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.

    178/208 (page 22)
    / [ 22 ] or frivolity of fuch an accufation would foon have been made manifefl. Many inveterate enemies I had raifed to myfelf by this con tell, and by obeying a call of duty in undertaking a talk, otherwife difagreeable to myfelf : If therefore there had been a pohibility of difcovering a falfe Hep with regard to the re£litude of the proceedings on my part, it would have been feized by my adverfaries with the utmofl avidity : In the perufal of the proof, your Lordfhip muft have perceived the ftrongeft indications of thefe difpo- fitions on the part of my antagonifls, and of the rancour and malignity, with which they purfued every trivial, or leemingly ambiguous circumflance, that could afford them any hopes of being able to involv e me. They went fo far as to employ fpies, fome of them lodged in the very houfes of the witnelfes : They invefti- gated and led proofs not only of the converfation or words that dropt from myfelf, but extended their enquiries and proofs even to the idle converfations of the fervants that attended me : Yet with all this ardent zeal to difcover matter of reproach againfl me, and with all the advantages . which your Lordfhip procured for them in this caufe, by the claufe you fuggefted in the judgment upon the preli¬ minary appeal, in confequence of which my journals and memorandums, and the moll confidential papers kept for private ufe were laid open to the defendants, there has not been dilcovered the mofl diflant appearance of im¬ proper conduct with any of the witnelfes, nor any thing that my warmefl friends ever could have * reafon to regret. Confcious of having neither intended nor done any thing in the whole courle of this affair unfit to lee the light, I rejoice, my Lord, at the pains that have been taken, to make manifefl the whole progrefs of my con« du£l : It gives double force to the defiance which I now give