particulars yet of the persons on board; but it is generally thought the younger brother of the Pretender is one of them.

The worst piece of news in town, I think, at present is that the Government cannot raise money for present service at the rate it has done of late years. I am told that the moneyed people insist upon 4 per cent. Should they prevail in it, it will be fixing the interest the Government must pay for all the money they want to raise this year, and will be a great detriment to the present proprietors of the funds and annihilate part of our fortunes. Another thing, all trade is clogged, a good deal at a stand and no money to be got but a little silver.

I am,
Yours, &c.,

MATTHEW HUTTON.

Another letter of the same date, 28th November, is written by a lawyer in London to Mr. Yorke.

Dear Sir,

I had your last favor, and was rejoiced to find your uneasiness on account of the rebels' progress towards Cheshire was abated, and though they are since advanced much further, yet as the Duke with his army is, I hope, by this time advancing towards them, and preparations are making at Chester for a vigorous opposition to their coming into Wales through Chester, I am willing to believe that should they slip by the Duke and advance towards Chester, that he will come time enough for its relief. Nay, I am inclined still to think that as their expectations of being joined by people in England and being assisted from abroad have not been answered, that they will endeavour to return to their own country the way they came from thence or through Yorkshire; and whichever of these roads they take, I hope Marshal Wade will meet with and give a good account of them. By very good accounts from the north, they do not amount to above 6,000, and many of them very mean, unsoldier-like fellows. They have hitherto met with no resistance; but what can they do, when faced by approved soldiers, animated with the highest contempt of them? The Duke, attended by Col. Yorke, set out on Tuesday

afternoon in his post-chaise, and proposed being at Litchfield yesterday; and though that was the place appointed for the rendezvous, yet I hope, as the rebels have been advancing, some part of our troops (sufficient at least to abate their forced marches) have been advancing further. I am the rather willing to hope these things may be so, as I find, by good Mrs. Mainwaring's letter to her son, that her uneasiness is very great, and which she expressed in so moving a manner, that I was sorry I had seen her letter. By the time you receive this, the rebels' intentions will be very likely shown; and it will give me the greatest pleasure to hear that you are all in good spirits. It was strongly reported that the Pretender's younger son was on board the privateer brought into Deal, but it is not now believed. The young Pretender's declarations enlarge very much on the protests and speeches of our pretended patriots' grievances, and which he says he has come to redress. What excuses can they resort to who have brought so great calamities upon so many thousands of their fellow-subjects, and traduced a Government much too mild for such a race of men? For which of them can truly say whose ox or whose ass has been taken from him. On the contrary, many of them are now hazarding their lives in the defence of that Government they have long with the greatest vehemence been vilifying, under the most false though specious pretences.

R. WOOLFE.

As the rebels were still at Manchester, uncertain which way to turn, this gentleman's congratulations to his friend in Wales were perhaps somewhat premature.

On the 29th of November, finding that all the bridges over the Mersey were broken down to impede their progress, the rebel army directed their march towards a fordable part of the river, on the road to London, marching in two columns, one towards Stockport, the other towards Knutsford. Near Stockport the Prince passed the Mersey, with the water up to his middle. The horse and artillery passed, with the other detachment, at Knutsford, where a sort of bridge was made up by

filling up the channel of the stream with the trunks of poplar trees. On the evening of the 1st of December the two bodies had joined at Macclesfield.

As Charles advanced from Manchester, he found the people of the country very little inclined to favour or assist him, displaying no sympathy or fellow-feeling with the "wild "petticoat men," as they called the kilted Highlanders. On the other hand they showed an equal unconcern to the interests of the reigning family; and looked coolly on the struggle, as they might upon a game, forgetting that they themselves formed the stake of the players.

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The poet Gray writes from Cambridge-" Here we had not more sense of danger than if it were the battle of Cannæ. "I heard three sensible, middle-aged men, when the Scotch were said to be at Stamford and actually were at Derby, talking of hiring a chaise to go to Caxton (a place on the high road), to see the Pretender and Highlanders as they "passed."

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From Macclesfield Lord George Murray (who commanded one of the divisions of the rebel army), by a dexterous manœuvre succeeded in completely misleading his enemy, and advanced, with his column of "wild men," to Congleton, where he dislodged and drove before him the Duke of Kingston and a small party of English horse, pursuing them with his vanguard some way on the road to Newcastle.

When intelligence reached London that the Highlanders had got past the royal army and had reached Derby, within four days' march of the capital, a degree of consternation pervaded the public mind, of which it is impossible to convey any idea. An immediate rush was made upon the Bank of England, which, it is said, only escaped bankruptcy by paying in sixpences to gain time. The shops in general were shut, public business was for the most part suspended and the

restoration of the Stuarts expected by all as no improbable or distant occurrence.

The Pretender passed the evening of his arrival at Derby in the highest spirits and, after supper, studiously directed his conversation to his intended progress and expected triumphwhether it would be best for him to enter London on foot or on horseback, in Highland or in English dress. Far different were the thoughts of his followers. Early next morning he was waited upon by Lord George Murray, with all the commanders of battalions and squadrons; and a council being formed, they laid before him their earnest and unanimous opinion for an immediate retreat to Scotland. Their force consisted of barely 5,000 fighting men-a number insufficient to give battle to any of the three armies by which they were surrounded; nay, scarcely adequate even to take possession of London, were there no camp at Finchley to protect it. The English army was not less than 30,000 men although, it is true, all that could be assembled in the Kingdom were there combined.

The council, headed by Lord George Murray, represented to the Prince how much wiser it would be to retreat while it was yet time to support and be supported by their friends in Scotland. "Already," said Lord George, (and he pointed to despatches which had reached the Prince that very morning,) "we learn that Lord John Drummond has landed at Montrose, "with the regiment of Royal Scots and some picquets of the "Irish brigade, so that the whole force under Lord Strathallan, ready to join us from Perth, is not less than three or four "thousand men ;" and he stated many other good reasons. After summoning another council that evening, Charles sullenly and with reluctance gave in his consent to retreat. The Highland army pursued their retreat by the same track as they had come, and it was concerted with so much secresy and conducted with so much skill, that it was

two days' march ahead of the royal forces ere the Duke of Cumberland could make himself certain of the fact or take measures for a pursuit.

The Pretender's cause was at this period by no means so hopeless as Lord George Murray apprehended. Prince Charles has left evidence in the Stuart papers, that a Mr. Barry had waited upon H.R.H. when at Derby, sent by Sir Watkin Winn and Lord Barrymore, to assure him in the name of their friends, that they were ready to join him, in what manner he pleased, either in the capital or in their respective neighbourhoods. The Jacobite party was also very strong in London, and Alderman Heathcote, one of the city members, was in communication with Sir Watkin, to assure him that they would rise in London immediately on a landing and to beg that arms and ammunition might be sent them. A curious picture is in one of the apartments at Goldsmith's Hall, in the city-an exceedingly good one, by Hudson, the master of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and therefore contemporary of the '45, which records a festive meeting of six Aldermen, in the act of drinking the, Pretender's health, and under the chair of the President is an open letter, addressed to Alderman Blackford, and franked "Free Wat. Wms. Winn." One of the party (Sir Henry Marshall, an ancestor of my own) had been Lord Mayor the previous year.

It was not until the Prince had reached the county of Westmoreland that the royal army came up with the insurgents. On the evening of the 17th their main body, headed by Charles, had entered Penrith, but the rear-guard, under the command of Lord George Murray, had been delayed in their march by the breaking down of some baggage waggons and could proceed no further than Shap. At Clifton Moor an engagement took place and the English were completely repulsed. On the following day, the 19th of December, Charles and his troops arrived at Carlisle.