PART II. in order to defend his own country against the friends of government; and the Clans, difgufted at their failure of fuccefs, difperfed on the approach of winter, with their ufual want of perfeverance.

A.D. 1715.

Dec. 22.

A. D. 1716.

THE Pretender, who had hitherto refifted every folicitation to come over, took the unaccountable refolution, in this defperate ftate of his affairs, of landing in the North of Scotland. He accordingly fet fail from Dunkirk in a small veffel, and arrived at Peterhead, attended only by fix gentlemen. He was met at Fetteroffe by the earls of Mar and Marefchal, and conducted to Perth. There a regular council was formed, and a day fixed for his coronation at Scone. But he was diverted from all thoughts of that vain ceremony by the approach of the duke of Argyle; who having been reinforced, with fix thousand Dutch auxiliaries, advanced toward Perth, notwithstanding the rigour of the feafon.

As that town was utterly deftitute of fortifications, excepting a fimple wall, and otherwife unprovided for a fiege, the king's troops took poffeffion of it, without refiftance. Mar and the Pretender had retired to Montrose; and, seeing no prospect of better fortune, they embarked for France, accompanied with feveral other perfons of diftinction 4°. General Gordon and earl Marefchal proceeded northward with the main body of the rebels, by a march fo rapid as to elude purfuit. All who thought they could not hope for pardon, embarked at Aberdeen for the continent. The common people were conducted to the hills of Badenoch, and there quietly difmiffed. The whole country fubmitted to Argyle.

40. Duke of Berwick's Mom, vol. ii. Tindal's Centin. ubi fup.

SUCH,

LETTER

XXIV.

SUCH, my dear Philip, was the iffue of a rebellion, which had its origin, as we have feen, in the intrigues in favour of the Pretender, during the latter years of A.D 1716. the reign of queen Anne, not in the measures of the new government, as reprefented by the Jacobite writers. Its declared object was the reftoration of the family of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain; and that many intelligent men have fuppofed, would have been attended with fewer inconveniencies than the acceffion of the house of Hanover. But they who reflect, that the Pretender was a bigotted papist, and not only obftinately refufed to change his religion, though fenfible it incapacitated him from legally fucceeding to the crown, but ftudiously avoided, in his very manifeftoes, giving any open and unequivocal affurance, that he would maintain the civil and religious liberties of the nation, as by law established 4, will find reafon to be of another opinion. They will confider the fuppreffion of this rebellion, which defeated the designs of the Jacobites, and in a manner extinguished the hopes of the Pretender, as an event of the utmost importance to the happiness of Great Britain. The earl of Derwentwater, lord Kenmure, and a few other rebel prifoners were publicly executed;

41. See Bolingbroke's Letter to Sir William Wyndham, in which many curious proofs of the Pretender's duplicity and bigotry are given. When the draught of a declaration, and other papers, to be difperfed in Great Britain, were prefented to him by his fecretary," he took exception "against several paffages, and particularly against those wherein a “direct promise of securing the churches of England and Ireland was "made. He was told, he faid, that he could not in confcience make fuch a promife." The draughts were accordingly altered by his priests; and the most material paffages were turned with all the jefuitical prevarication imaginable." (Ibid.) In confequence of thefe alterations, Bolingbroke refused to countersign the declaration.

PART II. but no blood was wantonly fpilt. Thefe executions A.D.1716. were dictated by prudence, not by vengeance.

We must now turn our eyes toward another quarter of Europe, and take a view of the king of Sweden and his antagonist, Peter the Great. The king of Sweden particularly claims our attention at this period; as, among his other extravagant projects, he had formed a defign of reftoring the Pretender.

LETTER

XXV.

LETTER XXV.

RUSSIA, TURKEY, and the Northern Kingdoms, from the Defeat of CHARLES XII. at PULTOWA, in 1709, to the Death of PETER the GREAT, in 1725.

TH

HE defeat of the king of Sweden at Pultowa, as I have already had occafion to notice, was A.D. 1709. followed by the most important confequences. Charles XII. who had fo long been the terror of Europe, was obliged to take fhelter in the Turkish dominions, where he continued a fugitive, while his former rival, the Ruffian monarch, victorious on every fide, reftored Auguftus to the throne of Poland; depofed Stanislaus, expelled the Swedes, and made him felf master of Livonia, Ingria, and Carelia'.

THE circumftances attending thefe conquefts are too little interefting to merit a particular detail. I thall therefore pafs them over, and proceed to the in

1. Voltaire, Hif. of Ruffia, chap. xix.

XXV.

trigues of Charles and Poniatowski at the Ottoman LETTER court, which gave birth to more ftriking events. I cannot help, however, here obferving, that the king A. D. 1710. of Denmark, having declared war agaiaft Sweden, foon after the defeat of the Swedish monarch at Pultowa, in hopes of profiting by the misfortunes of that prince, and invaded Scania or Schonen, his army was defeated with great flaughter, near Elfinburg,. by the Swedish militia, and a few regiments of veterans, under general Steenbock.

CHARLES XII. was fo much delighted with the news of this victory, and enraged at the enemies that had rifen up against him in his abfence, that he could not forbear exclaiming on the occafion, "My brave "Swedes! fhould it please God that I once more "join you, we will beat them all!" He had then, indeed, a near profpect of being able to return to his capital as a conqueror, and to take fevere vengeance on his numerous enemies.

Ir is a maxim of the Turkish government, to confider as facred the perfon of fuch unfortunate princes as take refuge in the dominions of the Grand Seignior, and to fupply them liberally with the conveniencies of life, according to their rank, while within the limits. of the Ottoman empire. Agreeable to this generous maxim, the king of Sweden was honourably conducted to Bender; and faluted on his arrival, with a general discharge of the artillery. As he did not chufe to lodge within the town, the ferafkier, or governor of the province, caufed a magnificent tent to be erected for him on the banks of the Niefter. Tents were alfo erected for his principal attendants; and thefe tents were afterward transformed

March 10,

PART II. into houfes: fo that the camp of the unfortunate mo(narch became infenfibly a confiderable village. Great A. D. 171c. numbers of strangers reforted to Bender to fee him. The Turks and neighbouring Greeks came thither in crowds. All refpected and admired him. His inflexible refolution to abstain from wine, and his regularity in affifting publicly twice a-day at divine fervice, made the Mahometans fay he was a true Muffulman, and infpired them with an ardent defire of marching under him to the conqueft of Russia 2.

THAT idea ftill occupied the mind of Charles. Though a fugitive among Infidels, and utterly deftitute of resources, he was not without hopes of yet being able to dethrone the czar. With this view, his envoy at the court of Conftantinople delivered memorials to the Grand Vizier; and his friend Poniatowski, who was always dreffed in the Turkifh habit, and had free access every where, fupported these folicitations by his intrigues. Achmet III. the reigning Sultan, prefented Poniatowfky with a purfe of a thousand ducats, and the Grand Vizier faid to him, "I will take your king in one hand, and a fword in "the other, and conduct him to Moscow at the head "of two hundred thousand men 3." But the czar's money foon changed the fentiments of the Turkish minifter. The military cheft, which Peter had taken at Pultowa, furnished him with new arms to wound the vanquished Charles, whofe blood-earned treasures were turned against himself. All thoughts of a war with Ruffia were laid afide at the Porte.

THE king of Sweden, however, though thus difcomfited in his negociations, by means of the czar's

2.

Hift. Charles XII, liv, v.

3. Id. ibid.

gold,