(26) HIStORT of the SOCIETT. 



Acrmint of dencc OF her crimes, the fentiment of the reader, let his hifto^ 



W. Tytlcr, Elij; ' 



rical opinion be ever fo adverfe to the Queen*, prevails over his 

 jultice, and the dramatic efFedl of the ftory is uniformly, com- 

 panion for the Princefs, and refentment againft her enemies. 



To him who looks on that portion of hiftory rather with the 

 eye of a moralift than of an antiquarian, her marriage with 

 BoTHWELL is the moft tmfavourable paffage of her life, both 

 as afFedling the propriety of her conduct in that particular, and 

 as tending to corroborate the evidence produced by her ene- 

 mies on the great charge of privacy in the murder of her huf- 

 band. Of that marriage, Dr Henry thus expreffes himfelf, in 

 the letter I mentioned above, written to Mr Tytler on the 

 20th of July '1790, a few months before his (Dr HiiNRv's) 

 death. " Her lad marriage (fays the Dodlor) was the moft 

 unhappy, and there feems ftill to be fpme difficulty in vindica- 

 ting her condudl in contradling that marriage. Was flie felzed 

 by BoTHWELL in her pafTage froin Linlithgow, in confequence 

 of a pre-concert, and with her own confent ; or was it by mere 

 violence, and without her having any intimation, that fuch an 

 attempt was made ? If I could anfwer that queftion, I Ihould 

 know what to think of feveral other things." 



In confequence of this letter from Dr. Henry, Mr Tytler 

 wrote a DiJJertntion on the Mtirriage of- ^een Mary with the 

 Efirl of BoTHVfELL ; which, with the letter that occafioned it, 

 was pubiiflicd, in 1792, in the Tranfa(5lions of the Antiquarian 

 Society of Scotland, of which Mr Tytler was one of the Vice- 

 prcfidents. In this differtation, he maintains, in conjun6lion 

 with Whitaker and Steuart, that the Queen'^s marriage 

 with BoTHWELL was an objedl which the treacherous Murray 

 and his alfociates had all along wiflied to accompliil"), and that 

 it was at laft brought about by the daring ambition (encou- 

 raged by them) of Bothwell himfelf, who, liaving feized the 

 Queen on her return from vifiting her fon at Linlithgow, car- 

 ried her prifoner to Dunbar, where, by the moft flagitious and 



violent 



