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The Rebellion of 1745
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Scotland. They could march two miles for every one that the heavily-laden English soldiers could march; and of course there were far too few of these regular soldiers in Great Britain. When the Highlanders met them, they would fire one volley from their muskets, throw them down, and charge with the ‘claymore’, the terrible Highland sword. The English soldiers, of whom, indeed, the best regiments were abroad when the rising began, seemed on this occasion to have forgotten all Marlborough’s lessons; their generals were old, slow men; and the rank and file were terrified by the ferocious Highland charges. So Charles was able, in the winter of 1745, with never more than six thousand men, to advance into England as far as Derby. The few great Tory families in England, who were supposed to favour the cause of King James Ill, ought now to have come forward and helped his son; but they did nothing. There was, indeed, a real panic in London; and, if no one rose for King James, very few people seemed anxious to fight for King George. If Charles had gone on then, he might have taken London, but he was persuaded to turn back from Derby, and, in the following spring, Battle of Culloden, 1746.was defeated by Cumberland at Culloden in Inverness-shire. That was the end of the Stuart cause in Britain. Cumberland swept the Highlands with fire and sword; and though he failed to catch Prince Charles, who, after five months’ wandering, escaped to France, he prevented any further outbreak. Fierce vengeance was taken on the gentlemen who had risen, and there were many cruel executions which might well have been spared.

The war of 1740–8 in America.The war with France had been fought in America and India as well as in Germany and Scotland. In the