nfirmed the
indecisive. In the field, his would have been the desperate valour which
suits a desperate cause; but his resources were few, and his influence
proportionately small.

The soldier of fortune, driven at an early age from home, sent from
country to country, serving, with little hope of advancement, under
various generals, Balmerino had learned to view life almost as a matter
of indifference, compared with the honest satisfaction of preserving
consistency. His existence had been one of trial, and of banishment from
all domestic pleasures, and in the perils of his youthful days, he had
learned to view it as so precarious, that his final doom came not to him
as a surprise, but seemed merely a natural conclusion of a career of
danger and adventure. His heroism may excite less admiration even than
the resignation of those who had more to lose; but his intrepidity, his
courageous sincerity, his contempt of all display, his carelessness of
himself, and the tender concern which he evinced for others, are
qualities which we should not be _English_ not to appreciate and
venerate. His were the finest attributes of the soldier and the
Jacobite: the firm, unflinching adherence; the enthusiastic loyalty; the
utter repugnance to all compromising; and the lofty disregard of
opinion, which extorted, even from those who endeavoured to ridicule, a
reluctant respect.

For the relentless pretext of what was called justice, which sent this
brave man to his doom, there is no possibility of accounting, except in
the deep party hatred of the Government. Lord Kilmarnock is believed to
have owed his death to the false report industriously spread of his
having treated the English prisoners with cruelty; but no such plea
could injure Balmerino. One dark influence, at that time all powerful at
court, all powerful among the people, denied them mercy;--and the crowds
which witnessed the death of Kilmarnock and of Balmerino, hastened to do
homage to the Duke of Cumberland. Nothing can, in fact, more plainly
show the effect of frequent executions upon the character of a people
than the details of the year 1746. With the inhabitants of London, like
the French at the time of the Revolution, the value of life was lowered;
the indifference to scenes of horror formed a shocking feature in their
conduct. In the great world, jests, and witticisms delighted the
Satellites of power. It was the barbarous fashion to visit Temple Bar
for the purpose of