Letter to a noble lord: or, a faithful representation of the Douglas cause; AND Second letter to a noble Lord, or, The speeches of the Lord Chancellor, and of Lord Mansfield on the Douglas cause

C 3 ]
death of Lady Jane ; and on his death-bed folemnly
declares before God, that the appellant is the fon of
Lady Jane •, — "I make this declaration, faid he,
as ftepping into eternity." — A man that is a thief
may difguife himfelf in public, but he has no occa-
fion for any mafk when in private by himfelf.
Thefe pofitive declarations convinced the Duke of
Douglas s and he left his dukedom, and other eftates,
to his nephew the appellant, who was regularly ferved
heir thereto in September, 1761; when he was pof-
fefled of all the birthright of a fon, fo far as the oaths
of witnefles, the acknowledgment of parents, and an
eftablifhed habit and repute could go. The cruel
afperfions thrown out againfb Lady Jane and the
Colonel had been refuted by the late Duke of Argyle
and the Countefs of Stair. See pages 20 and 21.)
No mortal doubted the appellant's being the fon of
Lady Jane, except Andrew Stewart ; his father Archi-
bald Stewart ; Major Cockran, who is married to
Stewart's filler ; with White of Stockbriggs, a prin-
cipal actor in thefe fcenes. Thefe doubted the mat-
ter •, and Andrew Stewart, as by concert, went over
to France, not to procure evidence of a real fact, but
to fuborne witnefles to eftablifh an article that never
exifted except in their own imagination : the defign
was bad, and the means to accomplifh it were no lefs
criminal ! 'Tis needlefs to follow the fearcher through
all the fcenes of his enquiry, the remit of which was
to return to Scotland, enter an action againft the
appellant, and bring his own father to condemn him,
at a time when the old gentleman was in a condition
every way deplorable. (See page 33.) And taking
advantage of his inaccuracies, he makes a fecond tour
P9 Paris, where he publifhed a Monitoire, entirely to
B 2 ieducs