Lowe applied to Mr. Carre, the Sheriff-Depute of Berwickshire, who seems to have made some difficulty in granting a warrant in terms of the application, though ultimately he did so.  By that time, however, the bird had flown; and Lowe and Carre each blamed the other for the failure to effect the fugitive’s arrest.  His lordship accordingly recommended that the Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland be requested to hold an inquiry into the facts.  Lord Hardwicke, in a private letter to the Duke of the same date, commented on the “extraordinary method” taken to apprehend Cranstoun, pointing out that a messenger ought to have been sent with the Secretary of State’s warrant, “which runs equally over the whole kingdom”; that might have been executed with secrecy, whereas by the course adopted “so many persons must be apprized of it, that he could hardly fail of getting notice.”  On receipt of these letters, Newcastle wrote to Sir Dudley Ryder, the Attorney-General, that His Majesty would be pleased to give orders for the prosecution of Mary Blandy, and instructing him to take the requisite steps for that purpose.  The result of the Justice-Clerk’s inquiry, as appears from the further correspondence, was completely to exonerate Mr. Carre from the charges of negligence and delay made against him by the Mayor’s messenger.

On 4th October the Chancellor wrote to the Secretary regarding a petition by the “Noblemen and Gentlemen in the Neighbourhood of Henley-upon-Thames, and the Mayor and principal Magistrates of that Town, to the Duke of Newcastle,” thanking his grace for King George’s “Paternal Goodness” in directing that the prisoner should be prosecuted at “His Majesty’s Expence,” stating that no endeavour would be wanting on their part to render that prosecution successful, and praying that, in order to bring to justice “the Wicked Contriver and Instigator of this Villainous Scheme,” His Majesty might be pleased to offer by proclamation a reward for Cranstoun’s apprehension.  The signatories included the Mayor and Rector of Henley, divers county magnates, and also the local magistrates, Lords Macclesfield and Cadogan, whose “indefatigable diligence” in getting up the Crown case was specially commended by Bathurst at the trial.  By Lord Hardwicke’s instructions the Duke submitted the petition to the Attorney-General, with the query, whether it would be advisable to issue such a proclamation?  And Sir Dudley Ryder, while of opinion that the matter was one “of mere discretion in His Majesty” and generally approving the measure, thought it probable that the person in question might even then “be gone beyond sea.”  Mr. Attorney’s conjecture was, as we shall find, correct.