea-ports, which being sold, yielded him £7,000. Besides the exactions from public bodies, he compelled several of the nobility and gentry in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh to supply him with considerable quantities of hay and oats. Parties of Highlanders were sent to the seats of the Dukes of Hamilton and Douglas, and the Earl of Hoptoun, to carry off arms and horses. From the last mentioned noblemen they took nearly 100 horses.[963]
For some days after the Highlanders resumed possession of Edinburgh, a sort of tacit understanding existed between the garrison and them, under which the communication between the castle and the city continued open. A guard of Highlanders was posted at the Weigh-house, an old square building, which stood at the head of West Bow, at the distance of a few hundred yards from the fortress. This guard allowed provisions of every description to pass, particularly for the use of the officers; and matters might have remained for some time in this quiescent state, to the great comfort of the inhabitants, had not the garrison one night, most unaccountably fired off some cannon and small arms in the direction of the West Port. In consequence, it is believed, of this breach of the implied armistice, orders were given to the guards, on the 29th of September, to block up all the avenues leading to the castle, and allow no person to pass. On being made acquainted with this order, General Guest sent a letter, in the evening, addressed to the Lord Provost, intimating, that unless the communication between the castle and the city was renewed, and the blockade removed, he would be obliged to dislodge the Highland guards with his cannon, and bombard the city. Nothing could be more unreasonable and absurd than this threat. Though willing, the citizens had it not in their power, either to keep up the communication with the castle, or to take off the blockade, and though they were as unable to remove the Highlanders from the city “as to remove the city itself out of its seat,”[964] or prevent them from acting as they pleased, yet the citizens would be the only sufferers in the event of a bombardment; for the Highlanders, if the city were destroyed, would only be obliged to change their quarters, and neither the destruction of the one, nor the removal of the other, could be of any service to the castle. These views were represented to the governor by a deputation from the city; but Guest remained inflexible, and pleaded in his justification a peremptory order, which he said he had received from the king himself, and which left him no discretion. At the earnest solicitation of the inhabitants, Guest was prevailed upon to grant a respite for one night. Next morning, six deputies waited on the prince, at the palace, with General Guest’s letter, which was in reality intended for him. After perusing the letter, Charles returned an answer immediately to the deputies in writing, in which he expressed surprise at the barbarity of the orders from the castle, at a time when it was admitted, that the garrison had six weeks provisions on hand,—that, in pleading, as Guest had done, the directions of “the Elector of Hanover,” as an excuse, it was evident, that the Elector did not consider the inhabitants of Edinburgh as his subjects, otherwise he would not have made a demand upon them which they could not fulfil,—and that, should he, the prince, out of compassion to the citizens, comply with the extravagant demand now made, he might as well quit the city at once, and abandon all the advantages he had obtained,—that, if any mischief should befall the city, he would take particular care to indemnify the inhabitants for their loss,—and that, in the meantime, if forced by the threatened barbarity, he would make reprisals upon the estates of the officers in the castle, and also upon all who were “known to be open abettors of the German government.”
This letter was laid before a meeting of the inhabitants, who sent deputies with it to General Guest. After some altercation, he agreed to suspend hostilities till the return of an express from London, on condition that the Highland army should, in the mean time, make no attempt upon the castle. This condition was, however, infringed by the Highlanders, who, on the following day, discharged some musket shots with the intention, it is supposed, of frightening some persons who were carrying up provisions to the castle. General Guest, considering that he was no longer restrained from executing his threat, immediately opened a fire upon the guard stationed at the Weigh-house, by which some houses were damaged and two persons wounded. Charles retaliated by issuing a proclamation next day, in which he prohibited all correspondence with the castle, under pain of death. This proclamation was followed by an order to strengthen the blockade, by posting additional guards at several places about the castle. To revenge this step the garrison fired at every Highlander they could discover from the battlements, and, by this reckless proceeding, killed and wounded several of the inhabitants. A daring exploit was performed at the same time by a soldier, who slipped down from the castle, set fire to a house in Livingston’s yards, where a guard was posted, and after shooting one of the guards dead upon the spot, returned safe to the fortress. Shortly after this occurrence a party sallied out from the castle, killed some of the guards stationed at the same place, took an officer and a few prisoners, and put the rest to flight.
Meanwhile General Guest sent a message to the city, intimating that he meant to demolish the houses where the guards were posted, but that care would be taken to do as little damage as possible to the city. Accordingly, on the 4th of October, about two o’clock in the afternoon, a cannonade was opened from the half-moon battery, near the Castle-gate, which was kept up till the evening. When it grew dark the garrison made a sally, and set fire to a foundry and a house on the Castle-hill which had been deserted. They then dug a trench fourteen feet broad, and sixteen feet deep, across the Castle-hill, about half-way between the gate and the houses on the Castle-hill, and along the parapet made by the earth taken from the trench on the side next the castle, they posted 200 men, who discharged some cartridge shot down the street, killing and wounding some of the inhabitants. The bombardment was resumed next day, with more disastrous effect. No person could with safety appear on the High-street, as the shots from the Castle-hill penetrated as far down as the head of the old Flesh-market close, and shattered several houses. At first, some of the better informed among the citizens were disposed to regard the threat of bombardment as a mere device to induce the prince to discontinue the blockade, as they could not bring themselves to believe that the government could have been guilty of issuing the barbarous order alluded to by the governor of the castle; but the inhabitants in general entertained more correct views, and before the cannonade commenced, the streets were crowded with women and children running towards the gates, in great confusion, while many of the citizens were to be seen carrying their most valuable effects out of the city. During the two days that the cannonade lasted, viz., the 4th and 5th of October, the utmost dismay prevailed among the inhabitants, and multitudes of them left the city, without knowing whither to flee or where to look for shelter.
To put an end to this disastrous state of affairs Charles issued a proclamation on the evening of the 5th of October, removing the blockade. In this document he stated that it was with the greatest regret that he was hourly informed of the many murders which were committed upon the innocent inhabitants of the city, by the inhuman commanders and garrison of the castle, a practice contrary, he observed, to all the laws of war, to the truce granted to the city, and even exceeding the orders which the government, it was alleged, had given upon the occasion,—that he might have, as he had threatened, justly chastised those who had been instrumental in the ruin of the capital, by reprisals upon the estates and fortunes of the supporters of the government; but as he thought it noways derogatory to the glory of a prince, to suspend punishment, or alter a resolution, if, by such a course, he could save the lives of innocent men, he had allowed his humanity to yield to the barbarity of the common enemy. This proclamation was followed by a cessation of the cannonade; but the garrison still continued to fire occasionally at the Highlanders whenever they made their appearance in the neighbourhood of the castle.