Descendants of the Stuarts

OF THE STUARTS. 125
curious to note that so far back as the times of
Edward YI., the idea of excluding a Roman Catholic
sovereign prevailed, but it is still more extraordinary
that Elizabeth, whose very title depended on her
adherence to the Protestant faith, should not have
enacted some statute by which the throne should be
foreclosed against Romanists. Her hatred of Mary
Queen of Scots alone, it would be thought, would
have prompted such a measure. Was it that even
she, in all the plenitude of her power, feared that
Parliament would refuse to register such an edict ?
for after all that body was not so subservient to her
as to her father; or was it that she feared, hy
questioning the Divine hereditary right of kings,
her own title would be jeopardized, and the claims
of her cousin. Lady Katherine Grey, be brought
into unenviable notoriety? Whatever her reason,
it cannot sufficiently be regretted that some such
provision was not made, for it would then have
evaded the invidiousness of a personal rather than
a general application, and would have saved the im-
mense amount of blood and treasure expended from
1688 to 1746. While upon the subject of the
claims of Mary Tudor and her descendants (which
include in consequence those of her grand-daughters
the ladies Jane and Katherine Grey), it may be as
well to dissipate a report sometimes hazarded, that
failing issue of the Queen and her family, the pre-
sent Duke of Buckingham is the next heir to the
throne, he being this Mary's lineal representative.