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 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE had been a member of the last Parliament, 325 and was an unsuccessful candidate for that of 17141 5. The Pretender's health was openly drunk, and his birth- day solemnized with ringing and other rejoicings. H's exhortations infuriated the mob to such an extent that on 7 July they began to pull down the Presbyterian meeting-house, that day being publicly kept in celebration of the late glorious peace of Utrecht with bon- fires all over the town, in express contempt of the Whig government, and with the connivance of the magistrates. They continued at their work for a fortnight unhindered, and the sheriff of the county allowed a month to pass before he ordered a court to be summoned in the Shire Hall, and then only a small number of the rioters, in spite of positive evidence, were found guilty. 828 A better spirit was shown at the assizes when the grand jury agreed upon an address to the king expressing their abhorrence of the recent riots and promising to discover the authors. This satisfied the king so well that the lords of the Treasury were ordered to pay the high sheriff, Sir Oswald Mosley, 500 as a reward for the extraordinary expenses he had incurred during the riots, during which his conduct was so dilatory. 827 Doubtless the Hanoverian dynasty at this time had to walk warily. In 1745 the invasion of the young Pretender again brought a Stuart to Staffordshire. When Charles's army crossed the border it consisted of 6,000 men, of whom 500 were cavalry, but the Highlanders soon began to desert in great numbers, and by the time they reached Penrith there were only 4,500 left. 328 Few recruits came to make good these losses, even Lancashire, devotedly Stuart by profession, was lukewarm in action. That so small and ill-disciplined a host could march into the heart of a powerful country un- molested was due to the gross military incapacity of the English generals and the extraordinary want of public spirit in the people, whose prevailing disposition was fear or sullen apathy, few being disposed to risk anything on either side. 329 However, England recovered from the disgraceful panic that the Pretender's march had occasioned: Wade was with one army in Yorkshire, Cumberland with another cantoned from Tamworth to Stafford, and George II was gathering a third at Finchley. Early in December Cumberland's advanced guard was at Newcastle, with a small party of horse pushed forward. Charles's army divided into two columns, and Lord George Murray by a clever ruse deceived the duke, advancing to Congleton with his column, and driving before him the advanced party of horse some way on the road to Newcastle. Cumberland, thinking Charles was marching for Wales, pushed forward to Stone with his main body, but Murray turned suddenly to the left and gained Ashbourne by a forced march, and then joining the prince, who had marched through Leek with his motley host, headed by a hundred pipers, ' entered Derby, where his officers insisted on retreat. Cumberland mean- while had marched into Warwickshire to bar the way of the rebels to London, and there he received news of Charles's retreat. He immediately "* Ralph Sneyd of Keele and Henry Vernon of Sudbury were members for the county in the Parliament of 1713 ; Par/. Accts. and P apt. Ixii (2), 33. IK Flying Post, 8 Sept. 1715. m Cal. ofTreas. Paps, cxci, 31. m Stanhope, The Forty-five, 79. 266
 * " Lecky, Hist. ofEngl. in Eighteenth Cent., 4.22.