law on their own estates, was abolished for ever. By the operation of these measures, and by the slow but sure effect of time, the remnant of the feudal system, with all its good and all its evil, gradually disappeared from Scotland.

CHAPTER XXXI.

CHARLES'S PEREGRINATIONS-ABORTIVE CONSPIRACIES IN ENGLAND-VISITS OF CHARLES TO ENGLAND-APPREHENSION AND EXECUTION OF DR. CAMERON-CHARLES'S CONNEXION WITH MISS WALKENSHAW.

IT is well known that Charles did not remain long in Italy after his return from France, but where he spent the next few years remained long a mystery to his friends as well as to his foes. His letters were addressed to his banker, Warrent, at Paris, and he occasionally wrote to his father, but without affixing any date. With his brother he had broken off all correspondence. It has now, however, been long known, that during this period he visited Germany, spent some time privately in Paris, but resided chiefly in the dominions of his friend the Duc de Bouillon, where, surrounded by the wide and solitary forest of Ardennes, his active spirit sought, in the dangerous chase of wolves and bears, some

compensation for the military enterprise from which he was excluded.

If, under these circumstances, a new plan was matured for the expulsion of King George from the throne, it may be inferred that it would be likely to surpass in boldness even the undertaking of 1745. Lord Elibank and his brother, Alexander Murray, placed themselves, in 1753, at the head of a Jacobite plot, the success of which was dependent on a multitude of highly improbable occurrences. The design was to seize George II. in his own palace of St. James's, to carry him off, and to raise the standard of revolt in Scotland. To gain over the Scottish Jacobites to this design, Macdonald of Lochgarry, and Dr. Archibald Cameron, repaired secretly to the north, and the Jacobite Duchess of Buckingham went to Paris and Rome, as an agent of the conspirators; but whether Charles, informed of the plot, made a secret journey to London at this time, in order to satisfy himself of the feasibility of the scheme,

* The brother of Lochiel. Lochiel himself died at Paris in 1748. When Louis XV. gave Lochiel a regiment, the Doctor was appointed chief surgeon to it, and he remained in the French service, universally respected, till he unfortunately engaged in the plot of 1753.

is a question not easily answered. The chief authority for this secret journey rests upon the following

LETTER FROM DAVID HUME THE HISTORIAN, TO SIR JOHN

PRINGLE, M.D.

"St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh,

"MY DEAR SIR,

Feb. 10, 1773.

“That the present Pretender was in London in

the year 1753, I know with the greatest certainty, because I had it from Lord Marechal, who said it consisted with his certain knowledge. Two or three days after his lordship gave me this information, he told me, that the evening before he had learned several curious particulars from a lady (whom I imagined to be Lady Primrose), though my lord refused to name her. The Pretender came to her house in the evening, without giving her any preparatory information, and entered the room when she had a pretty large company with her, and was herself playing at cards. He was announced by the servant under another name; she thought the cards would have dropped from her hands on seeing him; but she had presence enough of mind to call him by the name he

assumed, to ask him when he came to England, and how long he intended to stay there. After he and all the company went away, the servants remarked how wonderfully like the strange gentleman was to the Prince's picture which hung on the chimney-piece in the very room in which he entered. My lord added (I think from the authority of the same lady), that he used so little precaution, that he went abroad openly in daylight in his own dress, only laying aside his blue ribband and star; walked once through St. James's, and took a turn in the Mall.

6

"About five years ago, I told this story to Lord Holdernesse, who was Secretary of State in the year 1753, and I added that I supposed this piece of intelligence had at that time escaped his lordship. By no means,' said he; and who do you think first told it me? It was the king himself; who subjoined, "And what do you think, my lord, I should do with him?"" Lord Holdernesse owned that he was puzzled how to reply; for, if he declared his real sentiments, they might savour of indifference to the royal family. The king perceived his embarrassment, and extricated him from it by adding, My lord, I shall just do nothing at