Descendants of the Stuarts

PREFACE. Xlll
oblivion. Were the crimes committed by the Stuarts
of so unpardonable a dye that their very remem-
brance should cease from off the earth ? Traduced,
vilified, and misunderstood whilst living, will history
continue eternally to calumniate them? Will no
voice be raised in defence of those who, though not
devoid of vices, had yet a preponderating balance of
virtues ? who, and I affirm it advisedly, will well
bear a comparison, as a dynasty, with that of any
upon record. Because the Stuarts were unsuited to
the times in which they lived — because they would
have made better constitutional sovereigns than des-
potic ones — because they possessed not that strength
of mind, i\iaJi fortiter in re sometimes so necessary —
but, on the contrary, had a preponderance of what
are, though perhaps not very correctly termed,
amiable weaknesses, are sins to be laid to their
charge of which they were wholly guiltless ?
What were the crimes of the Stuarts ? Read
their history, commencing with Robert the Second,
downwards, and what is the reply ? Candidly,
fairly, and without prejudice, is cruelty one of the
vices which can be imputed to them ? Were they
brutal ? Compare them with the Tudors ; those
merciless sovereigns who remorselessly imbrued their
hands in the lilood even of their nearest relatives —
and what is the reply ? Were they savage ? The
idea of a savage Stuart seems too ludicrous for
utterance. Were they ignorant, unrefined, coarse,
or barbarous in their ideas ? The contrary is indis-