OF THE OPPRESSIVE LAW PROCEEDINGS, AND OTHER MEASURES, RESORTED TO BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT, AND NUMEROUS PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS, TO OVERPOWER THE EARL OF STIRLING, AND SUBVERT HIS LAWFUL RIGHTS. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. ALSO A GENEALOGICAL ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF ALEXANDER, EARLS OF STIRLING, &c. COMPILED FROM MSS. IN THE POSSESSION OF THE FAMILY: FOLLOWED BY AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THEIR HEREDITARY POSSESSIONS IN NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA, &c. BY EPHRAIM LOCKHART, Esq. WITH A COPIOUS APPENDIX OF ROYAL CHARTERS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS. "Rien n'est beau que le vrai." :: EDINBURGH. MDCCCXXXVI. Let stack 9.29.47 59950 TO THE KING. SIRE, COULD I have obtained permission to inscribe this Volume to Your MAJESTY, my satisfaction would have been complete; but although deprived of my most valued privilege of Peerage, and still debarred, by the measures which were a few years since adopted in my case, from approaching your Royal Person to solicit a favour I should have so highly prized, yet I trust there can be no impropriety in thus humbly addressing Your MAJESTY. In these times, it is one of the first duties of your loyal and faithful subjects to watch anxiously the progress of events, and to be always ready, should Your MAJESTY require their services. My family have never at any period forgotten the bright example of fidelity to his Royal Master which was left them by the Founder of their honours, SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER, who was not less steady in his allegiance, than he was bold, enterprising, and splendid in all his undertakings for the service of his Sovereign and the benefit of his Country. Although descending from a younger Son of that eminent man, and less favoured by fortune than an immediate elder branch, my predecessors were all distinguished for loyalty, and the practice of those virtues which invariably secure respect and honour in society. Proud of the high integrity and great qualities of the heart and mind which my forefathers possessed, I have more sensibly and acutely felt the repeated attempts, during several years, to make me appear unworthy of representing them and succeeding to their honours. Not content with denying me access to Your Royal Presence, and refusing even to consider my claims, Your MAJESTY'S Government, on commencing proceedings in the Supreme Court of Scotland, thought proper to impugn some of the documents produced by me in support of my right, and thus drove me to the extremity of having to defend myself against an accusation deeply affecting my honour and reputation, and which nothing whatever could possibly justify them in risking. Since the following Narrative was written, I have received information of the entire failure of the calumnious charge; and notwithstanding the pains taken to give it consistence, the fact that they are genuine instruments has been only more completely established. Under these circumstances, I am sure Your MAJESTY will consider that public justice alone, apart from higher and nobler motives, which I hope may have their influence on such an occasion, requires that full compensation should be made for the grievous injury sought to be inflicted on me and my unoffending family. With such anticipations, I humbly lay my Case, and the Narrative of my wrongs, before Your MAJESTY, and pray that it may be permitted to me to prove how much and truly I am, SIRE, Your MAJESTY'S Most loyal, most faithful And devoted Subject, STIRLING. |