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.

    34/208 (page 30)
    I [' 30 ] The argument derived from forgery, when that argu* ment flood alone, was obvious and unanfwerable, was convincing and congenial to the noble and uncorrupted minds of thofe Judges. As no eloquence could give it greater force, fo no artifice could elude it: it fufpended the decifion in the former caufe, till the matter was further inquired into, and, in the iflue, it proved triumphant over many important probabilities which con- fefiedly oppofed it : but in the latter caufe, the exadt and laborious fcrutiny made on the part of the plantiff, ne- ceftarily fuggefted new proofs, which, from their very nature, became complicated and involved in new circum- fhmces and new refearches ; and though thefe proofs were all on one fide, they inevitably threw on the whole an appearance of intricacy, which alarmed and terrified men not accuftomed to thofe inquiries. i ' , The controverfy feemed not to he one caufe, but a vaft eolledtion of different caufes. Thofe parts of it which were obvious to common fenfe, and which required no labour of thought to be comprehended, were loft and ob- fcured in the multitude of others which demanded a more minute and accurate difcuffion ; and the Peers, adluated by their ufual integrity, but forgetting that the difpute turned merely on a queftion of fadf, of which they were nolefs able judges than the moft profound lawyer, were apt to confider the matter as on the fame footing with the fubtle queftions of jurifprudence, where they juftly have a great deference, for thofe who are engaged by their profeftion to attain a more particular acquaintance with that fcience. Your Lordfhip’s diftinguifhed fagacity foon led you to perceive this difpofition of mind in your audience ; you took advantage of it, and,availed yourfelf of the authoiity attending your ftation ; you muftered up all that elo¬ quence which you fo readily command on every fubjedf: where you take an intereft ; and by wandering in that im- menfe foreft of fadts and circumftances, you were able to draw