leave him entirely, but Cardinal York has induced him to defer his departure at least for some little time longer.'

From this it is evident that Sir Horace had information from within the household of Charles Edward of the state of matters there since his marriage, and that his attention had been turned, as it most naturally would, to the very point in question further appears from a letter dated upwards of a year previously :—

As I have lately observed an article in the English newspapers which asserts that Cardinal York was dead, and that his sister-in-law is with child, I think it my duty to acquaint your Lordship that both these circumstances are false.'-Sept. 22, 1772.

This story, which he had seen in the English papers, is the only allusion to such a prospect that occurs in the whole course of Sir Horace's despatches, and when we observe the number of singular anecdotes of the private life of Charles Edward and his consort which had come to the envoy's knowledge, and how evidently they were all along surrounded by spies, both within their family and beyond it, it is absolutely incredible that such an event as the birth of the only hope of the House of Stuart-for Cardinal York's priestly character extinguished all such expectations from him-could have taken place without the slightest rumour of it having transpired.

Our readers will pardon us for recurring once more to the conduct of the exiled family after the marriage of Louisa of Stolberg. That alliance, as is universally known, proved eminently unhappy, and the differences between her and her consort gradually increased until the latter part of the year 1780, when she entirely withdrew herself from him. For four years after this period he lived alone, and when, in 1784, his advancing age-he was then sixty-four-and the prospect of increasing infirmities rendered the tenderness and unwearied devotion of a child especially desirable for him, the measures adopted by him are equally notorious. Had a son been born to him in 1773, he must then have been eleven years of age, yet we hear nothing of any son, and it is to Charlotte Stuart, his daughter by Miss Walkenshaw, that he looks for the support of his declining years. In the month of July, 1784, he executes a deed with all the necessary forms, legitimating this person, and bestowing upon her the title of Albany, by which he had himself been known for fourteen years, with the rank of Duchess. To legitimate his natural daughter, and give her the reversion of his own title, was certainly not very like the act of a man who had a lawful son in existence. But furthermore, in this same year 1784, he executed his will, by which, with the exception of a legacy to his brother the Cardinal and annuities to a few of his attendants,

he

he left all he possessed to the Duchess of Albany-his palace at Florence with all its rich furniture, all his plate and jewels, including not only those brought into the family by his mother the Princess Clementina Sobieski-(among which were two rubies of great value which had been pledged with her father by the republic of Poland, and a large shield of gold presented to the heroic John Sobieski, King of Poland, by the Emperor Leopold after the siege of Vienna)—but also such of the crown-jewels of England as had been conveyed to the continent by James II. Is it conceivable that, if Charles Edward had had a legitimate son, he would thus have alienated from him not only his Italian residence, and the Polish jewels which he had inherited from his mother-one of which, as appears from a letter of Sir Horace Mann, dated November 8th, 1783, he intended to add to the crown-jewels-but even the ancient crown-jewels of England, which he himself possessed only in virtue of those royal claims which he would thus hand down to a disinherited son?

The Duchess of Albany survived her father not quite two years, but even during that short period her actions demonstrate her entire ignorance that he had left any other male heir than his brother. Shortly after the death of Charles Edward, she sent to the Cardinal York the whole of the crown-jewels; and at her death she left him the whole of her property, with the exception of an annuity to her mother, Miss Walkenshaw, who for some time survived her, and who bore among the Jacobites the title ⚫ of Countess Alberstroff.

One glance at the subsequent history of the Princess Louisa of Stolberg, the alleged mother of this mysterious infant. Her separation from her husband had been mainly brought about through the assistance of the poet Alfieri, with whom she continued on the most intimate terms. It is uncertain whether she was ever married to him, but, at his death, the income, which the kindness of Cardinal York had secured to her on her separation from his brother, was further increased by her lover's bequest of his whole property. Alfieri's place in her affections then devolved upon a Frenchman, named Fabre, to whom also it has been said that she was married. She survived till 1824, when her alleged son must have been in his fifty-first year, yet, at her death, her whole property, including the seal and the portrait of Charles Edward, and some other memorials of that alliance, she bequeathed to her last admirer Fabre; who in his turn bequeathed those Stuart relics to their present possessor, Signor Santirelli, a sculptor at Florence.

The proceedings of the Cardinal of York are equally conclusive. The gentle and amiable disposition of this survivor might have led

to

to the expectation that his rights, as a member of the royal house of Stuart, would have been merged by him in his character as a dignified ecclesiastic. But such was not the case, for no sooner was his brother dead, than he immediately adopted all the form and etiquette usual in the residence of a reigning monarch, and insisted on its observance not only by his own attendants but by his visitors. * He published protests asserting his right to the British crown, and caused medals to be struck, bearing his head, with the inscriptions Henricus Nonus Angliæ Rex,' and Henricus IX. Magn. Brit. Franciæ et Hibern. Rex, Fid. Def., Card. Ep. Tusc.' one of which, we believe, is now in the possession of Her Majesty. Cardinal York at this period was, beyond all doubt, ignorant of the existence of a nearer heir of the rights of his family than himself, which a son of his brother would have been. Yet when his sister-in-law left her husband, only seven years after the alleged birth, the Cardinal sent for her to Rome, received her with tender affection, and watched over her interests with the most anxious care, until he had procured her a suitable establishment from his brother. Were these complicated negotiations entirely carried through without the Princess's ever mentioning to one so nearly related to her the existence of her son? Nay more, we see from Sir Horace Mann's despatches, that when the health of Charles Edward finally gave way, the Duchess of Albany brought about a complete reconciliation between her father and uncle, in consequence of which the titular king removed his residence to Rome, being there cordially received by the Cardinal, who presented him to the Pope and continued on terms of the most affectionate intimacy with him till his death two years afterwards. Can it be imagined that Charles Edward would not communicate to his brother, during this period of confidential intercourse, the existence of his son, had there lived such a person? Finally, there is abundant evidence that the Cardinal remained till his own death, in 1807, in the belief that he was himself his brother's heir. The will of Cardinal York, which had been executed in the year 1790, and is still preserved at Rome, is singular. In it he leaves his whole possessions to two executors in trust, for purposes which are not specified in the will, but which he therein says he had previously communicated to his executors. It was from the first clear that these purposes could have no connexion with any concealed heir of the Stuart blood, for the will itself contains a

* It is asserted by a recent biographer of Charles Edward (Klose) that a Prince of the House of Hanover, being anxious to have an interview with the Cardinal, signified his willingness to accede to the usual condition, and was admitted accordingly.

VOL. LXXXI, NO. CLXI.

G

formal

formal declaration of his own right to the British crown, and a protest in favour of his own nearest lawful heir, who could not of course by any means be the son of his elder brother. All doubt, however, as to the actual instructions left by him was removed by his principal executor, Canon Cæsarini, who, in the year after the Cardinal's death, made a formal note of the verbal instructions received by him, and sealed it up, so to remain till Charles Edward's widow should be dead, and certain estates in Mexico realized. The revolution in Mexico having rendered this realization impossible, the Pope, in 1831, ordered Cæsarini's note to be opened, when it was found to contain directions for the application of the Cardinal's whole property in aid of certain missionary enterprises under the management of the Propaganda. Thus the last remnant of the property of the Stuarts went to that church, their adherence to which had cost them three kingdoms.

If from the ex-royal family we turn to that by whom the secret is said to have been preserved, the result is equally clear and inevitable. The sketch of Admiral Allen's life, which we have quoted from the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' not only contains no allusion to the existence of any such rumour as that now under our notice, but it does not even mention him as connected in any way with any persons of Jacobite principles or predilections. On the contrary, the Rockingham party, with whom he is said to have been connected, were not even Tories, but Whigs. Had Charles Edward been in a situation to confide so delicate a trust to any one, it is impossible to conceive that he would have selected any other than one of his staunchest adherents; yet we are now called upon to believe that this charge was intrusted to one whose political relations seem to have been with the opposite party. But there is more behind-w -we can appeal to the direct testimony of the very persons most concerned in the theory of the Tales of a Century. Their hero, the Iolair Dhearg, is represented as aware of his real parentage prior to the scene in 1790, yet the notice of Thomas Allen's marriage in the Gentleman's Magazine' expressly calls him son of Admiral Allen.' The Admiral himself died, as we have seen, in October, 1800, and had made his will in February of the same year. In it he expressly names as his son Lieutenant Thomas Allen of His Majesty's Navy.' On what possible principle can this be accounted for ?-What conceivable motive could induce the officer intrusted by Charles Edward with the care of the only hope of the House of Stuart, to leave in his will, and that will, too, executed in the year of his death, a flat denial of the royal birth of his illustrious ward? The fact is utterly irreconcilable with the existence of such a

secret,

secret, and appears to us absolutely conclusive. There was no occasion for the Admiral stating in his will whose son Thomas Allen was. He might have left him 1007., without any allusion to his parentage; but when he deliberately, and, as lawyers say, in intuitu mortis, assures us that this gentleman, the father of those who now assume names so directly indicative of royal pretensions, was his own son, we are inclined to give him credit for a clearer knowledge of the truth than any now alive can possess.

tion on

We have now done with the Iolair Dhearg. We have endeavoured to sever him from the stem on which fancy has been pleased to engraft him, with as gentle a hand as might be. It gives us no pleasure to bring down such a Château en Espagne about the ears of those to whose personal gratification it must be supposed to have ministered; but the nature of the claim, and the fact that some credulous rural dignitaries have been lending it countenance, seemed to impose the duty of demolisome of our craft. The attempt to persuade the world that Charles Edward left a legitimate male progeny is the silliest of dreams; and no rational creature can doubt that the broken diadem which lies so touchingly at the foot of the cross in the frontispiece to the work of Messrs. John Sobieski Stuart' and Charles Edward Stuart,' is now the heritage of a branch of the Imperial House of Austrian Lorraine, in the person of the eldest son of the Duke of Modena.* With whom the Iolair invention originated we know not. In such cases there is usually one, or a small number of deceivers, and many deceived; and it is as common to find those most concerned in the truth of the story in the latter as in the former position. This much, however, we can say:-there are distinct indications that the present genealogical fiction is the offspring of the same fertile imagi

*We are almost ashamed to tell what every one ought to know as well as ourselves. "The death of Cardinal York extinguished the descendants of James the Second, and as he had no brother but Charles the Second, who predeceased him without legitimate issue, the succession then opened to the descendants of his sister, the Princess Henrietta Maria, wife of Philip Duke of Orleans. She died in 1670, leaving two daughters. After her death the Duke of Orleans married Charlotte, daughter of the Elector Palatine, from whom the subsequent family of Orleans, and the present King of the French, are descended. Mary, eldest daughter of the Princess Henrietta Maria, married Charles the Second, king of Spain, but died without issue. Her sister Ann, second daughter of the Princess Henrietta Maria, married Victor Amedeus, king of Sardinia. Their son, Charles Emanuel the Third, succeeded in 1730, and was succeeded by his son, Victor Amedeus the Third. Charles Emanuel the Fourth, eldest son of Victor Amedeus the Third, died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother Victor Emanuel. Victor Emanuel left twin daughters, the eldest-born of whom, Mary Beatrice, married Francis Duke of Modena, while the crown of Sardinia passed to her father's heirs male. The Duchess Mary Beatrice of Modena has left two sons, the elder of whom, Francis, born on the 1st of June, 1819, is now the unquestionable heir of the House of Stuart.-By a singular coincidence, this Prince's sister is wife to the exiled head of the House of Bourbon.