The chiefs of Grant - Electric Scotland

332 BRTGAPIi:i;-(;i;XERAL ALEXAXUEi; GKAXT OF GRANT. [1716-
eavlier meetings, liLs iiaine appeiiring in the prot'Cfdings i'or the ilrst time
on tlio Otli of May,' but iVoiu'tliat date he constantly attended tlie sittings
of Commission, and signed his name with tlie otheis to the Articles of
Uj^.ion on 22d July 170i"i."
Of the memorable ;
•.ottisli !'arlianif';it whieh followeii. ;ind AvI.lch be^an
it.s Session t>u 3d Octo!.'-r 170(5. .Mr. Grant was a memljcr, takijip; part i)i
all but a lew luiinijiorlant divi.-ions on the subject of the Union, and
always votirjg on the side of the Government." In the last recorded
division of tlic Parliament, which took place upon the question whether
the quota of the "Equivalent '
to be paid to the Dai'ien Company in terms'
of the treaty, should be paid to the directors or to the individual stock-
holders, ]Mr. Grant voted that it should be paid to the stockholders, which
was clone. ]Mr. Grant was one of the thirty re]>resentatives of counties
appointed by the Scots Parliament to sit in the first British Parliament.
Although Mr. Grant's entrance into public life was as a legislator, he
did not confine himself to that callino- but entered the armv, in wduch he
rose to hioh command. On 4th March 170G, he received a commission
from Queen Anne appointing him colonel and captain of a regiment of foot
in Scotland, formerly commanded by John Earl of Mar, and which is said
to have been raised in 1702.'' It is not bnprobable that he was appointed
to tliis high rank as a recognition of his father's services to the Govern-
ment, but the chronicler who treats of his father's life ascribes the
young Laird's advancement also to political reasons. Keferring to the
transfer by the Laird to his son of the leadership of the clan, as nar-
rated in the previous memoir, the writer says :— " The young Laird, a
few weeks after this, wrote letters to all the chieftains of clans in the
Highlands. What their contents were is not published, but the report
of them reaching the Ministry, they thought it prudent, as there was an
invasion always threatening from France in favour of the Pretender, not
to lose such a j)owerful friend as the Lauxl of Grant." They therefore
judged it advisable as they believed him disobhged by the difficulties
> Acts of Parliamenta of Scotland, vol. xL App. p. ICS. - lh\d. p. 20-1.
= Ihkl. vol. xi. jip. n 1 •2-422, ;h7.