before the break of day. In all the English newspapers our numbers
were uniformly stated as high as twelve or fifteen thousand men. Under
such circumstances, some temporary advantages might have been gained by
marching southwards; for it is now believed that the Jacobite party in
England were much more numerous than we have generally understood; and
that thousands would have flocked to the standard of Charles Edward had
he been accompanied by a sufficient force to authorise the expectation
of his success."

The British administration was, it is true, devoid of men of talent or
principle, and discontent and distress prevailed in the country. In the
City of London, the Jacobite party was very strong; its member was
Alderman Heathcote, who, with Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, had announced to
Lord Temple his determination to rise immediately upon a landing of
troops from France.[136] The prevalence of Jacobite principles among
the English gentry is supposed to have infected many officers in the
royal army, who might have avowed them at any crisis in the public
affairs; many were, at all events, suspected of Jacobite principles;
"and the mere suspicion," remarks Lord Mahon, "would have produced
nearly the same effects as the reality,--bewilderment, distrust, and
vacillation in the chiefs." "Had, then, the Highlanders combined to push
forward," observes this able writer, "must not the increasing terror
have palsied all power of resistance? Would not the little army at
Finchley, with so convenient a place for dispersing as the capital
behind it, have melted away at their approach?"

In confirmation of this surmise may be quoted an anecdote which is
related of a company of the celebrated Black Watch, which had been
exempted during the insurrection of 1745 from serving against their
countrymen; more than three hundred of the regiment having brothers and
relations engaged in the Jacobite army.[137] But it was afterwards
employed on a service which might well have been assigned to others;--to
execute the decrees of burning, and to lay waste the districts where the
forefathers of these brave men had lived. On marching one company of
this famous regiment out of London, the Highlanders, on arriving at
Hounslow, suddenly became immovable; they halted, and refused to
proceed, or to bear arms against their countrymen. Their commanders, in
dismay, turned to the chaplain of the regiment, to use his influence.
The clergyman then in office hap