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.

    174/208 (page 18)
    . .[ '3 ] as certain, that Sir John Stewart, if innocent, would in¬ fallibly follow me to Paris. I was perfaaded, that no difficulty or inconvenience, real or imaginary, nothing but a confcioulnefs of guilt could ever poffibly deter him from meeting and coun¬ teracting me in France : It was obvious, how eafy it would have been for him, when on the fpot, to over¬ throw, by one or two fimple faCls on his part, any given number of proofs accumulated on mine, if falfe, or erroneous: He would immediately have pointed out the houfe at Paris where his wife Lady Jane was delivered, and where fhe was on the ioth of July 1748. This too mull neceffarily have led to the difeovery of Madame Le Brun and her daughter, the fuppofed witneffes to the delivery, and to many other effential circumftances. Thus at once would have been overthrown all my vifionary proofs of the non-exijlence of Le Brun, as well as of the reiidence at Godefrods on ioth July, and various other circum¬ ftances, from which I had attempted to prove the falfe - hood of the delivery. While this alarming hazard muft have been conftantly in my view, muft it not, on the other hand, have been a conliderable incitement to Sir John Stewart’s journey to Paris, that he had it in his power fo ealily to cover me with fhame and confulion, both on account of the folly and the iniquity of my attempt ? Secondly, I muft have forefeen, that even if Sir John did not think proper to come to Paris himfelf, he and Mrs. Hewit would be able to fupply their friends who came there with fuch information as would certainly lead to the difeovery of the fads and perfons effential to their caufe, and fuch as would eafily overthrow any falfe fyf- tem of mine. Independent of thefe advantages enjoyed by the other party, I muft have been prepared to expeCI, if my fyftem was founded in faliehood, that in the courfe of the anxious , • invel- \