nd by Lord Nairn, and other
persons of distinction.[32] There were few persons in that army who were
capable, by being versed in military affairs, of giving Lord George
Murray any advice or assistance. The Highland chiefs possessed the most
heroic courage; but they knew no other manoeuvre but that of rushing,
sword in hand, upon an enemy. The Irish officers were equally deficient
in experience and knowledge; and, with the exception of Mr. Sullivan,
are stated "to have had no more knowledge than the whole stock of
subalterns, namely, the knowing how to mount and quit guard." Such is
the description given of the collected forces by Johnstone. But,
although not trained as regular soldiers, and accustomed chiefly to the
care of herds of black cattle, whom they wandered after in the
mountains, the Highlanders had a discipline of their own. Their chiefs
usually kept about them several retainers experienced in the use of
arms; and a meeting of two or three gentlemen was sure to bring together
a little army, for the habits of the clansmen were essentially military.
It was, some considered, a circumstance favourable to Lord George
Murray, that, being unprepared by an early military education, he was
unfettered by its formal rules, and therefore was more calculated to
lead an undisciplined army of Highlanders, whose native energies he knew
how to direct better than a skilful tactician would have ventured to
do.[33] During his stay at Perth, the Highlanders, so prone to
irregularities when not in active service, were tranquil under the
strictest military rule.[34]

It was here, however, that the first seeds of dissension were sown
between Charles Edward and Lord George. Sir Thomas Sheridan, the tutor
of the Prince, who was allowed to "have lived and died a man of honour,"
but who was manifestly incapable of the great charge intrusted to him,
both in the education of the young Princes and as their adviser in
after-life, added to his other deficiencies a total ignorance of the
British constitution and habits of thinking. The Prince, of course, was
equally ill-informed. They were therefore in the practice, in
conversation, of espousing sentiments of arbitrary power, which were
equally impolitic and unbecoming. Sincere and shrewd, Lord George Murray
lost no time in expressing to Charles Edward his decided disapproval of
this tone of discourse. His motives in these expostulations were
excellent, but his overbearing manner nullified all