The chiefs of Grant - Electric Scotland

1717.] MEMEKU OF PAl;!,! AMKXT Foi; THIC KLOIX l!n;miS. 385
no loTigei" coinciiled. Eat IVdin this date there is no eviileiico of any
further intercourse between Sir James Grant and liis l)rotlier-inda\v. If
the correspondence hetween tliem was contiiuied as f irmei-lv, it lias not
been discovere'' in the repositories at Castle (.ii'ant.
')'!ie sam,' conrte-^y wl-irh dictated the mild renion-: :ance by Sir
Jam. Grant to his son's opponent. Lord Braco, ajipears ev( :
more
plainly
in a Irtter written at this time to a more formidable I'ival, Lcnxl Pi-esident
Forbes. The latter had always opjiosed the influence of the Grant f nnily
in Inverness-shire, and had now gained so large a party that Sir James
Grant felt that to contest the county Avoukl inyolye too q-reat expense,
especially as his son Ludovick Grant was also a candidate for Parliamentary
honours. He therefore withdrew from the tield, and intimated tlie fact
to the Lord President in the follnwing sliort note, which was carried by
Sir James's brother :— "As my brother is tlie liearer of this . . . he will
fully inform your Lordship of the usage I have mett with, the design I
have taken and the reasons for which I have done soe, to which I referr.
I shall only now beg leave to tell your Lordship that for those very reasons
I haA^e given over any design of standing candidat for the shvr of Livernes,
and have resolved to supjiort my son in the shvr of ^L^rray, and at the
same time T have writt to my fi'icnds and beggd the fivour of them that
they will waite r.f your Lordship, attend the election, and be directed liv
you in the choise of a member. I am with trtith, etc."^
Sir James Grant, however, thotigli he retired from the representation
of the sbire of Inverness, sought and olitained the suffrages of anothei' and
not unsuitable constituency, the Elgin district of burghs. In the letter
containing his proposal, addressed to the town-council of Elgin, he grounds
his hope of their acceptance of liis offer upon his per.sonal acrpiaintance with
many in the town, and also upon tlie fact that he was for some time
educated among them." The election took place at Cullen, on 2Sth May
1741, when Sir James was returned as Member of Parliament for the
Elgin district of l)urglis, and sat as such in the House of Commons until
his death in 1747.^
' Origin.-il Di-aft Letter at C.istle (Ir.int. - Draft Letter, ibid.
^ Anu.ils of Elgin, by Rubert Young, p. ."i.'jO.
VOL. I. 3 c