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.

    192/208 (page 36)
    [ 36 ] It was directed again# one, who had enjoyed the trufl and confidence of many of the moft refpe&able perfons in both parts of this iilarid ; and who had hitherto poffeffed an unblemifhed reputation, together with the warm at¬ tachment of many valuable friends. Could there be any thing more ungenerous, than an attack made upon fuch unequal terms ? Could there be any thing more cruel, than an unprovoked, unwarranted attempt to deprive me of that reputation, and of thofe attachments, which I have ever valued more than life itfelf. It can be no juft excufe for this conduct, that the fa- crifice of me, feemed neceffary to dil'pofe the minds of men to an acquiefcence in the opinion you gave upon the merits of the caufe.-—Impartiality and juftice were due to me, as much as to the caufe itfelf, or to either of the parties interefted in the event. I am not afhamed to own, that my fenfibility upon this occafton has been ftronger perhaps than it ought to have been; fome men in my fttuation, and with the fame confcioufnefs of innocence, would have been able to reft fatisfied with that refle&ion ; they, might have had fuch force of mind, as to view with indifference, the fate of the conteft, and with contempt, the unjuft attack up¬ on themfelves.—-I have not reached thefe heights in phi- lofophy ; all my attempts to attain them, have been de¬ feated by the fuperior force of thofe feelings which I have found too ftrong for me to combat, I had never figured to myfelf, the poftibility of meet¬ ing with an injury of this nature ; my mind was unpre- ! , / pared 1