1745.]

ANDREW DRUMMOND, THE BANKER.

153

were exiled or suspected; not in assisting designs against the reigning family, but in a faithful administration of their private funds. "His brother sent up to him his two nephews, Robert and Henry, with whom he shared whatever emoluments he derived from the services he rendered to the royalists; and in this way grew up the banking establishment which his descendants have ever since carried on."* In 1745, when lord Strathallan was actively engaged in the Rebellion, suspicion not unnaturally fell upon the banker at Charing Cross. A warrant was sent into his house, and his books and papers were seized. A report was spread that he was ruined. It was the crisis of the thriving Scotsman's fortune. He published a notice in the Gazette that he would instantly pay all his creditors in full. Confidence did not desert him. The government could find nothing to inculpate him after the most searching examination; and obtained no knowledge from his papers "of what was going on in Scotland." His books and papers were returned; and a round-robin was signed by every member of the Cabinet as an approving testimonial of his conduct. The king desired to see him at St. James's; but at that interview the sturdy banker turned his back upon the Secretary, sir Edward Winnington, to whom he attributed the calumny against him. Andrew Drummond's bank became the favoured establishment of the aristocracy of all parties. George II. there kept his private account, and so also George III. This is one of the many instances of the rapidity with which, after the final struggle, national and dynastic contests became merged in individual confidence and public tranquillity. There were national prejudices of Englishman and Scot still to be overcome; but these were only as the shifting clouds after a storm. The trust in Andrew Drummond, the banker, of the second and third sovereigns of the Brunswick line, may be regarded as a graceful tribute, not only to his individual integrity and honour, but as exhibiting some sympathy for the misfortunes of his house. The representative of the elder branch of that house, the duke of Perth, died on shipboard after his escape from Scotland in 1746. The head of the other branch, lord Strathallan, was killed at the battle of Culloden.+†

But if the ancient resistance and disaffection of the Jacobite party gradually melted away in the security for good government which the nation enjoyed under the Act of Settlement, the fears of the Administration, and the traditional feelings of the people, too long endured in the penal laws against Roman Catholics. There was no attempt at their conciliation at the crisis of the Rebellion. At the beginning of December, 1745, a proclamation was issued, calling upon magistrates to discover and bring to justice all jesuits and popish priests; and offering a reward of one hundred pounds for the apprehension of any such objects of the severity of the earlier statutes. This proclamation called forth a strong remonstrance from the resident ministers of various Catholic states, and especially on the arrest of a domestic of the Venetian ambassador. They contended that the law of nations had been violated; and that the Act of Anne, which forbade the arrest upon civil

p. 21.

Memoir of the House of Drummond, in "Histories of Noble British Families," vol. ii.

There is a portrait of Andrew Drummond by Reynolds, and a very admirable one by Zoffany, in the possession of his great-grandson, Mr. Andrew Mortimer Drummond, to whose kindness we are indebted for some facts here mentioned.

VOL. VI.

M

154

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST POPISH PRIESTS.

[1745.

process, of the ministers of foreign powers, or of their servants, was infringed in these proceedings. The Secretary of State, in his reply, did not approve of the arrest of the Venetian ambassador's domestic; but he rested the justification of the government upon the plea that chapels, with an enormous number of priests, were maintained, wherein mass was celebrated, not for the use of the minister's family, but rather for the sake of allowing the king's converted subjects to be present at mass, contrary to law. "The number of national Roman Catholic priests, who swarm more than ever in this town, was found dangerous to the State, especially at a time of open rebellion in favour of a Pretender of the same religion."

Charles Edward retreats from Derby-The retreating army pursued-Skirmish at CliftonBombardment and capitulation of Carlisle-Charles Edward in Scotland-General Hawley takes the command of the king's troops-Battle of Falkirk-Retreat of Hawley to Edinburgh-Lord Lovat-The duke of Cumberland in Scotland-Flight of the Highland army from Stirling.

THE retreat from Derby, regarded as a military operation, was highly creditable to the officers by whom it was conducted, and especially to lord George Murray. He was foremost to advise that retreat; and to his prudence and watchfulness may be attributed, in great measure, that the depressed Highlanders marched back to their own mountains, without serious disorganization. "I offered," he says, "to make the retreat, and be always in the rear myself." Before daybreak on the morning of the 6th of December,

156

THE RETREAT FROM DERBY.

[1745. the little army left Derby. The men thought they were advancing to attack the duke of Cumberland. "As soon," says De Johnstone, " as the day allowed them to see the objects around them, and they found that we were retracing our steps, nothing was to be heard throughout the whole army but expressions of rage and lamentation."* The prince, as blindly confident as the brave and ignorant Highlanders who would have followed him to destruction, was no longer cheerful and alert. "In marching forwards he had always been the first up in the morning, and had the men in motion before break of day, and commonly marched himself a-foot; but in the retreat he was much longer of leaving his quarters; so that, though the rest of the army were all on their march, the rear could not move till he went, and then he rode straight on, and got to the quarters with the van." Such is the relation of lord George Murray. The partizans of this young prince have delighted to exhibit his condescending participation in the fatigue and privations of his followers, when leading them, as he and they thought, to the rewards of his bold enterprise. His moody displeasure and haughty indifference when his insane plans were opposed and rejected, show how truly he adhered to his family convictions, that the sovereign will should over-ride every other consideration; that, to use his own words, " he was accountable to no one but God." His physical courage has been doubted, probably with great injustice. But his conduct in this retreat exhibits none of those qualities which appear in heroic minds, when high hopes are suddenly destroyed and serious dangers are to be confronted. Charles Edward had been deceived into the belief that the friends of his house in England were numerous, powerful, and ready to crowd round his standard. Not one of the secret Jacobites or avowed Tories of great families in the north lifted up a voice for him. He expected a descent from France would have been made upon British shores. To make such an invasion in some degree palateable to Englishmen, he had said, in a proclamation of the 10th of October, that when he saw a foreign force brought by his enemies against him-when the elector of Hanover's allies were called over to protect his government against the subjects of the lawful sovereignit was high time for the king, his father, to accept the assistance of those who had engaged to support him. That assistance did not come. There was a numerous and vigilant Channel fleet ready to resist every attempt at invasion. Not in the smoky hut at Eriska,—not when he was hiding after the fatal day of Culloden, could the thoughts of Charles Edward have been more cheerless than on the retreat from Derby. His weakness of character displayed itself in a rash trust that his cause was so sacred that some miraculous success would ever attend it: "From the facility with which he had gained the victory at Gladsmuir he was always for fighting; and sometimes even reproached lord George for his unwillingness to incur the risk of an engagement, when no advantage could be derived from a victory, and for his having prevented him from fighting the duke of Cumberland at Derby." +

It is one of the many instances of the want of correct intelligence at the head-quarters of the English generals, that the rebel army had been two days on its march back to Scotland before the duke of Cumberland became aware

1745.]

THE RETREATING ARMY PURSUED.

157

that they were not advancing towards London. He immediately despatched from his camp at Meriden, near Coventry, all his cavalry to pursue them; and the country people, as the infantry followed, furnished horses to mount foot-soldiers, draughted out of various regiments. A thousand cavalry troops were thus extemporised. "Our foot-soldiers not being accustomed to riding, I thought," says Volunteer Ray, "they looked odd on horseback, with their muskets and knapsacks flung over their shoulders." Marshal Wade was at Wakefield, with his army, on the 10th, when he heard of the retreat; and he also despatched his cavalry, under general Oglethorpe, in pursuit of the rebels. The duke of Cumberland and Oglethorpe arrived at Preston on the 13th; and on the 17th they united their mounted forces at Kendal. They were now close upon the rear of the Highland army. The hurried march back of Charles Edward, over ground which he had so recently passed in some sort of triumph, was not accompanied by any encouraging popular demonstrations. At Manchester the Highlanders were now received with "visible marks of dislike." The peaceful and orderly disposition of these men in their advance was now with difficulty kept up. At Lancaster they plundered, and threw open the prisons. As they went onward, "few there were who would go on foot if they could ride; and mighty stealing, taking, and pressing of horses there was amongst us." The captain, who thus records that the army "began to behave with less forbearance," adds, "diverting it was to see the Highlanders mounted, without either breeches, saddle, or anything else but the bare backs of the horses to ride. on, and for their bridle only a straw rope." + Near Stockport the Highlanders set fire to a village, the peasants having shot at one of their comrades acting as a patrol. The retreat was now manifestly through a hostile district. The duke of Perth, having been detached with some horsemen to proceed to Scotland, was attacked by the country people after he had passed Kendal, and was compelled to return. He again rode with a large escort the next day to Penrith, when he was again driven back.

The retreating and the pursuing forces were close together on the 18th of December. Lord George Murray had been detained at Shap on the 17th, from the difficulties of getting along the bad roads, and up the steep hills. The weather was wet and tempestuous. "I was stopped," says Lord George, “ by what I always suspected-the waggons could not be carried through a water where there was a narrow turn and a steep ascent." Horses and men could not overcome the difficulty until night-fall. The van and the rear were widely separated, when Murray reached the village of Clifton, near Penrith, on the 18th. They were encountered by a party of volunteers, but the Highlanders soon dispersed these. A footman of the duke of Cumberland was taken prisoner, and he said the duke was very close at hand. Lord George had only about a thousand men. He was resolved to wait an attack, even without reinforcements, for which he had applied. He took up a position between the hedges of the village and the wall of lord Lonsdale's park. The night was cloudy, with a feeble moonlight. Creeping along amongst the inclosures the

* Ray, p. 187.

"MS. Memoirs of Captain Daniel," quoted by Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p. 418,
"Jacobite Memoirs," p. 62.