1709, placed on the pattern coin was in anticipation of better

times.

.46

Thus, although at the first glance it seems strange that James should have ordered a coinage immediately after his best efforts had failed, we see that he had not abandoned hope, and of this we have ample proof, for though the French court rejected a proposal made by Renaudot in 1708, advocating an invasion of Ireland to be preferred to an attempt upon Scotland, as being "at present safer and more certain," the friends of James were not easily discouraged. I may call attention to a memoir presented to the court of Versailles in 1709, entitled the "New Scheme," wherein the French ministry were assured that the greatest and most considerable part of that Kingdom (Great Britain) was actually ready to have declared for James the preceding year, if he had only landed, "but," says Mr. MacFarlane in describing this "scheme" in his history, "though disappointed then, the Scots were still willing, as ever, to join their lawful sovereign, and everything that had happened since, had contributed to increase their hatred of England, and so facilitate his return. There were, for example, fewer regular troops in Scotland now than then " "Ireland was represented on the tiptoe of revolt, a universal rising in Ireland and Scotland would of itself make so powerful a diversion that the great alliance of confederate princes would fall to pieces before it, and France regain her supremacy "But still the most passionate Jacobites in Scotland would hardly rise unless assisted with at least 8,000 men from France, some ammunition and a certain sum of money.' At this time Louis was in straights for the sinews of war, and was seriously turning his attention to thoughts of peace. The Scots were asked whether they would rise if the king were to come among them with 400 or 500 men to be followed by troops from France, but they doubted of success and so rejected the proposal.

1

Mary of Modena, p. 409, Renaudot Papers, Bib. Nat.

2 Hooke's Negotiations, see Pictorial History of England, vol. iv, Book ix, Chap. I, p. 228.

Early in the year a list of the Highland clans, ready to rise for James, had been sent to the French court, even even computing "the number of all the men 12,000, The King might likewise expect from the Low counties of Scotland at least 20,000, for the King hath generally, all the country over, three for him for one against him."

We find amongst the Stuart Papers, a letter from James to Pope Clement XI.1 written from St. Germain-en-Laye, later in the year 1709, saying “It has pleased God to preserve for us still a good number of faithful subjects in our three Kingdoms, who are always ready to receive us with open arms and declare for us. His Most Christian Majesty is also inclined, so far as the bad state of his affairs permits him, to assist us with everything that depends on him to put us in a condition to make another attempt for our restoration, and, if your Holiness would have the goodness to join with him, we are always ready to risk our person, and have every ground to hope that the Divine Mercy will bless so just an undertaking for His glory, and for the good of the holy religion, for which we are suffering." James goes on to explain that "a considerable supply of money is required," that the King of France "is absolutely unable to furnish us with any considerable advance,” and ends by asking the Pope "to lend us what you can yourself, and employ your credit and authority to get a good sum of money lent us secretly by other Catholic Princes, or by the clergy of Rome and elsewhere, or by such other way as you shall judge suitable to aid, with the other assistance His Most Christian Majesty will give us, in restoring us, and with us restoring religion in our states."

James, who was himself tolerant of all forms of belief, was still utterly unable to realise that his religion, to which he was consistently loyal, was the great obstacle to his accession to the English throne, and though in the letter' written on March 1st, 1708, for publication had he succeeded in landing in Scotland, he had promised, as he was ever ready to do, on "Our Royal Word to protect, secure and maintain all our Protestant Subjects in the free exercise of their Religion," in all 1 Calendar of Stuart Papers, vol. i, p. 235, in French in Entry Book I, p. 65. See Calendar of Stuart Papers, p. 218, vol. i.

the subsequent correspondence with the English ministers, after the Tory party had come into power, nothing would induce James to declare himself a Protestant, even when this would have facilitated his peaceful succession on the death of Queen Anne.'

Unfortunately the Stuart Papers of this date are not nearly so full as those of later years: this is probably due to the destruction during the French Revolution of a portion of those committed to the keeping of the Scots' College at Paris. But, if I may be pardoned for advancing the theory that James had ample justification for his hopes of a restoration in 1709, I will now pass on to another extract from the Stuart Papers, which bears upon the solitary specimen of the coin at present known.

In the year 1716 General George Hamilton wrote to James from Paris on February 13th, new style, just at the time when the unfortunate exile was retreating from Scotland, "I send a little box I got from M. Roettier—a crown designed for the English coin in 1709, and the impression of the crown piece that's to be now coined in Scotland." We do not, of course, know what became of these two specimens; no original of the 1716 crown is known, and as James would have left Scotland before the "little box" could have arrived, they were possibly both lost. If, however, they found their way back to France, which seems probable as another letter written by Hamilton to the Earl of Mar on the same day, is endorsed 'Returned and delivered at Paris, March 11th," the first coin mentioned may be the actual example preserved in the British Museum and acquired from the Wigan collection in 1872. Before that date it was shown by Mr. Hawkins at a Meeting of the London Numismatic Society in the year 1851.* It was then understood to be the property of a Major, afterwards General Moore, who was thought to have obtained it abroad. I am enabled to give an illustration of this unique specimen from the National collection.

Proceedings, Feb. 1851, Numismatic Chronicle, 1st series, vol. xiv.

The position of affairs in England in the year 1710, owing to the ascendancy of the Tory party, looked more hopeful for the Jacobite cause, and James, fighting against the English abroad, was still intriguing to rule the English at home. From this time forward he passed little time in France, for his ejection was made a stipulation in the Treaty of Utrecht' and all preliminaries thereto, and from

1712 onward, we find him the guest of the Duc de Lorraine at Bar, though in active correspondence with Berwick, who resided in Paris, and through whose means James negotiated in secret with the English ministry. Could he have been present at the deathbed of Queen Anne, there is little doubt that his peaceful accession had been assured. Again in "The 'Fifteen all might have been well, had he been able to fulfil the expectations of his adherents by arriving amongst them in person at the concerted time, properly equipped with men and money, whether upon the coast of England or of Scotland-for the place of landing remained undecided to the last. Had he, when he did arrive at the last moment, been able to bring with him the great general, the Duke of Berwick, who had been through twenty-six campaigns by the time he was forty-four years of

1 The Treaty of Utrecht was signed April 12th, 1713.

2 Calendar of the Stuart Papers, vol. i, p. 264 et seq.

3

By the advice of the Scots, the invasion of 1715 had been put off from August 10th, N.S., to September 6th, O.S. See memorial from Mar, July, 1715. Stuart Papers, vol. i, 520, and pp. 375 and 376.

Calendar of Stuart Papers, vol. i, Introductory, lxxx, and Jesse's Lives of the Pretenders, vol. i, p. 37.

VOL. III.

S

3

age,' and would have brought experience to the field, this again might have compensated for the lack of men and money, and all might have been retrieved. Berwick being a naturalised French subject, was unable to accompany his natural brother without the sanction of the French Court,2 but his refusal to do so caused a coldness between James and the marshal, which was only healed when both were advanced in years. Again, had James, although arriving almost alone and unsupported as he did, possessed the fire and energy which characterised his more venturous son in "The 'Forty-Five," something might have been done, but the ill-fortune of the Stuarts followed him throughout; he gave way to depression and even to tears, and as Prince Eugene said of him when he wept on the failure of his hopesWeeping is not the way to conquer kingdoms."

66

The real death-blow to the expedition of 1715 was the demise of Louis XIV. on September 1st, on the very eve of the rising, when the Regent d'Orleans, unwilling to risk anything in defence of the late King's protégé, delayed the promised help; and we may quote Bolingbroke, who, in a letter to Sir William Wyndham, speaking of the dying Louis, said, "My hopes sank as he declined, and died when he expired." The events of the rebellion of 1715 are too well known to need repetition; suffice it to say that Mar had raised the standard of the Chevalier in September, 1715, and the earlier part of the campaign was favourable to the cause of the Stuarts, but Mar was a failure as a general, and there was no unanimity amongst his followers. He himself was one of the late ministers of Anne, whom George on his accession had alienated from his side by the coldness with which he had met his advances. Mar, spurned by the King de facto, turned to the King de jure. I do not insinuate that he did not try his best to conquer for James, but circumstances were against him. The promised diversion in the West of England under Ormonde did not take place, and for some months the awaited leader from France did not 1 Duke of Berwick's Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 261.

2 Calendar of Stuart Papers, vol. i, Introductory, lxxxi, and pp. 441, 451, 500, 504. 3 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 459 and 466.