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endeavoured to seem equally a friend to each side; CHAP. he has been accused of revealing the secrets of his master; and at all events, it is certain, that, while professing his sorrow to King George, he wished still to be esteemed a Jacobite at Rome. He applied for and obtained James's permission to receive the indulgence of the English government; and when he found that he could gain no more favours from the latter, endeavoured again to conduct the business of the former. He caballed with Lord Lansdowne at Paris, and with some of his former friends from Scotland. But so far was he from recovering James's favour, that this Prince, like all weak men, ran into the opposite extreme, and looked with coldness and distrust on many of his most faithful followers, on account of their personal intimacy with Mar, even where that intimacy had been formed by his own direction, or resulted from his own partiality.

A feeble mind, however, can never stand alone; it requires a director as much as a creeping plant does a stake; and James immediately transferred his unbounded confidence to Colonel John Hay, brother of Lord Kinnoul, whom, in 1725, he declared his Secretary of State and Earl of Inverness. Next in favour came James Murray, son of Lord Stormont and brother of Hay's wife; he was at this time likewise made Governor of the Prince, and Earl

* See the Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 561-600. Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 178.201, &c. Atterbury's Letters to James. Appendix, &c.

CHAP. of Dunbar. This triumvirate, then the two Hays XIV. and Murray-ruled every thing at the little Court of 1725. James, and raised much dissatisfaction amongst his partisans. Inverness, according to a most respectable authority, "was a cunning, false, avaricious crea"ture of very ordinary parts, cultivated by no sort "of literature, and altogether void of experience in "business; with insolence prevailing often over "his little stock of prudence. The lady was a

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mere coquette, tolerably handsome, but withal "prodigiously vain and arrogant." * Of Dunbar it is admitted, that the character stood far higher; he was brother of William Murray, afterwards Earl of Mansfield, and like that brother had talents of the highest order, and well suited for public affairs, but he was injured at this time by his connection with the Hays.

The Pretender himself, though a mild, goodnatured, and well-meaning man, was still a Stuart, and not free from the especial curse of that race; when once prepossessed by any favourites, however worthless, he would see and hear nothing to their discredit, and considered all remonstrances against them as insults to himself. It was not long before his titular Queen, Clementina, a Princess of high spirit and blameless character, began to complain of the intolerable insolence with which she was treated by Inverness and his wife. Finding that she could obtain no belief or redress against them, she next applied to her husband's religious

* Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 340.

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scruples by lamenting that the Prince's Governor, CHAP. Dunbar, should be a Protestant! Nay more, she urged the same objection against Inverness, as minister, and was foolish enough to use an expression which James, with still more signal folly, afterwards published to the world:-" If he have not "true faith to God, can he be truly faithful to his "master?" * She declared that she would not live with her husband unless Inverness were removed; and at length, on the 15th of November, fulfilled her threat by leaving James's palace, and retiring to the Convent of St. Cecilia, at Rome. Her principal adviser was the veteran, and now unemployed, intriguer, Alberoni; one morning that ambitious priest was six hours and a half together, at her Convent.t

Many explanatory letters and memorials were soon handed about on the part of James or of Clementina; he complained of her temper ‡, she of

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"In answer to what I say of Lord Inverness's fidelity she puts me the question, S'il est infidele à Dieu, sera-t'il fidele "à son maître?'" Circular letter of James, dated March 2. 1726.

+ Circular letter, March 2. 1726, and to the Duke of Ripperda, December 7.1725.

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キ "Vous ne pouvez que vous souvenir avec quelle patience "j'ai souffert vos bouderies depuis plus de deux ans, et que "dans le temps où vous vouliez à peine me parler ou me regarder, je n'ai pris autre parti que celui du silence."― James to Clementina, November 11. 1725. Yet Montaigne might have taught him that "Ceulx qui ont à négocier avec des "femmes testues peuvent avoir essayé à quelle rage on les jecte

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CHAP. his obstinacy; but it is very strange, that in this case the most voluminous flow of explanation and 1725. recrimination was not on the lady's side!

These mazes of conflicting statements would be difficult to pierce, and might wholly shut out the truth from us, did we not find a trusty guide in Lockhart of Carnwath. It is impossible to read the Memoirs and Letters of that gentleman without high respect and confidence in his character. A Jacobite from most conscientious principle-always pursuing what he thought the right, through good report and ill report - always telling the truth without fear or favour-he at last offended the Court of James by his frankness as much as the Court of George by his exertions. "It was," he tells us, "commonly reported and believed, that "Lady Inverness was the King's mistress, and that "the Queen's jealousy was the cause of the rup"ture; but I have been often assured, by persons "on whom I may depend, that whilst they lived "with the King they could observe nothing in "him tending that way, and did verily believe "there was nothing of that in the matter."* Nor, in fact, do Clementina's own letters seem to speak of jealousy. But, with the same equal hand, does Lockhart proceed to condemn the intriguing

quand on oppose à leur agitation le silence et la froideur, et "qu'on desdaigne de nourrir leur courroux." Essais, livre ii. ch. 31.

* Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 340.

his master.

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character of Inverness, and the weak partiality of CHAP. He observes, that this obstinate devotion to favourites, seeming to grow in proportion 1725. to the complaints which they provoked, did the Jacobite cause incalculable evil, both at home and abroad. At Vienna, the Emperor, whose House was allied to that of Sobieski, was highly displeased at the treatment of his kinswoman. At Madrid, the Queen of Spain, as appears from the Stuart Papers, considered the privileges of her sex as invaded, and resented it with the utmost indignation.* Thus, at this important crisis, did James give personal offence to the two Sovereigns on whose aid all his hopes depended. He endeavoured to blind his British partisans as to the mischief done abroad †, but he could not so easily conceal from them the ill effects which they had before their eyes. "Your "trustees," answers Lockhart, "are glad to hear "from so good an authority as yourself (without "which they would scarce have credited it), that "this affair is not likely to produce any bad con

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sequences on your affairs abroad, but it is with "the greatest concern that they see quite the con"trary at home; and therefore are obliged, by the 'duty they owe you, in plain words to tell you, "that so far as their observations and intelligence "reaches they apprehend it is the severest stroke

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* Duke of Wharton to James, Madrid, April 13. 1726. Appendix. The King of Spain withdrew his pension from James. William Stanhope to the Duke of Newcastle, February 11. 1726. + Letter of James, May 1. 1726.

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