* Lord George Murray, who had the charge of all the details of our army, and who had the sole direction of it, possessed a natural genius for military operations; and was indeed a man of surprising talents, which, had they been cultivated by the study of military tactics, would unquestionably have rendered him one of the greatest generals of the age. He was tall and robust, and brave in the highest degree; conducting the Highlanders in the most heroic manner, and always the first to rush sword in hand into the midst of the enemy. He used to say, when he advanced to the charge, "I do not ask you, my lads, to go before, but merely to follow me;" a very energetic harangue, admirably caculated to excite the ardour of the Highlanders; but which would sometimes have had a better effect in the mouth of the Prince.* He slept little, was continually occupied with all manner of details, and was altogether most indefatigable, for he alone had the planning and directing of all our operations: in a word, he was the only person capable of conducting our army. His colleague, the Duke of Perth, though brave even to excess, every way honourable, and possessed of a mild and gentle disposition, was of very limited abilities, and interfered with nothing. Lord George was vigilant, active, and diligent; his plans were always judiciously formed, and he carried them promptly and vigorously into execution. However, with an infinity of good qualities, he was not without his defects; proud, haughty, blunt, and imperious, he wished to have the exclusive disposal of every thing; and, feeling his superiority, he would listen to no advice, There were few persons, it is true, in our army sufficiently versed in military affairs, to be capable of advising him as to the conducting of his operations. The Highland chiefs, like their vassals, possessed the most heroic courage; but they knew no other manoeuvre than that of rushing upon the enemy sword in hand, as soon as they saw them, without order and without discipline. Lord George could receive still less assistance from the subaltern Irish officers, who, with the exception of Mr. Sullivan, possessed no other knowledge than that which usually forms the whole stock of subalterns; namely, the knowing how to mount and quit guard. We can hardly, therefore, be astonished that Lord George, possessing so many of the qualities requisite to form a great general, should have gained the hearts of the Highlanders; and a general, who has the confidence of his soldiers, may do wonders. Hence, possessing the art of employing men to advantage, without having had time to discipline them, but taking them

*The author here, and not unfrequently in other parts of these Memoirs, insinuates that Charles was deficient in courage. He has been so often, in every publication, down to the historical romance of Waverley, represented as a heroic and daring leader, that many may be inclined to disbelieve the truth of this charge of want of bravery. It is well known too, that he was seen in England more than once after the extinction of the rebellion in 1745; and it is difficult to reconcile such perilous visits with positive cowardice. To have exposed himself in action might, in some cases, have been imprudent, but there are occasions which absolutely demand such exposure.' Ed. of Mem.

merely as they came from the plough, he made them perform prodigies of valour against various English armies, always greatly superior in number to that of the Prince, though the English troops are allowed to be the best in Europe. Nature had formed him for a great warrior; he did not require the accidental advantage of birth.'

6

On the first engagement with General Cope, the author says, as they were forming for battle, 'At the very end of the marsh 'there was a deep ditch, three or four feet broad, which it was necessary to leap over, and the Prince, in making this leap, fell upon his knees on the other side. I laid hold of his arm, and 'immediately raised him up. On examining his countenance, it 'seemed to me, from the alarm expressed in it, that he considered 'this accident as a bad omen.' The omen, however, proved false; it is well known that the English were completely routed -and this victory, though insignificant in itself, was of great importance to Charles, in raising the hopes of his followers at the outset, and encouraging his hesitating friends to declare themselves. The author mentions an anecdote of Highland courage, that occurred in this battle, which will gratify the admirers of Rob Roy-the hero of it being his son, James Macgregor.

I

Macgregor's company did great execution with their scythes. They cut the legs of the horses in two; and their riders through the middle of their bodies. Macgregor was brave and intrepid, but, at the same time, altogether whimsical and singular. When advancing to the charge with his company, he received five wounds, two of them from balls that pierced his body through and through. Stretched on the ground, with his head resting on his hand, he called out to the Highlanders of his company, "My lads, I am not dead!-by G-, shall see if any of you does not do his duty!"* The Highlanders instantly fell on the flanks of the infantry; which being uncovered and exposed from the flight of the cavalry, immediately gave way.. The author follows his account of this victory with some sensible remarks upon the rallying of troops, which he justly ranks as one of the most essential requisites in military command. He observes very feelingly, and with great naivetè, Having been several times in armies which have been put to rout since this action, I have always remarked, that much 'fewer men were lost in the field of battle than in the subsequent flight. Seized by a panic terror, and frequently borne away by their companions, without knowing why; even when they have lost fewer men than the enemy who remains victorious, they disperse like sheep, and unable to defend them'selves, come voluntarily forward like so many victims to be 'sacrificed.' The author's observations have been made in actions

*James Drummond, alias Macgregor, was son of the famous Rob Roy Macgregor.'

where the modes of fighting were very irregular. In all modes, however, fear is not only the consequence, but often the cause of danger; and cowards, not only die in imagination a thousand deaths, but from want of coolness, fall into the very ills they dread. The art of restoring order to defeated troops, will always be considered a very difficult and important one-as the greatest generals have justly gloried, as much in a skilful retreat, as in a victory. The Chevalier gives a spirited, but boldly drawn sketch of the mode of fighting of the Highlanders.

Their manner of fighting is adapted for brave but undisciplined men. They advance with rapidity, discharge their pieces when within musket length of the enemy, and then, throwing them down, draw their swords, and holding a dirk in their left hand with their target, they dart with fury on the enemy through the smoke of their fire. When within reach of the enemy's bayonets, bending their left knee, they, by their attitude, cover their bodies with their targets, that receive the thrusts of the bayonets, which they contrive to parry, while at the same time they raise their sword-arm, and strike their adversary. Having once got within the bayonets, and into the ranks of the enemy, the soldiers have no longer any means of defending themselves, the fate of the battle is decided in an instant, and the carnage follows; the Highlanders bringing down two men at a time, one with their dirk, in the left hand, and another with the sword.'

The conduct of the Prince, in needlessly sacrificing the English regiment raised at Manchester, and some companies of the regiment of the Duke of Perth, betrays both folly and cruelty; and his promising them, when he left them at Carlisle, to return to their assistance in a few days, though he must have known it was impossible to perform it, was an act of the basest treachery. That there was not the excuse of expediency to plead, is evident from the uselessness of the sacrifice; the author says, 'It was well known that we had taken Carlisle with the ' utmost facility, on our entering England. It was not in a 'condition to resist a cannonade of four hours, being utterly ' untenable; and a thousand times worse than an intrenched camp in an open country.' He says, some believed the abandonment of the garrison to be dictated by policy, as a bait to amuse the Duke of Cumberland, and prevent him from pursuing them too closely ; and others thought it originated in a spirit of vengeance against the English nation. The first opinion supposes such consummate folly, and the latter such black wickedness, that we should reject either as unfounded. The editor, in a note, exonerates the Pretender from such a suspicion, although he does not profess to entertain a high opinion of the political morality of Charles. He proceeds to remark—

'We have had ocular demonstration, from the archives of the Stuart family, lately discovered at Rome, by Mr. Watson of Elgin, and now in possession of His Majesty, that he was first invited into Great Britain, and then abandoned to his fate, by a great part of the English aristocracy. This fact cannot be denied, as there is evidence of it in their own hand writing. These archives, which consist of more than half a million of documents, equally curious and instructive, and which throw so much additional light on the religion, politics, and morals of almost every nation in Europe, during one of the most interesting periods of modern times, leave no doubt as to the truth of what a perusal of the selection from the Culloden papers, published in 1815, led us strongly to suspect that the hopes of the Pretender were better founded than they have usually been pronounced; and that the conduct of the Highland chiefs, who staked their lives and properties upon the issue, though certainly bold, was not so imprudent as it might at first sight appear to be.' Note.

Two days after the departure of the Prince from Carlisle, it was taken by the Duke of Cumberland; and though, by the capitulation, the Duke had granted to the garrison their lives, with an assurance that they should not be tried for having borne arms-twelve of the officers of the English regiment, with Mr. Townly and Mr. Hamilton at their head, were hanged and quartered in London.

The affair at Falkirk, where the English General committed the most glaring blunder, is described with great vivacity. It is a merit of this writer, that though he details occurrences minutely, he is never tedious, and always enlivens his narrative with entertaining anecdotes. The following, he gives as happening at this battle:

In their flight they took one prisoner in a very singular manner. Mr. Macdonald, a major of one of the Macdonald regiments, having dismounted an English officer, took possession of his horse, which was very beautiful, and immediately mounted it. When the English cavalry fled, the horse ran off with the unfortunate Mr. Macdonald, notwithstanding all his efforts to restrain him; nor did it stop till it was at the head of the regiment, of which, apparently, its master was the commander. The melancholy, and at the same time ludicrous, figure which poor Macdonald would cut, when he thus saw himself the victim of his ambition to possess a fine horse, which ultimately cost him his life upon the scaffold, may be easily conceived.'

The good effects of this victory were lost to the rebels, from neglecting to pursue it, and instead of taking the route to Edinburgh, idling their time before Stirling Castle. This determination of returning to Stirling, the author pronounces to have occasioned their ruin, and dates the commencement of their misfortunes from that absurd resolution. The night march

to Nairn, and the battle of Culloden, are described with great spirit. The Chevalier speaks with asperity of the cold desertion of the Prince, and the ungrateful manner in which he abandoned the men who had so faithfully clung to him.

We passed the 19th at Ruthven, without any news from the Prince. All the Highlanders were cheerful, and full of spirits, to a degree perhaps never before witnessed in an army so reccently beaten, expecting, with impatience, every moment the arrival of the Prince; but, on the 20th, Mr. Macleod, Lord George's aid-decamp, who had been sent to him, returned with the following laconic answer:- "Let every man seek his safety in the best way he can :" —an inconsiderate answer, heart breaking to the brave men who had sacrificed themselves for him. However critical our situation, the Prince ought not to have despaired. On occasions when every thing is to be feared, we ought to lay aside fear; when we are surrounded with dangers, no danger ought to alarm us. With the best plans we may fail in our enterprises; but the firmness we display in misfortune is the noblest ornament of virtue. This is the manner in which a Prince ought to have conducted himself, who, with an unexampled rashness, landed in Scotland with only seven men.

'We were masters of the passes between Ruthven and Inverness, which gave us sufficient time to assemble our adherents. The clan of Macpherson of Clunie, consisting of five hundred very brave men, besides many other Highlanders, who had not been able to reach Inverness before the battle, joined us at Ruthven; so that our numbers increased every moment, and I am thorougly convinced that, in the course of eight days, we should have had a more powerful army than ever, capable of re-establishing, without delay, the state of our affairs, and of avenging the barbarous cruelties of the Duke of Cumberland. But the Prince was inexorable and immoveable in his resolution of abandoning his enterprise, and terminating in this inglorious manner an expedition, the rapid progress of which had fixed the attention of all Europe. Unfortunately, he had nobody to advise with but Sir Thomas Sheridan, and other Irishmen, who were altogether ignorant of the nature and resources of the country, and the character of the Highlanders; and who had nothing to lose, but, on the contrary, a great deal to gain on arriving in France, where several of them have since laid the foundations of their fortunes.*

* Mr. Andrew Lumisden, a gentleman of the highest character, author of Remarks on the Antiquities of Rome, attended Charles during the whole battle, and was one of those that went to Ruthven. He gave an account of the message from Charles, agreeing in substanée with that of our author. It is certain that a stand was made for several days at Ruthven, and that the remains of the ariny dispersed, in consequence of the refusal of Charles to join them. This tallies exactly with the character of Charles, given by Lord Marischal, Helvetius, Dr. King, Alfieri, and all who had opportunities of knowing any thing of him. He is uniformly represented as a compound of rashness, irresolution, ingratitude, meanness, and want of feeling.' Ed. of Memoirs,