r confidence and approbation. "He headed,"
writes the bitter and yet truthful Lockhart, "such of the Duke of
Queensbury's friends as opposed the Marquis of Tweedale and his party's
designs; and that with such art and dissimulation, that he gained the
favour of all the Tories, and was by them esteemed an honest man, and
well inclined to the royal family. Certain it is, he vowed and protested
as much many a time; but no sooner was the Marquis of Tweedale and his
party dispossessed, than he returned as a dog to the vomit, and promoted
all the court of England's measures with the greatest zeal
imaginable."[23] The three parties in the Scottish Parliament, according
to the same authority, consisted of the Cavaliers,--that remnant of the
Jacobite party which remained vigorous, more especially in the
Highlands, since the days of Dundee,--of the Squadrone, "or _outer_
court party," and of the present court party, consisting of true blue
Presbyterians and Revolutioners.[24] With the interests of the latter
party the Earl of Mar was undoubtedly engaged.

Scotland was at this time, and continued for several years, racked with
dissensions regarding the Treaty of Union. No one can form an adequate
idea of the heartburnings, feuds, parties, and tumults, by which that
great measure was preceded, and followed, without looking into the
contemporary writers, whose aim it ever is to heighten the picture of
passing events; whereas the calm historian subdues it into one general
effect of keeping.

The Earl of Mar took a prominent part in seconding the treaty; no man's
commencement of a career could be more opposed to its termination than
that of this politician of easy virtue. The Duke of Queensbury was for
some time so hated in Scotland as scarcely to venture to appear there,
but contented himself with sending the Duke of Argyle as commissioner,
and "using him as the monkey did the cat in pulling out the hot roasted
chesnut." But when he was, after an interval, reinstated in power, Lord
Mar was again his devoted ally. The influence of the Duke over every
mind with which he came into collision was, indeed, almost irresistible.
"I cannot but wonder," remarks the indignant Lockhart, "at the influence
he had over all men of sense, quality, and estate; men that had, at
least many of them, no dependance on him, yet were so deluded as to
serve his ambitious designs, contrary to the acknowledged dictates of
their own conscience."[25]

In 1706,