[Illustration: _Walker & Boutall, ph. sc._ _Prince Charles_ _circ. 1747._] Now the only independent evidence against Dr. Cameron is contained in a letter of his uncle, Cameron of Torcastle, to Prince Charles.[83] In this Torcastle denies that he himself touched the money, and avers that he knew nothing of it, till Dr. Cameron ‘told it himself at Rome, where I happened to be at the time’ (1750). This letter is singularly inconsistent with another unpublished letter from Douay, of August 28, 1751. The epistle was intended for Cameron of Glenevis, but was intercepted by Colonel Crawfurd, Governor of Fort William. The Colonel attributed its authorship to Cameron of Torcastle, and if the attribution be correct, the letter contradicts Torcastle’s accusations of his nephew, Dr. Cameron. Whoever the author of the Douay letter may be, he speaks of ‘the industrious malicious designs and scandalous untruths, publicly handed about against Lochiel’s family by Gl⸺ry.’ ‘Chalmers (Dr. Cameron) knows very well that when truth comes out, these people will fall with scandal into the trap they have contrived for others.... All that Chalmers (Dr. Cameron) saw or had access to _was his expenses_.’ The writer then speaks of the ‘unprecedented method Gl⸺ry &c. took to get att their sinister ends,’ and about Gl⸺ry’s misrepresentations of Chalmers to Mr. Young,’ the Prince. Singular irritation against Lochgarry is also expressed.[84] On this showing Dr. Cameron got no 6,000_l._, but only his expenses. Now, that Dr. Cameron should receive his expenses was perfectly legitimate. But, if he took 6,000_l._, as Young Glengarry declares, his character is lost. In 1750, 6,000_l._ was a fortune. Dr. Carlyle, writing of that time, speaks about a minister who married a lady with a tocher of 4,000_l._, which then was equivalent to an estate. When executed in June 1753, Dr. Cameron left his family destitute. Consequently he cannot have helped himself to 6,000_l._, and put it into commerce, as Glengarry alleged. That he did nothing of the sort, we have the very curious evidence of an Informer in 1753. This man, declaring that he is afraid of being informed against by Young Glengarry, informs against him. He says, in his information: ‘In Sep. 1749 Dr. Cameron told him (the Informer) he had come over to get some money on behalf of Lochiel’s Family; That Fassfarn got from Clunie £6,000, took it to Edinburgh the following winter, and put it in the hands of John Mc.Farlane, W.S.[85] Dr. Cameron at the same time got £350: and Fassfarn £400 more to be employed in making good certain claims on the estate of Lochiel.