EFFORTS OF THE FRIENDS OF GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND.

Charles continued to reside in the palace of Holyrood-house; * and took measures for cutting off the communication between the castle and the city.

* While he resided at Edinburgh, some of the presbyterian
clergy continued to preach in the churches of that city, and
publicly prayed for king George, without suffering the least
punishment or molestation. One minister in particular, of
the name of Mac Vicar, being solicited by some highlanders
to pray for their prince, promised to comply with their
request, and performed his promise in words to this effect—
“And as for the young prince, who is come hither in quest of
an earthly crown, grant, O Lord, that he may speedily
receive a crown of glory.”

General Guest declared that he would demolish the city, unless the blockade should be raised, so that provisions might be carried into the castle. After having waited the return of an express which he had found means to despatch to court, he began to put his threats in execution by firing upon the town. Some houses were beaten down, and several persons killed even at the market-cross. The citizens, alarmed at this disaster, sent a deputation to the prince, entreating him to raise the blockade; and he complyed with their request. He levied a regiment in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood. He imposed taxes; seized the merchandize that was deposited in the king’s warehouses at Leith and other places; and compelled the city of Glasgow to accommodate him with a large sum, to be repaid when the peace of the kingdom should be re-established. The number of his followers daily increased, and he received considerable supplies of money, artillery, and ammunition, by single ships that arrived from France, where his interest seemed to rise in proportion to the success of his arms. The greater and richer part of Scotland was averse to his family and pretensions; but the people were unarmed and undisciplined, consequently passive under his dominion. By this time, however, the prince-pretender was joined by the earl of Kilmarnock, the lords Eleho, Balmerino, Ogilvie, Pitsligo; and the eldest son of lord Lovat had begun to assemble his father’s clan, in order to reinforce the victor, whose army lay encamped at Duddingston, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Kilmarnock and Balmarinowere men of broken and desperate fortune; Elcho and Ogilvie were sons to the earls of Wemyss and Airly; so that their influence was far from being extensive. Pitsligo was a nobleman of very amiable character, as well as of great personal interest; and great dependence was placed upon the power and attachment of lord Lovat, who had entered into private engagements with the chevalier de St. George, though he still wore the mask of loyalty to the government, and disavowed the conduct of his son when he declared for the pretender. This old nobleman is the same Simon Fraser whom we have had occasion to mention as a partisan and emissary of the court of St. Germain’s, in the year one thousand seven hundred and three. He had renounced his connexions with that family; and, in the rebellion immediately after the accession of king George I., approved himself a warm friend to the protestant succession. Since that period he had been induced, by disgust and ambition, to change his principles again, and was in secret an enthusiast in jacobitism. He had greatly augmented his estate, and obtained a considerable interest in the highlands, where, however, he was rather dreaded than beloved. He was bold, enterprising, vain, arbitrary, rapacious, cruel, and deceitful; but his character was chiefly marked by a species of low cunning and dissimulation, which, however, overshot his purpose, and contributed to his own ruin.*

*He solicited, and is said to have obtained of the chevalier
de St. George the patent of a duke, and a commission for
being lord-lieutenant of all the highlands.

While Charles resided at Edinburgh, the marquis de Guil-les arrived at Montrose, as envoy from the French king, with several officers, some cannon, and a considerable quantity of small arms for the use of that adventurer.