es, when the whole nonjuring interest
of Britain, identified as it then was with great part of the landed
gentlemen, should come forward to finish what had been gallantly
attempted by a few Highland chiefs.

It is probable, indeed, that the Jacobites of the day were incapable of
considering that the very small scale on which the effort was made, was
in one great measure the cause of its unexpected success. The remarkable
speed with which the insurgents marched, the singularly good discipline
which they preserved, the union and unanimity which for some time
animated their councils, were all in a considerable degree produced
by the smallness of their numbers. Notwithstanding the discomfiture
of Charles Edward, the nonjurors of the period long continued to nurse
unlawful schemes, and to drink treasonable toasts, until age stole upon
them. Another generation arose, who did not share the sentiments which
they cherished; and at length the sparkles of disaffection, which had
long smouldered, but had never been heated enough to burst into actual
flame, became entirely extinguished. But in proportion as the political
enthusiasm died gradually away among men of ordinary temperament, it
influenced those of warm imaginations and weak understandings, and hence
wild schemes were formed, as desperate as they were adventurous.

Thus a young Scottishman of rank is said to have stooped so low as to
plot the surprisal of St. James's Palace, and the assassination of the
royal family. While these ill-digested and desperate conspiracies were
agitated among the few Jacobites who still adhered with more obstinacy
to their purpose, there is no question but that other plots might have
been brought to an open explosion, had it not suited the policy of Sir
Robert Walpole rather to prevent or disable the conspirators in their
projects, than to promulgate the tale of danger, which might thus have
been believed to be more widely diffused than was really the case.

In one instance alone this very prudential and humane line of conduct
was departed from, and the event seemed to confirm the policy of the
general course. Doctor Archibald Cameron, brother of the celebrated
Donald Cameron of Lochiel, attainted for the rebellion of 1745, was
found by a party of soldiers lurking with a comrade in the wilds of Loch
Katrine five or six years after the battle of Culloden, and was there
seized. There were circumstances in his case, so far as was made known
to t