tary severity; he fostered a system
which it has taken nearly a century of great efforts, and good works in
the humane, to annul. "He was," says Horace Walpole, "a Draco in
legislation;" adding, "that in the Duke's amended mutiny bill the word
'Death' occurred at every clause."[111]--Such is the general colouring
of his public character. A strong and sensitive feeling with regard to
the national honour; a devoted reverence for the sovereign authority;
which were the only principles and institutions which he seemed to
respect, are the milder traits. In private, he countenanced, by his own
practice, most of those vices which scarcely existed with greater
impunity, or with less inconvenience from public opinion, in the days of
Charles the Second, than in those in which Cumberland flourished, and
left a finished model of a character without one redeeming excellence.

As a soldier, however, the merits of the Duke, if merits those can be
called which were the natural effects of animal courage, and of a
strong, remorseless mind, must be, at all events, acknowledged. He
behaved with great gallantry in his first campaign with his royal
father, and was wounded at the battle of Dettingen. At too early an age,
in 1744, he was placed at the head of a great army, in order to oppose
Marshal Saxe; and the event of the battle of Fontenoy proved the error.
But, in that engagement, the valour of the young General was admitted on
all hands. "His Royal Highness," relates the author of "The Conduct of
the Officers at Fontenoy considered," "was everywhere, and could not
without being on the spot have cheered that Highlander who with his
broad sword killed nine men, and making a stroke at the tenth, had his
arm shot off,--by a promise of something better than the arm which he,
the Duke, saw drop from him."[112]

It was with the hope of retrieving the lost reputation of the Duke at
Fontenoy, and in order to remedy the glaring defects of General Hawley,
that this young man, old in hardened feelings, but full of ardour and
courage, was sent to repel the forces of the Chevalier. It was also
thought by the Government that the placing a prince of the blood-royal
at the head of the army would have a powerful influence on the minds of
the people, and neutralize the counter-influence of Charles Edward.[113]
The Duke therefore assumed the command of an army ten thousand strong,
and set out from London to intimidate the enemy.

The Duke of Cumberland w