The chiefs of Grant - Electric Scotland

1773.] OBJE'JTIOXS TO llAI>;i: A SlCcoXD COMI'ANV. 415
that jealousies had already risen iVL'^avdinL;' tlie lirst. eoiujiaiiv, and \vlnle
there would l>e no diliieulty in nnisterin^' four or live ennipanies, yet, in the
excited state of feeling wliieh jnvvailed, there would he g'reat danger of
olfending tlie genlleniini of his elan by nauiing the ollieers of "Ue conijinny
and 11- more. The i 'resident au'l Lord Loudoun, howe\ ', urged die
matt' i- so earnestly thai Mr. Grant n^'ieed in lake llie eoni[);;::\- and co'.;-,ult
his friends about it.' The gentlemen of his clan, however, liaving pi>: itive
infoi'mation that the Laird of Macleod had received four companies, be-^ides
wln'ch, one had been given to a cousin of that Laird, whereby many gentlemen
of his clan were at once pro\ided for, would not consent to Mr. (Trant's
accepting only one company. They considered the gi\'ing nf live companies
to the Macleods so inanifest a partiality and slight that they I'efused to raise
another among themselves. Mr. Grant did not think it wise to f.irce their
inclinations, and on :29th Xovember, he wrote to Lord Loudoun, i-eferring
to the terms of their personal interyiew, and stating that the gentlemen
of bis clan were strongly ayerse to raising the second comjKiny. He
declared his own willingness to comply vyith the Lmxl President's desire,
but did not incline to jiush the matter to the dislike of his I'riends. Lie
at the same time assures Lord Loudoun that the whole clan would lie ready
on a few days' notice to go on any duty for his Majesty's seryice, and were
as much to be depended on as they Ayere in the rebellion of 1715."
It may be explained in passing that though the gentlemen of the clan
Grant accounted the giving of fiye companies to the ^Macleods as a slight to
themselves, and though it has, in an earlier memoir of Mr. Grant,' been
stated as a charge against President Forbes that through jealousy he threw
difficulties in the way of Mr. Grant's rendering full service to the Goyern-
ment, a perusal of their correspondence, then unknown, afibrds no good
ground for such a suspicion. Nor does the apjjarent partiality shown to
Macleod give any good reason for the charge of jealousy, or even for the
offence taken by the Grants. It is probable that had they not been
excited by the ferment of oj)inion and rumour around them, or blinded for
the moment by clannish feeling, they would have seen that beini'- asked
' MS. Narratives, by Sir AroliibaKl Grant and I.aclUan Grant.
2 Vul. ii. of this wurk, p. ISiJ. ^ The Chiefs of Culquhoan, by William Fraser, vol. i. p. 330.