nalties, though in the course of time
this proscription was gradually relaxed. Every master of every private
school north of the Tweed was called upon to swear allegiance to the
House of Hanover, and to register his oath. The turbulent spirit and
fine fighting qualities of the clans were turned to good account by the
Government, who raised several Highland regiments, and thus succeeded
in diverting to their own service all the restless and warlike energy
which had hitherto been so troublesome to law and order. It must be
admitted that the modern prosperity of Scotland dates in a great degree
from the Forty-five. The old conditions of life in the Highlands were
conditions under which it was impossible for a country to thrive; and
though it is necessary to condemn the manner in which the Government,
at all events in the earlier stages, attempted to effect the
pacification of Scotland, it is also necessary to admit that Scotland
is probably more fortunate to-day than she would have been if victory
had been given to the Stuart at Culloden.

Of that Stuart we may as well take leave now. His subsequent career is
a most dispiriting study. He hoped against hope for a while that this
foreign power or that foreign power would lend him a helping hand to
his throne. Expelled from France, he drifted to Italy, and into that
pitiable career of dissipation and drunkenness which ended so
ingloriously a once bright career. To the unlucky women whom he loved
he was astonishingly brutal; he forced Miss Walkenshaw--the lady of
whom he became enamoured in Scotland--to leave him by his cruelty; he
forced his unhappy wife, the Countess of Albany, to leave him for the
same reason. Her love affair with the poet Alfieri is one of the
famous love-stories of the world. It seems pretty certain that Charles
Stuart actually visited England once, if not more than once, after the
Forty-five, and that George the Third was well aware of his presence in
London, and, with a contemptuous good {234} nature, took no steps
whatever to lay hands upon the rival who was dangerous no longer. At
last, on January 31, 1788, or, as some have it, on January 30, the
actual anniversary of the execution of Charles the First, Charles
Stuart died in Rome, and with him died the last hope of the Stuart
restoration in England. Had Charles lived a little longer, he would
have seen in the very following year the beginning of that great storm
which was to sweep out of