Volume 1

Letters to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield. From Andrew Stuart, esq. [On the Douglas Peerage Cause.] / [Andrew Stuart].

  • Andrew Stuart
Date:
[1773]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield. From Andrew Stuart, esq. [On the Douglas Peerage Cause.] / [Andrew Stuart]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    > - [ J5 ] tion of every calumny of tills nature, and at the fame time to render thofe who thus balely traduce them, ob¬ jects either of contempt or of deteftation. Without tranfgrefling the bounds of propriety or mo- defty, I may venture to affirm,'that if any improper defigns, or plan of conduft, had been neceftary to the Duke of Hamilton’s fuccefs in this caufe, his guardians were men incapable of meditating or adopting any fuch iniquitous fchemes; and further, I may be allowed to add, that if they had been capable of it, they would have made choice of another perfon than myfelf for carrying fuch defigns into execution. But as no man, nor fet of men, be their condufl ever fo laudable or free from blame, can be fecure againft the attempts of malice and defamation, I hold it to be proper, on the part of thofe who are thus attacked, not to defend themfelves merely by an appeal to their chara&ers, nor to make ufe of their general reputation as a fufficient en¬ trenchment ; it is more honourable to meet their anta- gonifts in the open field, with the fame readinefs as if they had no fuch fortrefs to refort to. • t % * »* TC v> *Tbe Nature of circumf anti ate Evidence, and the Impoff- hility of d if proving by fuch Evidence a real Delivery. IF it be allowed, that either the guardians of the Duke of Hamilton, or the perfons they entrufied with the conduct of the caufe, were poffeffed of any portion of common underftanding, they could not fail to perceive, that it was a thing totally impofiible, ever to rear up a fidlitious proof capable of annihilating the true facts be¬ longing to Lady Jane Douglas’s delivery, if that afierted event had ever had a real exiftence. Hiflory