WHEN Cluny of the '45 joined the forces of Prince Charlie, the Prince nominated him to the command of the Clan Chattan. That appointment appears to have roused the jealousy of Mackintosh of the time to such an extent that on 1st October 1745 he wrote Cluny the following letter :

DEAR SIR,-- As I am now fully determined to command my own people and run the same fate with them, having yesterday reced a letter from the Prince and another from the
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Duke of Atholl, I hope, notwithstanding of the order you have obtained from the Prince, you will not offer to meddle with any of my men, as wee are booth designed on the same errand. I am resolved to maintain the rank due to my family, and if you think proper to accept the nixt rank to me youl be very wellcome. If you judge otherwise, act as you have a mind. But do not put me to the necessity of requiring my men of you in a more publick maner, the consequence of which may be disagreeable to booth. My kind compliments to Lady Cluny and Miss Fraser, and I am, Dear Sir, your most humble Servt and affectionate cousine
                                                                                            (Signed) AENEAS MACINTOSH.¹
INVERNESS, 1st October.

To that letter Cluny made a vigorous but courteous reply by way of protest. The original of that reply is in possession of Sir George Macpherson-Grant, Bart., at Ballindalloch Castle, and so far as I am aware has not hitherto been published. It is in the following terms:--
                                                                                                                       10th October 1745.
DEAR SIR, -- It is my intention to undertake the command of the Clan in terms of the order received from the Prince, and as the custom has been heretofore. I know nought of the respect due to your family beyond that which has been customary among the Chattans, and I know that it is not my duty to accept the rank second to you, notwithstanding the commands of Athole. The Clunies have ever held the foremost position, and I as the head of the family cannot see my way to withdraw from the customary privileges. -- I wish all respect to yourself privately and also to your family, and the public manner to which you refer in the letter now under answer of resorting to the choice in public of the clan is not outwith my own ideas. I therefore send you this protest that you may not pleade ignorance when the time has arrived for a settlement. I send this letter by your own kinsman, the bearer of the letter to me.
                                                                                           (Signed) EVAN MACPHERSON.

AENEAS MACINTOSH, Esq., Inverness.

Whether in consequence of this decisive rebuff, or, as suggested by Mr Mackintosh Shaw, of the "somewhat weak and vacillating character" of Mackintosh, the latter would appear to have subsequently considered "discretion the better part of valour," and to have held aloof from the Rising. His famous wife, however (a daughter of Farquharson of Invercauld), exerted all her influence in aid of the Jacobite cause. While the brave and noble conduct of this heroic lady on behalf of Prince Charlie excited general admiration, Mackintosh himself, by " sitting on the fence " more guardedly than "his friend Lord Lovat " did, "preserved his estates," and escaped the sad fate which ultimately overtook Cluny in the cause in which the latter so devotedly risked life and fortune.
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¹ Shaw's Mackintoshes and Clan Chattan, 462.

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