The King dissolved Parliament in January, 1715, and issued an
extraordinary proclamation calling together a new one. The Whigs
were successful both in England and Scotland, but particularly in
the latter, where a majority of the peers, and forty out of the
forty-five members then returned to the Commons, were in favour
of his Majesty's Government. The principal Parliamentary struggle
was in the county of Inverness between Mackenzie of Prestonhall,
strongly supported by Glengarry and the other Jacobite chiefs,
and Forbes of Culloden, brother of the celebrated President, who
carried the election through the influence of Brigadier-General
Grant and the friends of Lord Lovat.
The Earl of Mar, who had rendered himself extremely unpopular
among the Jacobite chiefs, afterwards rewarded some of his former
favourites by advocating the repeal of the Union. He was again made
Secretary of State for Scotland in 1713, but was unceremoniously
dismissed from office by George I., and he vowed revenge. He
afterwards found his way to Fife, and subsequently to the Braes
of Mar. On the 19th of August, 1715, he despatched letters to the
principal Jacobites, among whom was Lord Seaforth, inviting them
to attend a grand hunting match at Braemar on the 27th of the same
month.
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