the proposer, as that Mar resisted it on selfish
grounds. The notion was excellent, but the difficulty was to find men of
sufficient fidelity, honesty, and prudence to exercise functions so
delicate.

The spirit of Jacobitism seems scarcely, at this period to have been
checked in the bosoms of the resolute people who had suffered so much;
and the Netherbow and the High Street of Edinburgh still resounded at
times with the firing of musquetry, directed against a harmless rabble
of boys who betrayed the popular feeling by the white roses in their
hats.[153] Nor was the lingering enthusiasm for the Jacobite cause
confined to the lower classes in either country. It is almost incredible
that men of Whig principles, who held high offices in the Government,
should, at various times, have engaged in correspondence with the agents
of James; yet such is the fact.

Among those who were involved in these dangerous negotiations, Charles
Earl of Sunderland, the son-in-law of Marlborough, and at that time
Prime Minister of George the First, was one with whom Lord Mar treated.
Among the Sunderland Papers is to be found a singular letter from the
Earl of Mar to the Earl of Sunderland, urging that nobleman to assist in
inducing his royal master to accede to a proposal from which he might
himself derive a suitable advantage. "We find," says Dr. Coxe,
"unequivocal proofs that Lord Sunderland, who was considered at the head
of the new administration formed in 1717, was in secret correspondence
with the Pretender and his principal agents."[154]

The letter referred to from Lord Mar, on which Dr. Coxe has inscribed
the word "curious," began with professions of respect and confidence on
the part of his Lordship, to whom it was quite as easy to address those
expressions to a man of one party as of the other. It contained also a
promise of secrecy, and an exaction of a similar observance on the part
of Lord Sunderland. He then alluded to the misfortunes into which the
British nation was thrown by the disputed succession, and the violence
of party spirit in consequence. The subtle politician next touched on
the subject of George the First, whom he delicately terms, "your
master."

"Whatever good opinion you may have of _your master_, and the way that
things are ordered there at present, does not alter the case much; his
health is not so good as to promise a long life, and he is not to live
always even if it were good, nor will things continue