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.

    196/208 (page 40)
    [ 40 ] ' • I degraded, or even the luftre of them obfcured by any unfortunate or efiential blemifhes. V In declaring my fentiments fo freely as I have done in the courfe of thefe Letters, there has perhaps been too little attention to the dictates of vulgar prudence : Some of my friends earned: for my profperity, in thofe things to which that phrafe is commonly applied, have ufed every argument to difluade me from this public add refs to your Lordfhip. Your diftinguifhed power and influ¬ ence, and the conferences of your enmity and refent- ment, have been painted to me in the ftrongeft colours. —I know and admit the great extent of that power, and am aware, that by this ftep, which many will probably condemn as rafh and imprudent, I may draw upon my- felf, not only your own refentment, but the bad offices alfo, of thofe who wifh to prove their zeal, or to pay their court to your Lordfhip.——All this, and every confe- quence perfonal to myfelf, I have maturely weighed : But liftening to the voice of honour, I find there is a fu~ perior call upon me thus to declare and vindicate the truth, even at the hazard of every future objeft of inte- reft. There is little merit indeed in giving the preference to a call of this nature, efpecially as I can with great truth affure your Lordfhip, that it is not in your power, nor in that of your friends, to make me uneafy by any exer¬ tion of your or their influence, though attended with pre¬ judice to me in thofe obje&s of intereft which are fo gene* rally and fo ardently purfued. Without pretending to any uncommon degree of philofophy or of felt-denial, I have had lufficient ex¬ perience both of myfelf and of the world, to be able to form fome notion of thofe poffeffions, as well as of that