The object of Guest, according to Mr. Home, in thus annoying the town, and provoking the Highlanders, was not to secure a supply of provisions, of which he had already an abundance, but to prevent them from marching into England, by keeping them occupied in the siege of the castle. To deceive Charles, he wrote in the beginning of the week following the battle of Preston, several letters to the Duke of Newcastle, one of the secretaries of state, acquainting him that there was but a very small stock of provisions in the castle of Edinburgh,—that he would be obliged to surrender, if not immediately relieved, and recommending that any troops sent to his relief, should be forwarded by sea, to Berwick or Newcastle, for the sake of despatch. These letters, which were intended for the perusal of Charles, were sent so that they might fall into his hands; but lest any of them might find their way to London, Guest sent a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, by a sure conveyance, giving him an account of the real state of the garrison, and informing him of the deception he was endeavouring to practise upon the Highlanders.[965]
Whilst the adherents of Charles in the Highlands and the northern Lowlands were exerting all their energies to collect reinforcements, Lord-president Forbes was using all his influence to prevent the chiefs of doubtful loyalty from committing themselves with the government. To induce them to arm in its support after the success which had attended the prince’s arms, was what he could scarcely have expected; but by persuasion, and by pointing out in forcible terms the ruin which would befall them and their families, should the prince fail in his enterprise, he succeeded in making them at first to waver, and finally to abandon any design they may have entertained, of joining the prince. Among others who appear to have vacillated between two opinions, and in their perplexity to have alternately changed their minds, was Macleod of Macleod. This chief, influenced probably by the solicitations of his clansman, who had been sent to him on the mission before alluded to, attended a meeting of gentlemen of the name of Fraser, convened by Lord Lovat at Beaufort, or Castle Downie, as that seat of the chief of the Frasers was sometimes called, on Friday the 4th of October, and was despatched the following day to Skye, having engaged to join the Frasers with his men at Corriearrick on the 15th;[966] but on advising with his friend Sir Alexander Macdonald, he resolved to stay at home.[967]
In neutralizing the efforts of the disaffected clans, and dissuading others of doubtful loyalty from joining the ranks of the insurgents, President Forbes had difficulties to contend with, which few men could have overcome, but which he finally surmounted by that firmness, zeal, and indomitable perseverance, which distinguished him among all his political contemporaries. At its commencement, Forbes treated the insurrection very lightly. Before his departure for the north, he considered the prospect of affairs very flattering, and that the object of his journey had no appearance of difficulty; but the alteration in public feeling, consequent on the battle of Preston, changed the scene. Instead of finding the ready support he anticipated from the professed adherents of the government, he saw himself, to use his own words, “almost alone, without troops, without arms, without money or credit; provided with no means to prevent extreme folly, except pen and ink, a tongue and some reputation; and, if you will except Macleod, whom I sent for from the Isle of Skye, supported by nobody of common sense or courage.”[968] The successes of the insurgents had, he observes, “blown up the spirit of mutiny to such a pitch, that nothing was heard of but caballing, and gathering together of men in the neighbourhood: every petty head of a tribe, who was in any degree tinged with Jacobitism, or desperate in his circumstances, assembled his kindred, and made use of the most mutinous, to drag the most peaceable out of their beds, and to force others to list by threatening destruction to their cattle and other effects; whilst we were unable to give them any assistance or protection.”[969] Exasperated at the president for the exertions he made to obstruct the designs of the disaffected, a plan was formed for seizing him by some of the Frasers, a party of whom, amounting to about 200 men, accordingly made an attack upon the house of Culloden during the night between the 15th and 16th of October; but the president being upon his guard, they were repulsed.[970] The apprehension of such an important personage would have been of greater service to the Jacobite cause than the gaining of a battle.
Confiding in the loyalty and discretion of President Forbes, the ministry had, at the suggestion of the Earl of Stair, sent down to the president, early in September, twenty commissions, for raising as many independent companies in the Highlands for the service of the government. The names of the officers were left blank in the commissions, that the president might distribute them among such of the well-affected clans as he might think proper. The plan which his lordship laid down for himself, in disposing of these commissions, was to distribute them among the clans who adhered to the government in the former insurrection, without neglecting such other clans, who, though then opposed to the government, had, on the present occasion, shown an unwillingness to join the Jacobite standard. To raise the companies, which were fixed at 100 men each, as quickly as possible, the president resolved to leave the nomination of the officers to the chiefs of the clans, out of whom they were to be raised.[971] He accordingly despatched letters to the Earls of Sutherland and Cromarty, Lords Reay and Fortrose, Sir Alexander Macdonald, the lairds of Macleod and Grant, and other chiefs, requesting each of them to raise a company out of their respective clans, most of whom accordingly proceeded to enrol their men; but from the want of money and arms, only two companies were completed before the end of October, and several months expired before the whole were fully formed and drawn together.[972]
If the majority of the people of Scotland had been favourably disposed to the cause of the Stuarts, they had now an opportunity of displaying their attachment to the representative of their ancient monarchs, by declaring for the prince; but Charles soon found that, with the exception of the Highlands, and a few districts north of the Tay, where catholicity and non-juring episcopacy still retained a footing, the rest of Scotland was not disposed to join a contest for legitimacy, which they might imagine would not, if successful, strengthen the liberties of the nation, and might possibly impair them. The regular line of hereditary succession had been departed from, and it did not seem wise after a trial of fifty-seven years, during which period the political frame and texture of society had undergone a complete revolution, to place the succession on its original footing, by restoring the son of James II. The Jacobites, however, imbued with ideas of indefeasible hereditary right, were deaf to every argument founded on expediency or the will of the nation, and contended that every departure from the direct line of succession was a usurpation, and contrary to the divine law. No sovereign was, therefore, held by them as legitimate, while there existed a nearer heir to the crown in the direct line of succession; but they did not reflect that, upon this principle, there was scarcely a legitimate sovereign in Europe.
Among the Lowland Jacobites who displayed the greatest zeal on the present occasion, was Lord Ogilvy, eldest son of the Earl of Airly, who joined the prince at Edinburgh on the 3d of October with a regiment of 600 men, chiefly from the county of Forfar, where his father’s estates were situated. Most of the officers of the regiment were either of the Airly family, or bore the name of Ogilvy. Lord Ogilvy was followed by old Gordon of Glenbucket, an equally zealous supporter of the Stuarts, who arrived at Edinburgh next day with a body of 400 men, which he had collected in Strathdon, Strathaven, Glenlivet, and Auchindoun. Glenbucket had been a major-general in Mar’s army, in 1715; but he now contented himself with the colonelcy of the regiment he had just raised, of which he made his eldest son lieutenant-colonel, and his younger sons captains, while the other commissions were held by his relations or personal friends. On the 9th of October, Lord Pitsligo also joined the prince. He was accompanied by a considerable number of gentlemen from the counties of Aberdeen and Banff, with their servants, all well armed and mounted. These formed an excellent corps of cavalry. He also brought with him a small body of infantry. Lord Pitsligo, though possessed of a moderate fortune, had great influence with the gentlemen of the counties above named, by whom he was beloved and greatly esteemed, and having great reliance on his judgment and discretion, they did not hesitate, when he declared himself in favour of the prince, to put themselves under his command.
Having been informed that there were many persons, who, from infirmity and other causes, were unable to join him, but were disposed to assist him with money, horses, and arms, the Chevalier issued a proclamation on the 8th of October, calling upon all such persons to send such supplies to his secretary; and as an order had been issued, summoning the parliament to meet on the 17th, he, by another proclamation dated the 9th, prohibited all peers and commoners from paying obedience to any order or resolution that might be published in the name of either house, in case they should meet.
On the 10th of October, Charles issued a second rather spirited manifesto, justifying the step he had taken, proclaiming his father’s gracious intention to redress every grievance, including the repeal of the union, endeavouring to show that the government of the Elector of Hanover was a grievous tyranny supported by foreign mercenaries. It concluded thus:—
“Let him send off his foreign hirelings, and put the whole upon the issue of a battle; I will trust only to the king my father’s subjects, who were, or shall be, engaged in mine and their country’s cause. But notwithstanding all the opposition he can make, I still trust in the justice of my cause, the valour of my troops, and the assistance of the Almighty, to bring my enterprise to a glorious issue.