I may say that as a King of England and Scotland he is now impossible, and his own habits have done more to ruin his cause than even the defeat of Culloden.

There are doubtless many, in both countries, who consider themselves Jacobites, but it is a matter of sentiment and not of passion.
"At any rate, there is no head to the cause now, and cannot possibly be unless the prince had a son; therefore, for at least five-and-twenty years, the cause is dead.

Even if the prince leaves an heir, it would be absurd to entertain the idea that, after the Stuarts have been expelled from England a hundred years, any Scotchman or Englishman would be mad enough to risk life and property to restore them to the throne.
"Another generation and the Hanoverians will have become Englishmen, and the sentiment against them as foreigners will have died out.

Then there will be no reason why Scotchmen and Irishmen should any longer go abroad, and all who wish it will be able to find employment in the army of their own country.
"This, indeed, might have happened long before this, had the Georges forgotten that they were Electors of Hanover as well as Kings of Great Britain; and had surrounded themselves with Englishmen instead of filling their courts with Germans, whose arrogance and greed made them hateful to Englishmen, and kept before their eyes the fact that their kings were foreigners.
Hanover is a source of weakness instead of strength to Great Britain, and its loss would be an unmixed benefit to her; for as long as it remains under the British crown, so long must Britain play a part in European politics--a part, too, sometimes absolutely opposed to the interests of the country at large." After supper was over, two general officers dropped in for a chat with the marshal.

He introduced Fergus to them, and the latter then retired and joined the little party of Scottish officers at Lindsay's quarters.