ARLINGTON STREET, _Sept._ 27, 1745.
I can't doubt but the joy of the Jacobites has reached Florence before
this letter. Your two or three Irish priests, I forget their names,
will have set out to take possession of abbey lands here. I feel for
what you will feel, and for the insulting things that will be said to
you upon the battle we lost in Scotland; but all this is nothing to what
it prefaces. The express came hither on Tuesday morning, but the Papists
knew it on Sunday night. Cope lay in face of the rebels all Friday; he
scarce two thousand strong, they vastly superior, though we don't know
their numbers. The military people say that he should have attacked
them. However, we are sadly convinced that they are not such raw
ragamuffins as they were represented. The rotation that has been
established in that country, to give all the Highlanders the benefit of
serving in the independent companies, has trained and disciplined them.
Macdonald (I suppose, he from Naples), who is reckoned a very
experienced able officer, is said to have commanded them, and to be
dangerously wounded. One does not hear the Boy's personal valour cried
up; by which I conclude he was not in the action. Our dragoons most
shamefully fled without striking a blow, and are with Cope, who escaped
in a boat to Berwick. I pity poor him, who with no shining abilities,
and no experience, and no force, was sent to fight for a crown! He never
saw a battle but that of Dettingen, where he got his red ribbon:
Churchill, whose led-captain he was, and my Lord Harrington, had pushed
him up to his misfortune. We have lost all our artillery, five hundred
men taken--and _three_ killed, and several officers, as you will see in
the papers. This defeat has frightened everybody but those it rejoices,
and those it should frighten most; but my Lord Granville still buoys up
the King's spirits, and persuades him it is nothing. He uses his
Ministers as ill as possible, and discourages everybody that would risk
their lives and fortunes with him. Marshal Wade is marching against the
rebels; but the King will not let him take above eight thousand men; so
that if they come into England, another battle, with no advantage on our
side, may determine our fate. Indeed, they don't seem so unwise as to
risk their cause upon so precarious an event; but rather to design to
establish themselves in Scotland, till they can be supported from
France, and be set up with taking Edinburgh Castle, where there is to
the value of a million, and which they would make a stronghold. It is
scarcely victualled for a month, and must surely fall into their hands.
Our coasts are greatly guarded, and London kept in awe by the arrival of
the guards. I don't believe what I have been told this morning, that
more troops are sent for from Flanders, and aid asked of Denmark.
Prince Charles has called a Parliament in Scotland for the 7th of
October; ours does not meet till the 17th, so that even in the show of
liberty and laws they are beforehand with us. With all this, we hear of
no men of quality or fortune having joined him but Lord Elcho, whom you
have seen at Florence; and the Duke of Peith, a silly race horsing boy,
who is said to be killed in this battle. But I gather no confidence
from hence: my father always said, "If you see them come again, they
will begin by their lowest people; their chiefs will not appear till the
end." His prophecies verify every day!
The town is still empty; on this point only the English act contrary to
their custom, for they don't throng to see a Parliament, though it is
likely to grow a curiosity!...
_GENERAL WADE IS MARCHING TO SCOTLAND--VIOLENT PROCLAMATION OF THE
PRETENDER._