owerful nation, in
opposition to the inclination of the people, in defiance of a vast and
mighty army? (For, though the greater part of this army was not then in
the kingdom, it was so nearly within call, that every man of them might,
within the compass of a few days, or weeks at farthest, have been
brought home and landed in any part of it.) If we consider, I say, this
handful of men landing in the most desolate corner, among a set of poor,
naked, hungry, disarmed slaves, abiding there with impunity till they
had, as it were, in the face of a large body of his Majesty's troops
collected a kind of army, or rather rabble, together, it will be
extremely difficult to assign any adequate cause whatsoever, for this
unexampled success, without recurring to one, of whose great efficacy we
have frequent instances in sacred history: I mean, the just judgment of
God against an offending people." The state of public morals, Fielding
considers, to have drawn down upon society this signal visitation of
Providence. "Indeed, such monstrous impieties and iniquities have I both
seen and heard of, within these last three years, during my sojourning
in what is called the world, particularly the last winter, while I
tarried in the great city, that, while I verily believe we are the
silliest people under Heaven in every other light, we are wiser than
Sodom in wickedness."[53] The consternation of the sister kingdom had
now, indeed, become general; on the slightest report of foreign ships
being seen in the Downs, the dismay of the London citizens was extreme:
and such was the liberality, or such were the fears of the inhabitants
of the county of York, the capital of which may almost have been deemed,
in those days, a northern metropolis, that forty thousand pounds were
subscribed for its defence, after a grave and mournful address of the
archbishop of that diocese.[54]

When the Prince had determined to take off the blockade, and indeed had
actually resolved to evacuate Edinburgh and to march southwards, he sent
orders to Lord George Murray to nail the cannon upon the city walls, and
to retire to Musselburgh and Dalkeith. But the sagacious Lord George,
apprehending no further cannonading from the castle, begged permission
not to make a precipitate retreat, and obtained leave to continue three
weeks longer in Edinburgh, during which time the town remained in a much
quieter state than it had been heretofore.

Whilst Lord George Murray was qua