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ceive this disposition of mind in your audience, you took advantage of it, and availed yourself of the authority attending your station; you mustered up all that eloquence which you so readily command on every subject where you take an interest; and by wandering in that immense forest of facts and circumstances, you were able to draw off the attention of the judges from those luminous points of view, which, if considered singly, would have sufficed alone to determine that memorable cause."

I have observed, that there seems no occasion to travel further for ground on which to decide this case, A birth stated to have happened not twenty years before under very suspicious circumstances, and supported by very weak, or very discredited and inconsistent proof, does not appear satisfactory to an impartial mind. But to confirm the doubt, strong circumstantial evidence of the negative was established. It is admitted that about that time (within three months of it, as Mr. Douglas's party admit; exactly at the time as his opponents contend) the children of Mignon and Sanry were carried away. And many witnesses deposed to a variety of circumstances inconsistent with Lady Jane's delivery. An endeavour was made to discredit these witnesses, as influenced by Mr. Stuart. On this Mr. S. observes, "History and experience have shewn, that it is very possible for impostures to succeed, by reason of the extreme difficulty, with which the opposite party has to encounter, on whom the burden of proving the negative proposition lies; but no instance can be shewn of any satisfactory or successful proof brought of the falsehood of a true birth.""In an affair which depends on the direct testimony

testimony of two or three witnesses, it may indeed happen, that the truth of a fact may be disguised or suppressed by their false testimony; but be, who grounds his cause upon a circumstantial proof, consisting of various branches, and comprehending a variety of separate and independent proofs, established by circumstances and by witnesses unconnected with each other, must be very confident indeed of the truth and justice of that cause. Witnesses may be corrupted, but circumstances cannot; nor are they so pliant as the memories or dispositions of men. From these considerations, a proof by circumstances, so incapable of being perverted, and so liable to detection if false, has ever been allowed to be not only the most free from suspicion, but the best suited for affording to the mind of man the surest indications of the truth; indications far more convincing and satisfactory than can arise from the positive testimony of a few witnesses liable to error or seduction."

I love eloquence and admire a brilliant mind: but when I see the rights of inheritance, and the laws of evidence at its mercy, I shrink with horror to reflect how little secure all that is most dear to us is from the caprice of human passions! Lord Mansfield put forth his meteor lights; and the inconsiderate public were led away by its coruscations! *

Having

* Mr. Harris, in a letter to Dr. Joseph Warton, dated March 7, 1769, says: "Great encomiums are given to Lord Chancellor, and Lord Mansfield, for their eloquent and decisive speeches in the Douglas cause, which carried the judgment in Douglas's favour without a division. Five Lords protested against this judgment, the Duke of Bedford, Earls of Sandwich, Bristol, and Dunmore, and Lord Milton." See Wooll's Life of Dr. Warton, 350. In Elphinstone's Forty Years Correspondence between Geniusses of boath

Having myself been placed in a situation similar to that of Mr. Stuart, and having been the victim of the machinations of hired agents, who thought they could best earn the wages and the patronage to which they looked by the enormity of their falsehoods and cruelties, and whose rancour rose in proportion to their perfidy, I cannot hesitate to transcribe at length the most decisive authorities in Mr. Stuart's favour; for my statements and arguments, may, from what I have now suggested, be deemed liable to partiality. And there are those who, in the excess of their candour towards the attackers, cannot easily believe that he, who has been outrageously attacked, is entirely free from blame. They will not lightly admit, dear candid creatures! that corrupt motives can influence the bosom of the accuser! They forget that malice is a strong stimulant; and revenge of all passions the most energetic and vehement! For they, gentle judges, can imagine no impulse but the love of truth, however mistaken; and the hatred of falsehood, however wrongly suspected! I feel therefore a mixture of glory and indignation in recording the opinion of these great men,

Sexes, Vol. II. p. 589, is the following passage: " My English Grammar, &c. Mr. Drummond haz coppies at Eddinburrough; hware, I suppoze, yoo wil also find Mr. Stuart's Letters. Width these Mr. Cadel declines connexion; nay, absolutely refuses to be an instrument ov their cerculation: but my sister hoo iz now here (Kenzington) and joins my spouz and self in regards, says yoo hav onely to hint your wish in New-Street, shood yoo not have dhat extraordinary work at Eddinburrough. Ellegance ov style must be allowed it; nor can its wrong address be denied. Lord Mansfield iz attacked insted of Lord Camden: hwich latter grait man's decisive speech in dhe Dugglas-cauze iz very happily extant in dhe Scots Maggazene ov 1769; az I can vouch, hoo herd it (and herd it with admiracion!) pronounced!".

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who had the best opportunity of judging, with regard to an ill-fated, most able and virtuous man, thus diabolically traduced, for purposes the most infamous!

LETTERS

From the Hon. Charles Yorke to Andrew Stuart, Esq.

DEAR SIR,

Sunday, March 26, 1769. Highgate.

"Since I had the pleasure of seeing you, a friend from your country called on me, and said much of the disturbances at Edinburgh, and the insults to the President. After the example set in this part of the country, to resist the authority of Parliament, I do not wonder at the efforts to weaken the dignity of an inferior judicature, though within its limits, and for the ordinary course of justice, supreme. Let me beg of you one thing, as a friend; not to be too anxious, nor feel too much, because things impertinent or injurious are said of yourself. Can any man exert his talents and industry in public or private business without staking his good name upon it? Or at least exposing himself to the jealousy of contending parties, and even to their malice and detraction? In these consequences do you experience more than the common lot? And why should you hope to be exempt from it?

"No impartial man can read over the papers in the cause, with all the private letters and memoranda exhibited, and not stand convinced of the purity of your intentions, and the integrity and honour of your conduct. You could not have given evidence consistently with the rules of the law of Scotland, by which the

execution

execution of the commission was regulated. If you' could, some circumstances which appear to me of little weight, would have been explained.

"The council of Scotland for all parties, and the judges, who differed on the merits from one another, all concurred in doing justice to your character, and declaring that you had acted uprightly, as well as ably. This I am free to say every where, and say to you in this letter, mercly because I think it; and because the sincere opinion of a friend, declared on such occasions so trying and important, is the genuine consolation of an honest mind.

"For myself I need not say that I would not have urged some things at the bar of the House of Lords, as I did, if I had not felt the weight of them.-In such causes, an advocate is unworthy of his profession, who does not plead with the veracity of a witness and a judge.*

I am, Dear Sir, with great regard,

Your obedient humble servant,

C. YORKE."

From Mr. Solicitor General Dunning.

Lincoln's Inn, 27 May, 1769.

"I cannot write to you without expressing my hopes, that you have, ere now, taught yourself to disregard the many injurious misrepresentations of

• These are sentiments worthy this great and good man, who was not only an honour to his family but to his country; and whose morbid sensibility sacrificed him a victim to his high sense of honour in the following year. No one rose at the bar for many succeeding years aut similis, aut secundus.

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