ds
the latter portion of his life he had even lost the power of deceiving:
it had become impossible to him to act without mingling the poison of
deception with intentions which might have been honest, and even
benevolent. The habits of a long life of intrigue had warped his very
nature. When we behold him fleeing from the coasts of Scotland, leaving
behind him the trusting hearts that would have bled for him, we fancy
that no moral degradation can be more complete. We view him soliciting
to be a pensioner of England, and we acknowledge that it was even
possible to sink still more deeply into infamy.

With principles of action utterly unsound, it is surprising how much
influence Lord Mar acquired over all with whom he came into collision.
He was sanguine in disposition, and, if we may judge by his letters,
buoyant in his spirits; his disposition was conciliatory, his manners
were apparently confiding. At the bottom of that gay courtesy there
doubtless was a heart warped by policy, but not inherently unkind. He
attached to him the lowly. Lockhart speaks of the love of two of his
kinsmen to him:--his tenantry, during his exile, contributed to supply
his wants, by a subscription. These are the few redeeming
characteristics of one made up of inconsistencies. He conferred, it must
be allowed, but little credit on a party which could number among its
adherents the brave Earl Marischal, the benevolent and honourable
Derwentwater, and the disinterested Nithisdale. When we contrast the
petty and selfish policy of the Earl of Mar with the integrity and
fidelity of those who fought in the same cause, and over whom he was
commander, his character sinks low in the estimate, and acts like a foil
to the purity and brightness of his fellow sufferers in the strife.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] See Wood's Peerage of Scotland.

[8] Histories of Noble British Families by Henry Drummond, Esq. Preface
to Part I.

[9] Robertson's History of Scotland, ii. 32.

[10] Wood's Peerage. The year of his birth is not stated.

[11] Cunningham's History of Great Britain, i. 326.

[12] Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 100.

[13] Chambers's Biography, art. Erskine.

[14] See Dr. Coxe's MSS. in the British Museum, vol. iii.

[15] Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 98.

[16] Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 114.

[17] Lockhart, vol. i. p. 45.

[18] Granger, vol. ii. p. 31. Somerville's Queen Anne, p. 184.

[19] Of Alloa the following account is given. "