Volume 1

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

  • Stuart, Andrew, 1725-1801
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.

    189/208 (page 33)
    [ 33 ] Of thefe fome notice was taken in my laft Letter; I fhall not now repeat them, any farther than to declare, that, in my opinion, there could not be a more fevere, nor a more injurious attack, than that which your Lord- ftiip ventured upon, when you took it for granted, that Menager had, in the beginning, told me the fame ftory which afterwards appeared in his depofition, and when upon this ground, you thought proper to irdinuate, not only that this converfation with him mull have been con¬ cealed by me from the French council, but that, at the outfetting of the caufe, I mult have been convinced of the reality of Lady Jane Douglas’s delivery. It is not eafy to imagine a greater degree of wickednefs and audacity, or a greater want of common fenfe and un¬ demanding, than would have been fixed upon me if I had deferved the imputation thus conveyed by your Lordfhip* This I am well warranted to fay, fince it is fo manifeft, that the loweft degree of underftanding, admitting all the bad qualities of the heart, muft have prevented fuch a criminal enterprize on my part, on account of the im« pofiibility of fucceeding in it *. And, on the other hand, the fmalleft portion of integrity or virtue, muft have been fufficient to reftrain me, though I had been polfeft of the moft able and enterprifing genius for plans of iniquity. No fituation can be imagined, in which the conductor of a caufe might, with left appearance of prefumption, have laid claim to complete credit for the fincerity of the conviftion under which he a<fted ; and yet, if any regard had been due to the infinuations contained in fome parts of your Lordlhip’s fpeech, the opinion formed upon my conduft, muft have been the reverfe of what I was thus entitled to expedL B b