arl of Mar from
the Duke of Queensbury. The Duke of Hamilton was the more induced to the
attempt, from the frequent protestations made by the Earl of Mar of his
love for the exiled family; and he applied himself to the task of
gaining this now important ally with all the skill which experience and
shrewdness could supply. Hamilton was considered invincible in such
undertakings, and was master of a penetration which no one could
withstand. "Never was," writes Lockhart, "a man so qualified to be the
head of a party as himself; for he could, with the greatest dexterity,
apply himself to, and sift through, the inclinations of different
parties, and so cunningly manage them, that he gained some of all to
his." But the Duke met in Lord Mar with one equally skilled in diving
into motives, and in bending the will of others to his own projects. In
the encounter of these two minds, the Duke is said to have been worsted
and disarmed; and the Earl of Mar, by his insinuations, is suspected to
have materially influenced the conduct of that great leader of party. "I
have good reason to suppose," says Lockhart, "that his Grace's appearing
with less zeal and forwardness in this ensuing than in former
Parliaments, is attributable to some agreement passed between them
two."[37]

For the effect of his newly-acquired influence over the Duke of
Hamilton, and for his other services in promoting the Union, the Earl of
Mar was amply rewarded. During the Parliament of 1705, he was
constituted one of the Commissioners of that Treaty, his name being
third on the list. In 1706, he was appointed one of the Secretaries of
State for Scotland; and afterwards, upon the loss of that office, in
consequence of the Union between the two countries, he was compensated
by being made Keeper of the Signet, with the addition of a pension.[38]
Those who were the promoters of the Treaty must have required some
consolation for the general opprobrium into which the measure brought
the Commissioners. The indignant populace converted the name of
"Treaters" into Traitors: the Parliament Close resounded with "very free
language," denouncing the "Traitors." That picturesque enclosure, since
destroyed by fire, was crowded by a vehement multitude, who rushed into
the outer Parliament House to denounce the Duke of Queensbury and his
party, and to cheer the Duke of Hamilton, whom they followed to his
residence in Holyrood House, exhorting him to stand by his country, and
ass