ivisions racked civil society. In 1707, the famous
Colonel Hooke was sent to the northern parts of Scotland from France, to
sound the nobility and chieftains with respect to their sentiments, to
ascertain the amount of their forces, and to inquire what quantity of
ammunition and other warlike stores should be necessary to be sent from
France. A full account of affairs was compiled, and was signed by
fifteen noblemen and gentlemen, amongst whom the Duke of Athole, who
aspired, according to Lockhart, to be another General Monk, was foremost
in promoting the restoration of the youthful son of James the Second.
This mission was followed by the unsuccessful attempt at invasion on the
part of James, in 1708; when, according to some representations, there
was a far more reasonable prospect of success than at any later period.
The nobility and gentry were, at that time, well prepared to receive the
royal adventurer; the regular army was wholly unfit, either in numbers
or ammunition, to oppose the forces which they would have raised. The
very Guards, it is supposed, would have done duty on the person of James
Stuart the night that he landed. The equivalent money sent to Scotland
to reward the promoters of the Union, was still in the country, and a
considerable part of it was in the Castle of Edinburgh; and a Dutch
fleet had recently run aground on the coast of Angus, and had left
there a vast quantity of powder, shot, and cannon, and a large sum of
money, which might have been secured. England was, at this time,
distracted with jealousies and factions; and although the great
Marlborough was then in the vigour of his youth, ready to defend his
country, as well as to extend her dominions, there were suspicions that
the General was not wholly adverse to the claims of James Stuart.[4]

How far these expectations might have been realised, it is difficult to
say. The French newspapers had proclaimed the preparations for invasion,
and Louis the Fourteenth had taken leave of James, wishing him a
prosperous voyage, and expressing, as the highest compliment, "the hope
that he should never see him again," when a slight, accidental
indisposition disturbed the whole arrangement. The royal youth was taken
ill with the measles; upon which the French troops which had embarked at
Dunkirk disembarked. A fatal delay was occasioned; and the French fleet,
after an ineffectual voyage, went "sneakingly home," "doing," as one of
the most active Jacobite