There was a large Patriotic Fund got up, which on December 31, 1803, amounted in _Consols_ to £21,000, and in _Money_, to £153,982 5s. 7d., and it must be remembered that the taxes were very heavy. But there is an individual case of patriotism I cannot help chronicling, it is so typical of the predominant feeling of that time, that a man, and his goods, belonged to his country, and should be at his country’s disposal. _Times_, September 6, 1803: “A Mr. Miller,[76] of Dalswinton, in Scotland, has written a letter to the Deputy Lieutenants of the County wherein he resides, in which he says: ‘I wish to insure my property, my share in the British Constitution, my family, myself, and my religion, against the French Invasion. As a premium, I offer to clothe and arm with pikes one hundred Volunteers, to be raised in this, or any of the neighbouring parishes, and to furnish them with three light field pieces ready for service. This way of arming, I consider superior with infantry, whether for attack or defence, to that now in use; but as to this, Government must determine. I am too old and infirm to march with these men, but I desire my eldest son to do so. He was ten years a soldier in the Foot and Horse service. In case of an invasion, I will be ready to furnish, when requested, 20 horses, 16 carts, and 16 drivers; and Government may command all my crops of hay, straw, and grain, which I estimate at 16,700 stones of hay, 14 lbs. to the stone, 14,000 bushels of pease, 5,000 bushels of oats, 3,080 bushels of barley.’” [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER L. The Clarke Scandal—Biography of Mrs. Clarke—Her levées—Her scale of prices for preferments—Commission of the House of Commons—Exculpation of the Duke of York—His resignation—Open sale of places—Caution thereon—Duels—That between Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara. IT WOULD be utterly impossible, whilst writing of things military, of this part of the century, to ignore the Clarke Scandal—it is a portion of the history of the times.