APPENDIX. (25) 



liim in the confideration of it ; and it is a circumftance rather ^?T?cr°Erqv 

 iingular, that while he has generally been charged with Toryifni 

 by one party, he fliould, on the other hand, be accufed by im- 

 plication of Repuhlicanifm in this queftion on the hifhory of the 

 unfortunate Queen of Scots. 



The other illuflrious hiftorian;, w^hofe opinions Mr Tytler 

 controverted in his Enquiry, though of oppolite fentiments 

 from Mr Tytler as an author, lived with him in habits of 

 private friendlhip and familiar intercourfe. The lafl time Mr 

 Tytler dined at Dr Robertson's, he faw with peculiar fa- 

 tlsfadlion Hamilton's hiftorical pi(fture of Queen Mary, with 

 the portrait of the Do(ftor on one fide, and his own upon the 

 other. Dr Robertson, talking accidentally with the writer of 

 this account on the fubjecfl of the Marian controverfy, faid, " I 

 have told Mr Tytler, that nothing but a regard for what I 

 conceive to be hiftorical truth, could have given my hiftory 

 that complexion which is fo different from what he thinks it 

 fliould have worn. Mary was the natural heroine of my hi- 

 ftory, if truth had allowed me to make her fo." 



Such would have been the natural vanity of an author ; nor 

 was the national vanity of a Scptfman lefs interefted in the fate 

 of this beautiful and unfortunate Queen, whom her evil de- 

 fliny tranfplanted from the funfhine of a gay and gallant court 

 to a barbarous and unfriendly clime ; to a clime, fhaken by the 

 ftorms of fadlion, and defolated by the furious contentions of a 

 tyrannical and favage ariftocracy. It has been matter of regret 

 with fome who feel for the Princefs in this view of her hiftory, 

 that her advocates have not left her caufe to thofe feelings, but 

 have pufhed very far her pretenfions to unimpeachable condudl 

 and princely virtues, inftead of pleading an apology for error or 

 weaknefs, from the circumftances of the times and the intrica- 

 cies of her fituation. Even in the pages of Robertson, after 

 all that he has allowed of prefumptive evidence for her impru- 



Vol,IV. (D) dence 



