Namara, one of their most trusty agents, with instructions to lay their apprehensions before the Prince, and to insist that the lady should, for some time at least, be confined to a convent. In answer Charles declared that he had no violent passion for Miss Walkinshaw, and could see her removed from him without concern, but that he would not receive directions in respect to his private conduct from any man alive. In vain did Mr. MacNamara try every method of persuasion, and frequent renewals of his argument. Charles thought it a point of honour, that none should presume on his adversity to treat him with disrespect, and determined to brave even the ruin of his interest (for such was the alternative held out to him) rather than bate one iota of his dignity. MacNamara at length took leave of him with much resentment, saying, as he passed out, “What can your family have done, Sir, thus to draw down the vengeance of Heaven on every branch of it through so many ages?"*- Upon his report, most of the remaining Jacobite leaders, irritated at their Prince's pride, and soon afterwards won over by the splendid successes of Lord Chatham, seized the opportunity to break off all connection with the exiles, and to rally in good earnest round the Reigning Family. 66 In a former chapter I have described the person and manner of Charles as he appeared in youth; let me now add a portrait of him in his later years. An English lady, who was at Rome in 1770, observes, "The Pre"tender is naturally above the middle size, but stoops "excessively; he appears bloated and red in the face; "his countenance heavy and sleepy, which is attributed "to his having given into excess of drinking: but when 66 a young man he must have been esteemed handsome. "His complexion is of the fair tint, his eyes blue, his "hair light brown, and the contour of his face a long "oval; he is by no means thin, has a noble person, and 66 a graceful manner. His dress was scarlet laced with "broad gold lace; he wears the blue riband outside of "his coat, from which depends a cameo, antique, as large as the palm of my hand; and he wears the same Garter * Dr. King's Anecdotes, p. 207. 1748. 66 66 THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY. 353 " and motto as those of the noble Order of St. George in "England. Upon the whole, he has a melancholy, mor"tified appearance. Two gentlemen constantly attend "him; they are of Irish extraction, and Roman Catho"lics you may be sure. . . . . . . . . . At Princess Palestrina's he "asked me if I understood the game of TARROCHI, which 66 they were about to play at. I answered in the negative; upon which, taking the pack in his hands, he desired to know if I had ever seen such odd cards. I replied, "that they were very odd indeed. He then displaying "them said, here is everything in the world to be found "in these cards the sun, moon, the stars; and here, says he (throwing me a card), is the Pope; here is the “Devil; and, added he, there is but one of the trio wanting, and you know who that should be! I was so "amazed, so astonished, though he spoke this last in a 66 laughing, good-humoured manner, that I did not know "which way to look; and as to a reply, I made none.” * 66 66 66 In his youth Charles, as we have seen, had formed the resolution of marrying only a Protestant princess; however, he remained single during the greater part of his career, and when in 1754 he was urged by his father to take a wife, he replied, "The unworthy behaviour of "certain Ministers, the 10th of December, 1748, has put "it out of my power to settle any where without honour or interest being at stake: and were it even possible for me to find a place of abode, I think our family have had "sufferings enough, which will always hinder me to marry, so long as in misfortune, for that would only conduce "to increase misery, or subject any of the family that "should have the spirit of their father to be tied neck and "heel, rather than yield to a vile Ministry."† Nevertheless in 1772, at the age of fifty-two, Charles espoused a Roman Catholic, and a girl of twenty, Princess Louisa of Stolberg. This union proved as unhappy as it was 66 *Letters from Italy by an Englishwoman (Mrs. Miller), London, 1776, vol. ii. p. 198. This description of Charles's countenance well agrees with the portrait taken in 1776 by Ozias Humphry, of which an engraving is given in the Culloden Papers, p. 227. † Prince Charles to Mr. Edgar, March 24. 1754. Stuart Papers. Her mother, Princess Stolberg, survived till 1826. I was once introduced to her at Frankfort, and found her in extreme old age, ill assorted. Charles treated his young wife with very little kindness. He appears, in fact, to have contracted a disparaging opinion of her sex in general; and I have found, in a paper of his writing about that period, "As "for men, I have studied them closely; and were I to "live till fourscore, I could scarcely know them better "than now: but as for women, I have thought it useless. "they being so much more wicked and impenetrable.” * Ungenerous and ungrateful words! Surely, as he wrote them, the image of Flora Macdonald should have risen in his heart and restrained his hand! The Count and Countess of Albany (such was the title they bore) lived together during several years at Florence, a harsh husband and a faithless wife; until at length, in 1780, weary of constraint, she eloped with her lover Alfieri. Thus left alone in his old age, Charles called to his house his daughter by Miss Walkinshaw, and created her Duchess of Albany, through the last exercise of an expiring prerogative. She was born about 1760, and survived her father only one year. Another consolation of his dotage was a silly regard, and a frequent reference, to the prophecies of Nostradamus, several of which I have found among his papers. Still clinging to a visionary hope of his restoration, he used always to keep under his bed a strong box with 12,000 sequins. ready for the expenses of his journey to England, whenever he might suddenly be called thither. In 1785. Charles returned to Rome with his daughter. His health had long been declining, and his life more than once despaired of; but in January, 1788, he was seized with a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the use of one half of the body, and he expired on the 30th of the same month. His funeral rites were performed by his brother still lively and agreeable. It is singular that a man born eighty-five years after the Chevalier should have seen his mother-in-law. *Stuart Papers, Orig. in French. See Appendix. † Despatch of Sir Horace Mann, November 30. 1779. MS. The date publicly assigned was the 31st of January; but I have been informed that he really died on the 30th; and that his attendants, disliking the omen, as the anniversary of King Charles's execution, notwithstanding the difference of the Old and New Style, concealed his death during the night, and asserted that he had died 1748. THE LAST STUARTS. 355 the Cardinal, at Frascati *, but his coffin was afterwards. removed to St. Peter's at Rome. Beneath that unrivalled dome lie mouldering the remains of what was once a brave. and gallant heart; and a stately monument, from the chisel of Canova, but at the charge, as I believe, of the House of Hanover, has since arisen to the Memory of JAMES THE THIRD, CHARLES THE THIRD, AND HENRY THE NINTH, KINGS OF ENGLAND · names which an Englishman can scarcely read without a smile or a sigh! Often at the present day does the British traveller turn from the sunny height of the Pincian, or the carnival throngs of the Corso, to gaze in thoughtful silence on that sad mockery of human greatness, and that last record of ruined hopes. The tomb before him is of a race justly expelled; the magnificent temple that enshrines it is of a faith wisely reformed; yet who at such a moment would harshly remember the errors of either, and might not join in the prayer even of that erring church for the departed exiles: REQUIESCANT IN PACE! Thus ended a party, often respectable for generous motives, seldom for enlarged views or skilful designs. In their principles the Jacobites were certainly mistaken. They were wrong in shutting their eyes to the justice, necessity, and usefulness of the Revolution of 1688. They were wrong in struggling against the beneficent sway of the House of Hanover. They were wrong in seeking to impose a Roman Catholic head upon the Protestant Church of England. But we, on our part, should do well to remember that the Revolution of 1688 was not sought but forced upon us- -that its merit consists partly in the reluctance with which it was embraced-that it was only an exception, though fully justified by the emergency, from the best safeguard of liberty and order, the principle of HEREDITARY RIGHT. Can there be a greater proof at nine o'clock the next morning. This was told me by Cardinal Caccia Piatti, at Rome, who had heard it from some of the Prince's household. *Letter from Rome (Annual Register, vol. xxx. p. 255.). of the value of that principle, than the firmness which so many hundred thousands, under the name of Jacobites, continued to cling to it for so many years after its infraction? And what wise statesman would willingly neglect or forego an instrument of Government so easily acquired, so cheaply retained, and so powerfully felt? How soon, on the decay of the Stuart cause, other discontents and cabals arose, the eloquent Letters of Junius - embalming the petty insects are alone sufficient to attest. In these no great principles were involved; but ere long, the battle of parties came to be fought on American ground; and, under the second Pitt, the efforts of the Jacobites were succeeded by the fiercer and more deadly struggle of the Jacobins. Indeed, in the whole period since the Revolution to the present hour, there has not been a single epoch pure from most angry partisanship, unless it be the short administration of Chatham. This unceasing din and turmoil of factions - this eternal war that may often tempt a gentler spirit, like Lord Falkland's, to sigh forth "Peace, peace, peace!" has also provoked attacks from the most opposite quarters against our admirable system of tempered freedom. favourer of despotism points to the quiet and tranquillity which are sometimes enjoyed under unlimited Kings. "Endeavour," cries the Republican, "to allay the popular "restlessness by conceding a larger measure of popular "control." Between these two extremes there lies a The more excellent way. May we never, on the plea that conflagrations often rage amongst us, consent to part with that noble flame of liberty which warms and cherishes the nations, while-a still higher blessing-it enlightens them! Let us, on the other hand, not be unmindful of the fact, that the wider the sphere of popular dominion, the louder does the cry of faction inevitably grow; and that the unreasonableness of the demands rises in the same proportion as the power to arrest them fails. truth is, that so long as ignorance is not allowed to trample down education and intellect—that is, so long as order and property are in any degree preserved, so long it is still possible to make complaints against "the privileged few." Any thing short of anarchy may be railed at as aristocracy. 66 The |