Sir,—I hold no brief for ‘Butcher’ Cumberland. But Jim Smyth’s ‘Tale of Two Generals’ (HI Autumn 1999) is too simplistic by far. It is widely acknowledged today—and not just by those whom Smyth calls ‘apologists’—that, after Culloden, Cumberland offered an amnesty to all Jacobites who would lay down their arms: an offer that they rejected or ignored (John S. Gibson appears to credit the story in his recent biography, Lochiel of the ‘45). And Charteris presents some pretty persuasive evidence that, even after the amnesty offer failed, Cumberland not only tried to rein in the worst of the excesses but punished several of the perpetrators. I do not mean to suggest that ‘Butcher’ is a candidate for canonisation. Neither, however, does he seem to have been the stereotypical sadist whom Smyth describes in his one-dimensional account.—Yours etc.,
MARTIN B. MARGULIES
Hamden
Connecticut, USA