The r 5

IN their fresh and wholly admirable account of the earlier a the two risings in favour of the exiled' house of -Stuart, Alistaii

and Henrietta Tayler quote.the popular ballad which desert the crisis of that rising—namely, the Battle. of Sheriffmuir

"'There's some say that we wan,

Spme say that they wan, Some say that none wan at a', man ; But one thing I'm sure That at Sheriffmuir _ A battle there Was` whieb I -Saw,

, And we ran, and they ran, andltheyt ran and we ran, And we ran', and they ran-awe; %an!"

Which is another Way of silting-that the story they have t# tell is one of the most disheartening in the world, With

ordinary soldiership, James's cause knight have been won. Ag

din* s Were, 'it was lost before fie ; bti$ even so itmight have been regained had the king been less of a niefancholic and-the Eirl Of Mir something- other than tht

very prince of mismanagement. James Francis Edward Stuart, born in 1688, of a delicat? Italian mother, who had seen his brother and four sisters die

in their cradles, was the doubtful son of a disillusioned and gloomy father of nearly fifty-five, and he was a fugitive suri• rounded by exiles before he was six months old. He was only thirteen when his father died in the shadow court of S-4 Germains—a tall, lanky, unsmiling boy who seldoin spokes.

even to curse the persistent ill:luck which pursued him. Setting out, aged twenty, upon his first expedition for his royal rights, which was provided by. Louis XIV, he caught

measles. When, at length, he landed in Scotland on December 28th, 1715, to remain there for seven weeks, he suffered from) ague, and it was asked of him whether he was able to speak. Yet James was -a fine gentleman, merciful, kindly and very sweet-tempered, with a cultivated mind and a strong look of

Charles II, whose grandson (on the wrong side of the blanket by Moll Davis) the Earl of Derwentwater, was one of his

abler supporters. He might ha* made a good' king; but we arc left wondering if he thought ..lringship worth while. _ ,

Whether-it was or not, his generalissimo; John, Earl of Mar, was not- the man to win a crown for him. Handsome, silver4

tongued and persuasive towards_ women, .Mar " lacked the most elementary qualifications for a leader of men or head of any undertaking." „Desertions, jealousies, half-hearted incom- petenee-were-the orders of the-day, and good blood was allowed

to flow with utter callousness,. James's voice being the only one 'raised =in 'ejniet protekt, -but never 'loud enough. The "-onlie

good action of Mar's life" 'was. a -fine speech made before Sheriffmuir, and it was said of him that " no man can paint Mar so naturellic and so crooked as he does himself." James returned to Avignon; and then,,to -Italy; to die Uncrowned

fifty years later. Mar died in his bed a rich nian In contrast to him, forthe hour of -Scotland, stands. George, 10th Earl

Mariselial; whose interesting career 'is Sketched for us, along with those of fourteen other supporters of the cause, by our authors in their untmekneyed and fascinating book.

CATUERINE CARSWELL. '