POLITICAL HISTORY 



be little doubt that George Smith, a local antiquary of some distinction, 

 was right when he wrote to a friend that 



we are yet in doubt whether that ignominious surrender was caused by cowardice 

 or treachery or both ; I think it most probable that it was lost through a presump- 

 tion that it would never be attacked and for want of a regular discipline among 

 the men. The Pretender's son was proclaimed at the Cross, the keys of the city 

 being carryed to him at Brampton by the mayor and attendants. It should 

 seem a necessary question how the keys of a garrison town, the custody of which 

 was always till then committed to the governor, nominal or residential, came to be 

 delivered into the mayor's hands for such a use at such a time. 1 



As it was in 1715, so it was in 1745. Neither officers nor men of the 

 militia, foot and horse, had training or discipline. When the light 

 horse were mobilized in September there were no officers to take the 

 command ; the foot came to Carlisle with pouches full of bullets which 

 would not fit the bores of their muskets. The righting qualities of the 

 men of Cumberland were atrophied by neglect. The military ardour of 

 the eighteenth century was not the ardour of the men who so gallantly 

 faced Lord Hunsdon's ' shott ' at Gelt Bridge in 1570, and routed the 

 nobility of Scotland at Solway Moss in 1 542 ; nor was it the ardour of 

 those who held Carlisle against William the Lion in 1 174, flouted 

 William Wallace in the zenith of his power in 1297, Robert Bruce in 

 1315, and marched out with all the honours of war after the long siege 

 of 1645. The uselessness of the county forces was entirely responsible 

 for the surrender. After the rebellion was quenched, Colonel Durand 

 was tried by court-martial and acquitted of all blame ; the mayor and 

 town clerk were ordered into custody for a time ' ; but the militia officers 

 were treated with contempt and no notice was taken of their conduct. 



When the Highlanders marched southwards, strengthened with the 

 prestige attaching to the capture of Carlisle, they left behind them a 

 garrison under Captain Hamilton, who experienced much difficulty in 

 preserving order in the city and neighbourhood. Symptoms of anarchy 

 were observable throughout the county, though no overt act of pillage 

 took place. The citizens of Carlisle, exasperated by the tyranny of 

 Highland government, began to rouse themselves, necessity inspiring 

 them with courage ; secret associations were formed, and a scheme was 

 laid to storm the castle and destroy the rebel garrison. Chimerical as 

 the project appeared, it terrified the governor to invite the mayor and 

 aldermen to an entertainment in the castle, where they were secured, 

 though soon after released on parole. Others were confined on sus- 

 picion, and every village in the surrounding district was searched for 

 arms and ammunition. Frequent skirmishes happened between the 

 citizens and the rebels, in which it appears that the townsmen held their 



1 Gentleman's Magazine (May 1746), xvi. 234. William Gilpin stated that the British militia in 

 1745 was neither trained nor exercised. Every soldier pretended to be as wise as his officer : and in fact 

 he was as wise, for in the two regiments of Cumberland and Westmorland there was not an officer who 

 knew how to draw up a platoon (Memoirs of the Gilpin Family, p. 67). 



1 Gentleman's Magazine (1746), xvi. 41. 

 ii 35 39 



