Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/150

 five months Charles Edward wandered through the Highlands, seeking a way of escape, and carefully concealed from his enemies by his few faithful friends, the most famous of whom was the heroine Flora Macdonald. Then, in September, he left Scotland’s shores for ever, and went back to France.

The Jacobites made no further attempts to restore the Stuarts. The Duke of Cumberland earned the title of ‘‘Butcher” Cumberland, by his cruelty to the Highlanders after the Battle of Culloden, and three Scotch nobles were put to death for treason. Efforts were now made to prevent further risings in the Highlands, and laws were made forbidding the chiefs of clans from exercising their ancient rights over their clansmen. The Highlanders were not allowed to carry arms or wear their tartans, and roads were made through the Highlands so that troops could easily march from point to point. All these changes made the proud Highlanders very unhappy and restless, and it was not till 1758, when William Pitt allowed Highland regiments to be formed under the command of their own chiefs, with their own peculiar uniform and music, that peace was restored among these brave and high-spirited people.

11. Religious Revival.—Meanwhile, England had sunk into a condition in which it seemed as if all religion and morality were dead. The lower classes were ignorant and brutal, and no one seemed to care for their moral and spiritual welfare. The middle classes were given up to money-making, and had lost nearly all interest in religious matters. The upper classes were steeped in vice, profanity, and infidelity; while the clergy, as a rule, neglected their duties. The country vicars were the boon companions of the squires in their sports and revels. Bishops paid more attention to winning the favour of the king’s German mistresses, through whom they expected promotion, than to looking after their dioceses. In fact, all classes seemed stricken with moral deadness, and with a desire to enjoy merely earthly pleasures.

The ‘‘darkest hour before the dawn” had been reached in English social life, when three English Church clergymen, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, and a few others, began a religious movement which has gone on, with almost undiminished vigor, to the present day. The movement began at Oxford among a few earnest students, and after a few years spread throughout the land. The Wesleys and Whitfield went through the length