d. He ascended the
scaffold, "treading," as an observer expressed it, "with the air of a
General," and surveying the spectators, bowed to them; he walked round
it, and read the inscription on his coffin, "Arthurus Dominus de
Balmerino, decollatus, 18^o die August. 1746, aetatis suae 58^o;" observed
"that it was right," and with apparent pleasure looked at the block
saying, it was his "pillow of rest." Lord Balmerino then pulling out his
spectacles, read a paper to those who stood around him, and delivered it
to the Sheriff to do with it as he thought proper. It was subsequently
printed in a garbled form, much of it being deemed too treasonable for
publication, and in that form is preserved in the State Trials.[393] It
is now given as it was really spoken.

"I was bred in the anti-revolution principles, which I have ever
persevered in, from a sincere persuasion that the restoration of the
Royal Family, and the good of my native country, are inseparable. The
action of my life which now stares me most in the face, is my having
accepted a commission in the army from the late Princess Anne, who I
knew had no more right to the crown than her predecessor, the Prince of
Orange, whom I always considered as an infamous usurper.

"In the year 1715, as soon as the King landed in Scotland, I thought it
my indispensable duty to join his standard, though his affairs were then
in a desperate situation.

"I was in Switzerland in the year 1734, where I received a letter from
my father acquainting me that he had procured me remission, and desiring
me to return home. Not thinking myself at liberty to comply with my
father's desire without the King's approbation, I wrote to Rome to know
his Majesty's pleasure, and was directed by him to return home; and at
the same time I received a letter of credit upon his banker at Paris,
who furnished me with money to defray the expense of my journey, and put
me in repair. I think myself bound, upon this occasion, to contradict a
report which has been industriously spread, and which I never heard of
till I was prisoner; that orders were given to the Prince's army to give
no quarter at the battle of Culloden. With my eye upon the block, which
will soon bring me unto the highest of all tribunals, I do declare that
it is without any manner of foundation, both because it is impossible it
could have escaped the knowledge of me, who was captain of the Prince's
Life Guards, or of Lord Kilmarnock, who was col