2- A SELECTION PAPERS EARLS OF MARCHMONT, IN THE POSSESSION OF B T E THE RIGHT HON . SIR GEORGE HENRY ROSE. ILLUSTRATIVE OF EVENTS 1685 TO 1750. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET MDCCCXXXI. LONDON: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford Street. Stack Annex TABLE OF CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME. Page The Preface . vii The Defence of Patrick Earl of Marchmont . Ixxxiii The Diary of Hugh Earl of Marchmont, from July 28th, 1744, to December 31st, 1744 . 1 The Diary of Hugh Earl of Marchmont, from Sept. 20th, 1745, to May 1st, 1746 .... 98 The Diary of Hugh Earl of Marchmont, from Aug. 30th, 1747, to March 2d, 1748 . .177 SUPPLEMENT TO THE DIARY OF HUGH EARL OF MARCHMONT. An Account of the Battle of Falkirk . .281 Another Account of the Battle of Falkirk . 288 VOL. I. PREFACE. THE practice of modern days has entirely sanc- tioned the publication of such family manu- scripts, as may throw light upon the manners, the and the of the literature, history country ; and, when confined within its due limits, it is founded on evident and general utility. And so great an eagerness has prevailed of late in the public mind for the production of this description of information, that at this hour, whoever may be in the possession of such papers, will rather be deemed bound to account for withholding them, or for delay in publishing them, than for laying them before the world. In no respect is this feeling of the nation so warranted in its demand to be satisfied as in matters touching the record of events affecting the state, of its weal, and its woes, of its wis- b2 viii PREFACE. dom, and its follies, as authoritative lessons of experience for its guidance. As its past exist- ence has an incalculable influence on its present and future fortunes, and as that exist- ence is essentially in its history, it must be admitted, that it is entitled to expect of its citizens, that they shall contribute liberally whatever stores of knowledge, there may be within their control, which may aid towards its perfection, and to render it a faithful, capacious, and animated picture of the facts it narrates. But that history should, together with all fide- ' lity, combine ample room and verge enough,' for its author to be able to trace distinctly the characters, views, and interests of those, whose conduct affects the destinies of a country, is no where more important than with regard to our own, whose singular and felicitous Constitution is composed of various and nicely-balanced powers, whicli must be in constant but equal pressure upon each other, in order that the machine may remain entire and efficient. But this constitution has an oral as well as a written law so that we are to be ; required accurately informed of the purposes and principles of our PREFACE. IX forefathers, who founded or amended it, as well ' as of their enactments, that we may know how safely, and consistently with their policy, to repair whatever may have become defective, and what expedients to recur to under new and untried circumstances. Yet, although it is in the correspondence, diaries, or memoirs of public men, that the most instructive materials for history must be sought for, it has been a matter of as much re- gret as notoriety, how deplorably great was the scarcity of such British documents till within these last few and this circumstance is years ; the more surprising, as many causes, which prevent the publication of private papers, or lead to their appearance in a mutilated state in other countries, are here unknown. Various and vigorous efforts have been made of late to redeem us from this reproach, and by no one certainly so effectually as by the late Archdeacon Coxe ; and I venture to cherish the hope, that the selection from the Marchmont Papers now offered to the public will not be found wholly unworthy to be aggregated to the mass of these newly-discovered treasures of our X PREFACE. land. But whilst we, the contributors to it, are performing the humble duty of extracting the stone and the marble from the quarry, and of in bringing the metals to light from the mines, which they lay concealed, we must especially cherish the earnest hope, that some mighty architect may arise, endowed with a superior spirit of truth and wisdom, by whose powerful hand they may be built up as a fane, which shall be worthy of a nation, to which such sin- gular and wonderful destinies have been allot- ted, and which has enjoyed in so extraordinary a degree the blessing and protection of Heaven in the fulfilment of them. Whoever communicates the manuscripts of a family to the world, will naturally feel anxious to have it understood, by what right he holds, and publishes them. This anxiety will arise from a due regard to his own character, espe- cially should he not have the honor to belong to that family, and also from a sense of duty to those, who may peruse them, that they shall be satisfied, that they may with a safe conscience participate in what is proffered to them. This I shall therefore proceed to do, as briefly as I can. PREFACE. XI ' My late father, in the preface to his Obser- ' vations on the Historical Work of the late ' Right Honorable Charles James Fox,' states, that the late Earl of Marchmont at his death deposited with him, his sole executor, as a l sacred trust, all the manuscripts of his family, ' with an injunction to make use of them if he ' should ever find .it necessary :' and feeling himself then called upon, in fulfilment of the duty thus imposed upon him, to vindicate the conduct of Sir Patrick Hume, afterwards the first Earl of Marchmont, in the Earl of Argyle's expedition in 1685, he published in that work Sir Patrick's manuscript narrative of the occur- rences, which took place in it. He afterwards says in a note to that preface, ' I have a great number of letters from the same ' Peer (Lord Bolingbroke), Lord Stair, the 1 It has been stated since my father's death on unquestionable ' authority, that many other manuscripts of great value and in- ' terest are yet preserved in the archives of Marchmont House, ' 1 in Scotland.' This he had no means of knowing . The late Earl long before his death removed his library, and a great mass of family papers, to Hemel Hemsted, in Hertfordshire, where he spent the last years of his life, and where my father found them, when he inherited them on his Lordship's decease. Xll PREFACE. ' Duchess of Marlborough, Sir William Wynd- ' ham, Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Pope, and others, ' to Lord Marchmont, in which there is much ' interesting matter respecting transactions from ' to the 1750 Queen Anne's time year ; but, although under no injunction to the contrary, ' I have at present no thought of publishing ' them, excepting, &c.' Having, with a single exception which I shall state, allowed those papers, which I inherited of my father, to rest in full privacy for twelve years, I may perhaps obtain credit for the sin- cerity of the expression of my regret, that it falls to my lot to make them by myself known to the world. A sense of a want of many of the qualities requisite for the task of an editor, and of such accurate knowledge in that par- ticular department of literature, to which these papers mainly belong, for the period to which they refer, as would be desirable for their illus- tration besides either of ; and, this, occupations duty, or more congenial to my taste and habits, have hitherto withheld me from it. Yet, whilst I was sensible, that it would be both useful to the public, and creditable to the noble family PREFACE. Xlll from which they are derived, that a selection from the large existing mass of them should be published, I could not determine to delegate to another the control of a property of so peculiar and delicate a nature, made over by the last Earl of Marchmont to my father, who owed him a very deep debt of gratitude for long, unabated, and distinguished kindness. My excuse then for publishing them myself, under the conscious- ness I have avowed, and under disadvantages which no one can appreciate so well as myself, is, that I felt that, from one cause or another, should I not commit them to the press, there was a very great probability of their finally perishing in oblivion. I shall therefore proceed to fulfil my duty, as succinctly as I can, assuring those, who may be pleased to accept this assurance, that they will be no losers by the brevity of my labors. But I may be here permitted to express ano- ther and a more lively regret, that this task was not executed by him, from whom I imme- diately derived these manuscripts. His acute- ness, his talents for investigation, his indefatiga- ble industry, and his accurate knowledge of our XIV PREFACE. records, and of our history, and particularly of that of the last hundred and fifty years, qualified him in an especial degree for an undertaking, which he would have accomplished with equal ad- facility and success. He had also the great vantage of having had during many years long and frequent conversations with the last Earl of Marchmont, whose memory was stored with rich recollections of what he had himself seen, or had learnt from the distinguished statesmen and men of letters, with whom he lived in his youth.