where they could more easily receive supplies from abroad than at Perth; and to allow them as little time as possible to fortify themselves, two detachments were sent forward without a moment's loss of time; the one by Aberbrothick,
and the other by Brechin. Owing to the depths of the roads the progress of these detachments was slow, being under the necessity of employing the country people to clear away the snow before them. They were followed next day by the whole army, the duke, with the cavalry and artillery, taking the way by Brechin, and Catlogan, with the infantry, by Aberbrothick. On this day's march they learned that the Chevalier, Marr, and the principal leaders of the rebel army had embarked the day before at Montrose, on board the Maria Teresa, and had sailed for France, while their followers had marched to Aberdeen under the charge of general Gordon and earl Marischal. On the 6th, the duke entered Montrose, and the same day the rebels entered Aberdeen. Thither his grace followed them on the 8th; but they had then separated among the hills of Badenoch, and were completely beyond the reach of their pursuers. A number of their chiefjtains, however, with some Irish officers, being well mounted, rode off in a body for Peterhead, expecting there to find the means of escaping to France. After these a party of horse were sent out, but they had escaped. Finab was also sent to Frazerburgh in search of stragglers, but found only the Chevalier's physician, whom he made prisoner.
Finding the rebels completely dispersed, Argyle divided his troops and dispersed them so as he thought best for preserving the public tranquillity; and, Leaving Cadogan in the command, set out for Edinburgh, where he arrived on the 27th of February, and was present at the election of a peer to serve in the room of the marquis of Tweeddale, deceased. On the 1st of March, after having been most magnificently entertained by the magistrates of the Scottish capital, his grace departed for London, where he arrived on the 6th, and was, by his majesty, to all appearance, most graciously received. There was, however, at court a secret dissatisfaction with his conduct; and, in a short time, he was dismissed from all his employments, though he seems in the meantime to have acted cordially enough with the ministry, whose conduct was, in a number of instances, ridiculous enough. They had obtained an act of parliament for bringing all the Lancaster rebels to be tried at London, and all the Scottish ones to be tried at Carlisle, under the preposterous idea that juries could not be found in those places to return a verdict of guilty. Under some similar hallucination, they supposed it impossible to elect a new parliament without every member thereof being Jacobite in his principles; and, as the parliament was nearly run, they brought in a bill to enable themselves, as well as all other parliaments which should succeed them, to sit seven years in place of three. The bill was introduced into the house of lords, on the 10th of April, by the Duke of Devonshire, who represented triennial parliaments as serving no other purposes than the keeping alive party divisions and family feuds, with a perpetual train of enormous expenses, and particularly to encourage the intrigues of foreign powers, which, in the present temper of the nation, might be attended with the most fatal consequences. All these dangers he proposed to guard against, by prolonging the duration of parliaments from three to seven years. He was supported by the earls of Dorset and Buckingham, the duke of Argyle, the lord Townshend, with all the leaders of the party; and though violently opposed by the tories, who, very justly, though they have been its zealous advocates ever since, denounced it as an inroad upon the fundamental parliamentary law of the kingdom, the measure was carried by a sweeping majority, and has been parliamentary law from that time.
Previously to this, Argyle had honourably distinguished himself by a steady
