is beyond all measure insupportable. I believe they must be let blood. They
still have the trick of presuming upon the lenity of a moderate government. It
seems God either destines them for destruction, or infatuates others to allow
them to be pricks in our sides and thorns in our eyes. I have accounts from
very good hands from Edinburgh, that to their certain knowledge, saddles were
making in that city for dragoons to serve the pretender, and that all the popish
lords, and very many popish and Jacobite gentlemen, are assembled there now; so that all friends and loyal subjects to his present majesty, are advised to be upon their guard from thence, against an invasion or an insurrection, which is
suddenly expected, which the Jacobites expect will interrupt the meeting of the parliament." In the month of March, the same year, Culloden, writing to his brother, the subject of this memoir, has the following observation: "You say you have no news, but we abound with them in this country. The pretender is expected every moment, and his friends all ready; but since our statesmen take no notice of this, I let it alone, and wishes they may not repent it when they cannot help it." Culloden was returned for a member of parliament, and went up the following month (April) to London, whence he again writes to his brother as follows: "As for your Highland neighbours, their trysts and meetings, I know not what to say; I wish we be not too secure : I can assure you, the lories here were never higher in their looks and hopes, which they found upon a speedy invasion. Whatever be in the matter, let things be so ordered that my house be not surprised."
Had those who were intrusted with the government been equally sharp-sighted, much of the evil that ensued might undoubtedly have been prevented; but they were so intent upon their places, and the pursuit of little, low intrigues, that they were caught by the insurrection, in Scotland at least, as if it had been a clap of thunder in a clear day. John Forbes's direction, however, must have been attended to; for, when his house was surrounded by the insurgents, under Mackenzie of Coul, and Mackintosh, with their retainers, his wife refused all accommodation with them, saying, with the spirit of an ancient Roman, "she had received the keys of the house, and the charge of all that was in it, from her husband, and she would deliver them up to no one but himself." In the absence of his brother, Duncan Forbes displayed, along with Hugh Rose of Kilravock, the most indefatigable zeal, and great judgment in the disposal of the men they could command, who were chiefly the retainers of Culloden, Kilravock, Culcairn, and the Grants, and by the assistance of lord Lovat and the Frazers, finally triumphed over the insurgents in that quarter. Nothing, indeed, could excel the spirit displayed by the two brothers of Culloden, the eldest of whom, John, spent on the occasion, upwards of three thousand pounds sterling out of his own pocket, for the public service; of which, to the disgrace of the British government, he never received in repayment one single farthing.
Though they were ardent for the cause of religion and liberty, and zealous in the hour of danger, yet, when that was over, the two brothers strongly felt the impropriety of tarnishing the triumphs of order and liberality, by a violent and vindictive inquisition into the conduct of persons, for whom so many circumstances conspired to plead, if not for mercy, at least, for a candid construction of their motives. As a Scotsman and lawyer, Duncan Forbes was averse to the project of carrying the prisoners out of the country, to be tried by juries of foreigners, and he wrote to lord Hay, when he heard of a design to appoint him lord advocate, in order to carry on these prosecutions, that he was determined to refuse that employment. He also wrote to his brother in behalf of a contribution for the poor prisoners who had been carried to Carlisle, and were there waiting for trial. "It is certainly Christian," says he, "and by no means dis-
