‘Mr. Lang has come into possession of much new evidence upon the subject. Amongst other documents he has the Letter-book in which Glengarry frequently copied his letters with his own hand and signed them. This book comes from an unchallengeable source. By Mr. Lang’s invitation I had to-day the pleasure of comparing the handwriting of Glengarry in this book with the Pickle letters in the British Museum. At the first glance one would say that the manuscripts are so unlike superficially that they were not both written by the same person. Glengarry wrote a wide, sprawling hand, with a very distinct slope towards the right. The Pickle letters are all written in the vertical style, and the lines are small and neat. When examined more closely, however, there is a striking similarity in the details. Having selected Pickle letters that contained similar words to those in the Letter-book, I have made a careful comparison of them minutely. It is beyond question that whoever Pickle was he wrote in a feigned handwriting to prevent identification should any letter miscarry. If Glengarry wished to feign another hand than his own, the most obvious way of effecting his purpose would be to change the sloping style into the upright style. When Pickle wished to disguise his hand he used the upright style. There are several letters which Glengarry wrote in a very peculiar manner. The capital letter “T,” for instance, was distinctly Glengarrian. But the capital “T” written repeatedly by Pickle is absolutely identical with that used in the Glengarry book. Such words as “most,” “humble,” “Sir,” “I,” and “Tho’” are precisely the same in form in both cases, the only difference being the change of the slope. There is only one curious fact which comes out after careful examination. When Glengarry is writing adjectives that begin with the letter “d” he generally uses a capital. Tickle never does this, but uses the small “d” instead, yet that small “d” is exactly similar in form to the same letter written by Glengarry. This is certainly minute criticism, and might not be sufficient alone to establish the case against Glengarry; but when the other fact is borne in mind, that Pickle and Glengarry make the same errors in the spelling of uncommon words, the confirmatory proof is very strong. It is not likely that any letter exists in which Glengarry fully acknowledges his treachery, and the main evidence must therefore be circumstantial. If Mr. Lang had now to begin writing his book with all the additional evidence before him which he has obtained since its publication, he would probably find few who would dissent from his conclusion that Pickle the Spy was no other than Alastair Macdonnell of Glengarry. There may be coincidences in events in the lives of two men; but it is incredible that Pickle, when disguising his handwriting, should fall into the same formation of many of the letters which was peculiar to Macdonnell of Glengarry. Though begun upon a mere surmise by Mr. Lang, extended research seems to confirm his notion as to the identity of these two personages. It is not a pleasant conclusion for any one who believes that all the Highlanders engaged in the Rising of 1745 were indomitable and patriotic heroes. There were blacklegs in the army of Prince Charles Edward, as there are in every movement of the kind; but there were also noble characters prepared to shed their blood and sacrifice their prospects in support of what they believed to be the rightful cause. Glengarry, apparently, must now take his place among the execrated traitors.—I am, &c.
‘A. H. Millar.
‘London: April 26, 1897.’
I am no expert in handwriting, and I offer no opinion, except that Pickle’s confessedly feigned hand is more like Glengarry’s careful hand, in the Stuart Papers, than like his sloping scrawl, meant only for his own eyes (and these nearly blind) in his Letter Book. The Duke of Atholl has compared letters from Glengarry, in his possession, with those of Pickle, and has arrived at the same conclusion as Mr. Millar. Pickle’s hand is Glengarry’s, disguised.
Such is my chain of evidence towards proving the personal identity of Pickle and Glengarry. Both men, it is hardly worth while to add, had been officers in French service. I am aware of not one discrepant feature to discredit the identity which Pickle practically asserts, when he declares himself (corroborated by Bruce) to have become, by his father’s death, Chief of the Macdonnells, just when Old Glengarry died, and Young Glengarry succeeded to the headship of the clan. To sum up the whole case:
Young Glengarry’s conduct, as far as we know, is stainless, till, after endeavouring to ‘conform’ in October 1747, he presently poses as a religiously faithful subject, or devotee, of James in January 1748. He is starving in London, which he visits in July 1749, his father being soon after released from Edinburgh Castle. Young Glengarry, in the winter of 1749, visits Cluny at Dalwhinnie, in company with Glenevis, Lochgarry, and Angus MacIan. Glengarry obtains, by his own admission, a share of the treasure, and then formally charges Archy Cameron with looting 6,000 louis d’or. Archy accuses him of forgery; they carry their quarrel before James in Rome. Early in 1751 Glengarry, though he is not known to have taken the oaths, is allowed to reside in London, and announces his approaching marriage with an English lady. But Glengarry is already suspected, and he knows it; for when Leslie, the priest, is charged with treason by the Jacobites, Glengarry says that the blow is aimed at him. Nothing is proved against Leslie, but stories of Glengarry’s intimacy with Murray the traitor, and the spy Samuel Cameron, called Crookshanks, are anonymously brought by Blair and Holker. In October 1751 Samuel’s brother, Glenevis and Downan, arrested for their share with Glengarry in the matter of the French gold, accuse Glengarry of informing against them. They lie in gaol in Fort William; Glengarry (though the Government know him to be their accomplice) lives freely in London, and travels where he pleases.
In November 1752, April 1753, we have the affair of the Elibank Plot. On one side is Pickle, who is to lead Highlanders in London; Pickle, without whom his clan, and the North, can do nothing; Pickle, a friend of Prince Charles, and a correspondent of the exiled King in Rome; Pickle, who is ‘very weake’ after a serious illness in Paris (February-March, 1753); Pickle, the constant associate of the Earl Marischal; and on the other side is Glengarry, who claims every one of these notes for himself. Both Pickle and Glengarry are friends of Baron Kennedy’s. Glengarry is known to Government to be a trafficker with France, and with the dreaded envoy of Prussia, the Earl Marischal, but Government consults Pickle in place of arresting Glengarry. Pickle has had great promises made to him by his employer, Henry Pelham, so has Glengarry. Both complain of the breach of these promises after Pelham’s death. Pickle comes and goes to Prince Charles in France in August 1753. Glengarry is accused, to Government, of visiting France at the same time as a Jacobite agent. Jacobites are being arrested all over the country, but not a finger is laid on Glengarry.
Pickle and Glengarry both leave London for Edinburgh on the news of Old Glengarry’s death, both are then bereaved young chiefs going to their northern estates near Fort Augustus. In this capacity Pickle, for some six weeks, is the centre of military attention in Edinburgh. Pickle wishes Bruce to assist him in drawing up a judicial rent-roll. Bruce surveys the lands of Glengarry. Pickle now, like Glengarry, remains in the North, where both are magnates, but both are poor. Pickle offers to raise a Highland regiment, and asks the Duke of Newcastle to direct his answer to Glengarry. The spelling of Pickle and Glengarry is identical in a score of peculiarities, and Pickle’s handwriting is that of Glengarry in a simple disguise.
What makes Pickle’s design to raise a regiment especially interesting is the fact, now to be proved, that Glengarry entertained the same wish at the same moment. He wrote to the Duke of Atholl to that effect, on April 5, 1760, and his letters are printed in the Duke of Atholl’s ‘Chronicles of the Atholl and Tullibardine Families’ (iii. 476-477). Thus Pickle and Glengarry were inseparable to the last.
Whoever is unconvinced by this array of circumstantial evidence against Glengarry must, at least, suggest an alternative hypothesis which will colligate the facts. The hypothesis of a personation of Glengarry by Pickle has been proved absurd and impossible. Recent research, after the publication of ‘Pickle the Spy,’ has added to the original evidence proof of Glengarry’s insincerity as a Jacobite; the Glenevis affair; the promises made to Glengarry, as to Pickle, by Henry Pelham; the identification of ‘Cromwell’ (Bruce); the relations of Glengarry with Pickle’s friend, Baron Kennedy; a few new similarities of Pickle-Glengarry spelling; the identity of their handwriting; and their simultaneous desire to raise a regiment. All these facts confirm the previous conclusion. A false hypothesis is not apt to be strongly confirmed by facts unknown when it was framed, nor would a jury regard the charge against Glengarry as ‘without any proof in the world.’ To say so, as has been audaciously done, is to illustrate prejudice, not to enlighten criticism. In truth, the game was up as soon as the person calling himself Pickle offered to raise a clan regiment, and asked the Duke of Newcastle to reply to Glengarry. More than one interpretation of that fact there could not logically be. But what is logic? A Lowland pedantry!