322 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [1745!.
CEIAFTER XL.
E D I N B U R G H IN 1745.
Provost Stewart-Advance of the Jacobite Clans-Preparations for Defence-CapturC of the City-Lochiel?s Surprise--Entmnce of Prince
Charles-Arrival at Holyrood-James VIII. Proclaimed at the Cross+onduct of the Highland Troops in the City-Colquhoun Grant-
A Triumphal Procession-Guest?s Council of War-Preston?s Fidelity.
WE have referred to the alleged narrow escape of
Prince Charles Edward in the house of Provost
Stewart in the West Bow. Had he actually been
captured there, it is difficult to tell, and indeed useless
to surmise, what the history of the next few
years would have been. The Castle would probably
have been stormed by his troops, and we might
never have heard of the march into England, the
fields of Falkirk or Culloden. One of the most
singular trials consequent upon the rising of 1745
was that of Provost Stewart for ?( neglect of duty,
misbehaviour in public office, and violation of trust
and duty.?
From his house in the Bow he had to proceed to
London in November, 1745. Immediately upon
his arrival he sent notice of it to the Secretary of
State, and underwent a long and vexatious trial
before a Cabinet CounciL He was taken into
custody, but was liberated upon the 23rd of
January, 1746, on bail to the extent of ~15,000,
to appear, as a traitor, before the High Court of
Justiciary at Edinburgh.
Whether it was that Government thought he was
really culpable in not holding out the extensive
and mouldering wal!s of Edinburgh against :troops
already flushed with success, and in opposition to
the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants, or
whether they meant only to intimidate the disaffected,
we shall not determine, says Arnot. Provost
Stewart was brought to trial, and the court
?fotind it relevant to infer the pains of law, that ihe
panel, at the time and place libelled, being then
Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, wilfully
neglected to pursue, or wilfully opposed, or obstqcted
when opposed by others, such measures as
were necessary for the defence of the city against
the rebels in the instances libelled, or so much
of them as do amount to such wilful neglect.?
After a trial, which occupies zoo pages of an
octavo volume (printed for Crawford in the Parlia-
.merit Close, r747), on the and of November, the
jury, the half of whom were country gentlemen,
returned a vcrdict, unanimously finding Provost
Stewart not guilty; but he would seem to have left
the city soon after. He settled in London, where
he became an eminent merchant, and died at
Bath, in 17S0, in the eighty-third year of hisage.
No epoch of. the past has left so vivid an
impression on the Scottish mind as the year 1745 ;
history and tradition, poetry and music, prove
this from the days of the Revolution down to those
of Burns, Scott, and others ; for the whole land
became filled with melodies for the lost cause and
fallen race ; while it is a curious fact, that not one
song or air can be found in favour of the victors.
Considerable discontent preceded the advent
of the Highlanders in Edinburgh, which then had
a population of only about 40,000 inhabitants.
Kincaid tells us that thep was an insurrection
there in 1741 in consequence of the high price of
food; and another in 1742, in consequence of a
number of dead bodies having been raised. The
former of these was not quelled without bloodshed,
and in the latter the houses of many suspected
persons were burned to the ground; and that
imaginary tribulation might not be wanting, we
learn from the autobiography of Dr. Carlyle of
Inveresk, that people now began to recall a prophecy
of Peden the pedlar, that the Clyde should
run with blood in 1744.
A letter from the Secretary of State to the Town
Council had made that body aware, so early as the
spring of 1744, that it was the intention of Prince
Charles to raise an insurrection in the Highlands,
and they hastened to assure the king of their
loyalty and devotion, to evince which they prepared
at once for the defence of the city, by
augmenting its Guard to 126 men, and mustering
the trained bands. After landing in the wilds of
Moidart, with only seven men, and unfurling his
standard in Glenfinnan, on the 19th of August,
1745, Charles Edward soon found himself at the
head of 1,200 followers, whose success in a few
petty encounters roused the ardour and emulation
of the Macdonalds, McLeans, and other warlike
septs, who rose in arms, to peril life and fortune
for the last of the old royal race.
The news of his landing reached Edinburgh on
the 8th of August, and it was quickly followed by
tidings of the muster in Glenfinnan, and the capture
of a company of the. 1st Royal Scots, at the
Spean Bridge, by Major Macdonald of Teindreich.
Early in July 5,000 stand of arms had been placed
in the Castle, which Lieutenant-General Sir John
Cope ordered to be provisioned, while he reinforced
its ordinary garrison by two companies of the 47th
regiment; and theLieutenant-Governor, Lieutenant-
General Preston, of Valleyfield (who had been
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