In the year 1817 the public, or, more correctly speaking, the English
public at Rome, were much excited by the report of a very singular
discovery. The largest and the most interesting collection of papers
relating to the Stuart family, probably existing, was suddenly
recovered. The circumstances connected with the discovery are curious.
Dr. W., whose residence on the continent for many years had been
unceasingly devoted to every species of research which could tend to
throw light on the antiquities of his country and the history of her
kings, had in the Scotch college at Paris, after much patient
investigation, arrived at the knowledge of some Gaelic MSS., and, what
may be perhaps deemed of more consequence, of several papers relating to
the dethroned family. The Gaelic MSS., it was imagined, would throw some
light on the quarrel _de lana caprina_ of the Ossian “remains,” a name
which, as it has been given to the Iliad and Odyssey, cannot be
considered as an insult to the claims of the Irish or Scottish phantom
which has been conjured up under the name of Ossian: but the Journals,
&c., though they added little to his actual information, and
communicated few facts not hitherto before the public, had at least the
merit of placing the end of the clue in his hand, and hinting first the
probability of a more productive inquiry elsewhere. It occurred to him
that after the demise of James II., as the majority of the family
habitually resided at Rome, much the greater number of interesting
documents ought still to be discoverable in that city, and, whatever
facilities might originally have existed, they must have been increased
considerably, and indeed enhanced by the late extinction of the direct
line in the person of the cardinal de York.[212] His journey to Rome,
and the results of his perseverance fully justified these conjectures.
There was nothing in Dr. W.’s appearance or manner, nothing in the
circumstances of his long absence from his country, which could offer
motives of encouragement; no man carried less before him, as far as
externals were in question, that letter of recommendation to which the
most uncourteous are compelled to yield. He was in bad odour with his
own government, and consequently with every thing legitimate and
subservient on the continent, and one of the worst calculated
individuals that Providence could have selected, if not for a discovery,
at least for its preservation. Dr. W. was known to few of his countrymen
at Rome; and as well as I recollect, they were exclusively Scotch, but
his acquaintance amongst the natives was extensive and useful. He had
been engaged in some cotton speculations in the Campagna, which had
altogether failed; more, I believe, from want of funds and public
spirit, than from any error in the project or its execution. The soil
was favourable, the climate favourable, and the specimen I saw scarcely
inferior to the Asiatic. But whatever may have been the causes, the
results were salutary, and productive at least of this advantage, that
it served to introduce him to the “mezzo ceto” circles of the capital. A
mercante di Campagna is a personage in nowise inferior to a lawyer, and
Dr. W. knew how to preserve his importance amongst his competitors. The
information which he gained here was a new source of encouragement.
After much sagacious and persevering inquiry, and occasional but partial
disappointments, he at last chanced in a happy hour on the great object
of all his labours. He was informed in rather a circuitous manner, that
a considerable portion of the late cardinal de York’s effects lay still
in the hands of the executors, but could not at first ascertain whether
they comprehended any large masses of his papers. Enough, however, had
been detected to lead him much farther: he seized the hint, profited by
it, and in a few weeks satisfactorily assured himself that the papers
were, as he suspected, included, and were at that very moment at Rome.
He lost no time in addressing himself to the proper quarter, but
monsignor ---- was out of town, (the acting executor of the cardinal,)
and it was very doubtful whether his agent, the abbate Lupi, was
sufficiently authorized or empowered to dispose of them in his absence;
the abbate Lupi, less scrupulous, or more ignorant than persons in
situations of such high trust, smiled at the communication, and
conducted the doctor without delay to the premises where these cartacci,
or paper-rubbish, as he termed them, were still lying in confusion. It
was a dark and dreary garret or gallery, at the top of the house. The
abbate pushed back a crazy door, and showed them heaped up, in large
lots, in various parts of the chamber. The garret was crumbling, the
wind and rain entered _ad libitum_ through the broken tiles, the rats
prowled and plundered at full discretion, like the followers of Omar,
and had now lived for many years at free quarters on the spoils; but
neither decay, nor the seasons and their ravages, nor the rats and their
incursions, nor the appearance of daily loss, were sufficient to rouse
the habitual indolence of the administrators to the least effort for the
preservation of the remainder. There was a sufficient quantity, however,
left to surpass the most ardent anticipations of the doctor: he gazed in
silence and astonishment; it was a moment of true and unalloyed
delight--an instant which, in the estimate of the enthusiast, will
outbalance the sufferings of months and years, like the “Land! land!” of
Columbus, or the _eureka_ of Pythagoras. He hesitated, he doubted--he
took up the paper that was nearest to him; his warmest wishes were
realized; it was an autograph of James II. A glance over the rest was
sufficient; it was with difficulty he could suppress the feeling of
exultation which shivered and fled over his whole frame. After an
affected question or two, the abbate accepted his proposal, and very
near five hundred thousand documents, of unquestionable authenticity and
of the first historic importance and authority, were knocked down to him
for not more than three hundred Roman crowns. Dr. W. still meditated,
paused, appeared reluctant, inquired for the letter of attorney,
examined it, and finding all in order, and powers as he imagined
sufficiently full, the arrangement in a few moments was completed. Two
carts were brought to the door, the papers were thrown into them
confusedly, and so little did the abbate value their utility, that on
two or three packets falling into the street, they undoubtedly would
have lain there with other rubbish, had not the doctor immediately
hastened to take them up and carried them himself to his lodgings.
The prize was now won, and a collection perhaps unrivalled in Europe, an
El Dorado of imaginary wealth and glory, was safely lodged in the
precincts of his own apartment. Joy is talkative, and for once the
doctor altogether forgot his caution, and in the dangerous moment of a
first triumph, rushed to his countrymen, and proclaimed his _veni, vidi,
vici_ to their envy and astonishment. They were invited to inspect them.
Rome, the capital of a considerable state, is still a provincial town,
and events of this kind hardly require newspapers. In a few days the
news of all the poets and barbers was the singular good fortune of the
doctor. What it was no one knew, except the duchess of D----. Her
drawing-room was not only the rendezvous of every stranger, and
particularly of every Englishman at Rome, but, what ought to have been
considered as of infinitely more moment and indeed danger, was a sort of
antechamber to the Vatican. Her acquaintance with the cardinal secretary
intimately connected her with the Papal government; and, during her life
and his administration, the English might almost be said to be, in the
language of the modern city, the assistants of the pontifical throne.
The duchess requested a cabinet peep. The doctor expostulated;--he ought
to have done so, but on the contrary he was gratified by the compliment,
and a little conversazione packet was made up with expedition for her
next evening party. The doctor had time to judge of his acquisition, and
made a judicious selection, but so unfortunately inviting, that his
noble patroness could with difficulty confine to her own breast the
sentiments she felt of surprise and admiration. Besides, it would be
selfish to conceal the gratification from her friends; the papers were
of course in a few days to start for England. Who could tell when they
were likely to be out? Then there was an enjoyment, not likely to be
resisted by a duchess and a protectress, of all that was literary at
Rome, in tumbling over an original MS.--and such a MS.--and reading and
judging the important work, before it was even dreamt of by the rest of
the world. She had been favoured, and could not be blamed for extending,
like the doctor, the favour to others. She had two or three very dear
friends, and she could not reflect without pain on what they might say,
and with so much justice, should they discover, some days afterwards,
that she had been in possession of such a treasure, though for a few
hours, without kindly participating her pleasures with her
acquaintances.
These reasons, cogent at any time, were altogether invincible under the
circumstances of the case. The duchess had many friends, but the most
intimate of these many was the cardinal secretary. The practised eye of
that statesman could not be so easily seduced. He was one of the chief
invited of the evening, and as usual appeared amongst the earliest of
the guests. The papers were on the table on his entry; they became the
chief, the first, and soon the only topic of conversation. They were
examined; the cardinal read, folded them up, and was silent; but ere
daylight the next morning a guard of the pope’s carabiniers attacked Dr.
W.’s apartment, which was not the castle of an Englishman, and very
important papers were irrecoverably lost to him, and perhaps to the
public for ever.
The next morning, all the valets de place in Rome knew, and took care to
inform their masters, that during the night the abbate Lupi had been
arrested, and lay actually in prison for a gross violation of his trust;
but it was not understood till much later in the day, that the moment
the cardinal had left the apartments of the duchess, orders had been
also given to have the papers immediately put under the seal and
wardship of the state. The doctor was consequently awakened, as we have
seen, rather earlier than usual, in the most unceremonious manner
imaginable, and requested, in rather a peremptory manner, to point out
the treasury room. Tortures were not used, but threats were. The
sanctuary was easily discovered; the inviolable seal was fixed on the
door; and a guard put over the house, during the remainder of the day.
The arrest of the abbate was followed up by a measure of more rigour,
and of far greater importance. The contract itself was annulled on the
ground of incompetence in the seller--the three hundred crowns were
ordered to be paid back, and Dr. W. permitted to appeal, and satisfy
himself with civil answers as well as he could, and with what every
jurisconsult of the Curia Innocenziana had decided, or would decide if
called upon by the secretary, to be the ancient and existing law of
Rome.
The doctor made, through himself and others, the ordinary applications,
each of which were received and answered in the ordinary manner. This
was encouraging; and he vented his indignation amongst his
acquaintances; and, when the access and struggle was over, lay like
Gulliver, fatigued on his back.
In the mean time, a vessel arrived from England at Cività Vecchia, and a
boat’s crew a little after from Fiumicino at Rome. The papers were
released and embarked. The doctor expostulated, and the cardinal
secretary received him with his usual urbanity. His visit was quite as
satisfactory as any of the preceding, and as conclusive as such visits
generally are at Rome. The cardinal heard every thing with the most
dignified composure, and simply replied, that any application to him
personally was now unavailing, and that he could not do better than
apply to the king of England, in whose hands the papers in question
would probably be found in the course of another month.
The doctor bowed and took the advice,--but, in leaving the room, it
occurred to him that he might not meet a more favourable reception at
Downing-street than at the Vatican. A friend at that time resident at
Rome proposed to act as his representative to the minister, and
acquitted himself in the sequel with a fidelity as rare amongst
ambassadors as attorneys.
I never heard any thing decisive of the result of this interview;--but I
have no doubt the cardinal was in the right. No inquiries at all
disquieting were made, or questions asked, of the keeper of the king’s
conscience, on the adjudication of the court of Rome. The king of
England, in right of his Stuart blood, keeps, and will leave to his
descendants, probably, the care of publishing all the Stuart MSS.
But in the momentous interval between the discovery of the papers, and
their voyage to England, more eyes than those of an English duchess and
a cardinal secretary of state contrived to glance over the treasure. For
a day or two they were exposed to the inspection of the privileged few,
at the head of whom was the late professor Playfair, lord S----, lord of
session, &c.: to one of these favoured individuals I am indebted for
most of the particular which follow.
On entering the chamber where they were arranged, which was a small
room, on the first floor, of a small apartment in a secondary quarter of
Rome, he found the walls to a great height literally covered with piles
of paper of every size and quality. They were packed so close, had been
so long unopened, and had so much suffered from the humidity, that each
packet was found to contain, on examination, a very much larger quantity
than had at first been expected. They were arranged in the most perfect
order, and classed according to the age, country, or writer. Several
were autographs, and copies, where they existed, were in the best
preservation, and generally under the eye, and by the order of the first
authority. The series commenced about the period of the king’s arrival
in France, and were continued down, with scarcely any interruption or
hiatus, to the demise of the last direct heir, the cardinal de York.
They embraced not only every document connected with political matters,
but entered into the most minute details on the domestic and personal
affairs of the illustrious individuals, to whom they related, and threw
a very singular light on transactions which have been long concealed, or
viewed under very partial bearings, by the British public. Not only the
private and confidential correspondence between the different members of
the royal family, but references to the most trivial circumstances
connected with the interior of the royal household, and various other
matters of similar interest, were everywhere observable. The revenues,
the expenditure, were regularly noted; a large volume or ledger, almost
completely filled with items of this kind, gave no bad scale of the
gradation or diminution of expense, calculated on country, time, and
situation, and therefore a very fair estimate of their means under the
successive fortunes to which they had been exposed. But by far the most
interesting documents of the collection referred to the important
political transactions of that memorable epoch. James II. occupies a
considerable, and, indeed, a principal portion of this interest. His
letters to his son, written and corrected in his own hand, give a very
flattering portrait, and perhaps a very authentic one, of his character
in almost all his domestic relations, without much claim, but also
without much pretension, to style--the sin of that age, and not less of
the succeeding: they are not without a certain tinge of the elegance of
manner, which, though by no means his apanage, had more or less been
contracted in those dissolute circles which had inspired Hamilton. But
there were other qualities with which they abounded, of much higher
value and importance, greater depth of feeling than what usually exists
in courts, paternal affection in all the bitterness of an unrequited
fondness, and a settled and unavailing despair (he died, indeed, of a
lethargy) of the future destinies of his house, grounded on the frail
support he could anticipate from the depraved habits of his son. The
reproaches addressed to him are frequent, and fraught with the
overflowing waters of fatherly disappointment; the _brouillon_, or rough
draft of the letter, which was sometimes preserved, was often blotted,
and the wavering and agitation of his mind betrayed itself very visibly
in his very hand. The general view which they give is favourable, and
presents a kindlier aspect of his character than what we are habituated
to meet with in the generality of the Whig writers.[213]
[212] His Royal Highness the Cardinal de York, or as he was sometimes
called, “Your Majesty,” reposes in the subterraneous church of St.
Peter, under a plain sarcophagus, which bears the name of Hen. IX. No
one will dispute the title of a few handfuls of dust, but it is worth
observing that something very similar reappears on the monument in St.
Peter’s itself. This is consistent in a Roman: legitimacy, like the
priesthood, is indelible, and cannot be rubbed out by misfortune or
wrong. The sketch in Forsyth is interesting and delicate, though
rather Jacobite and Scotch. I met many persons who retained
recollections of him at Rome, but none of these recollections are
worth noticing. He seems to have rendered himself more remarkable by
petty peculiarities, than any great quality of heart or head. He was
supposed to be the quickest driver for a cardinal of the whole
college, and sometimes came in from Frascati, (his bishopric and
habitual residence,) a distance of about fourteen miles, in an hour
and a quarter. This was thought in the first instance marvellous, and
in the next indecorous. The only honours he retained were his titles
great and little, and the privilege of mounting the Vatican in a
sedan-chair.
[213] New Monthly Magazine.
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