When the Committee of both Kingdoms heard of Rupert's advance, they wrote to the Earl of Manchester before York urging him to send a considerable force to resist the Prince in Lancashire. (June 1st.) It was urged that Rupert might secure Lancashire, capture the passes so that he could send out troops into the neighbouring counties as he liked, and by means of Liverpool take in supplies from the sea; by which the war would be indefinitely prolonged. Similar letters were sent to Fairfax and to Leven. But the Parliamentarian generals in Yorkshire, rightly objected to dividing their forces; deciding that it was impossible for them to deal with an enemy who was yet so far away, and that for the present the West must look after itself. The Committee in London were urgent, and letters passed daily during the month of June; but their ignorance of the situation sufficiently illustrates the absurdity of endeavouring to direct a campaign by votes of a Committee distant 150 miles from the seat of war. The Earl of Denbigh, the Parliamentarian general in the Midlands, defended himself at length and with some heat from the charge that he was to blame in not being able to check Prince Rupert's march by falling upon his rear.[152] At length Sir Harry Vane was sent down to York to consult with the generals there; but on arriving early in June he was speedily convinced that it was impossible to divide the army as the Committee suggested. Assheton and Rigby, who were in Yorkshire, naturally seconded the Committee's opinion; but until the Earl of Manchester's foot had been brought to the siege, progress had been very slow, and it would have been very unwise to weaken the besieging force; as it was, York was closely beset on all sides and might soon be expected to capitulate. The Committee were evidently wrong. To divide the Parliamentarian army would have been dangerous, to raise the siege of York would have played into the enemy's hands. Rupert was in fact wasting time in Lancashire. His best chance would have been to gather all the troops he could after his capture of Bolton and to march straight on York; but he spent four precious weeks before he left Lancashire. "I hope you will not have cause to apprehend Prince Rupert's strength," wrote Manchester, "for excepting plundering, at which his army is expert, no considerable places have been taken possession of by his army."[153] The Committee of both Kingdoms indeed over-rated Prince Rupert's ability. He was no great general though a splendid cavalry officer. The plan which they sketched for him of securing Lancashire and using it as a base was beyond his powers, even if it had been possible under the circumstances. And the Lancashire royalists had been so scattered before Rupert came, that they were not able to give him any very substantial help. As long as it continued to be impossible for the King to march north, Rupert might be left to himself.