THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE, 
No. 112. ] 
Marcu 1, 1804. 
—— 
fQy of MO ge nL fy 
a ne a Oy er as te «pen A aay, 
sé 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Baas feveral times heard my 
much reipested friend, Charles 
Browne Moftyn, Efg. of Kiddington, 
near Wooditock, miention fome. particu- 
Jars’ refpeting the ftate of the Stuart 
papers, little known in this country, 
and which I was fenfible muft be in- 
terefting to the Britifh public, and, 
perhaps, to foreign nations, I requefled 
he would do me the favour to ftate the 
circumftances in writing, and allow me 
permiffion to difpofe of the communica- 
tion as I might thnk moft eligible. This 
he has done with his accuftomed kindnefs 
and liberality 5; and I am sure the public 
in general, and vour readers In particular, 
will feel their obligations to him. 
My {ole object, in which the writer of 
the following letter .participates, is to 
a‘certain whether the Memoirs, &c. are 
any longer extant; and I have no doubt 
but that any gentleman who is capable of 
giving information on this fubject, will 
have a pleafure in fupplying this defidera. 
tum in literary hiftory. Iam, Sir, — 
Woodftock, Wour's, 02C. 
Feb. 4, 1804. W. Mavor. 
Some Memoranda refpecting the Memoirs, 
‘Letters, Papers, Ge of the Stuart Fa- 
mily, depofited by King Fames II. in the 
Scotch College, Rue Foffées St. Vidor, at 
Paris, under the care of bis confidential 
Agent, Principal Gordon, then Superior 
of that Houfe. 
Thefe memoirs, fo interefting to hifto- 
rians, King James, as I always heard fay 
trom the gentlemen of the Scotch Coilege, 
meant, fhould fome day or other, be put 
into due order, and prefented to the pub. 
lic; but, during his life, the times were 
not thought fufficiently ripe for fuch a 
publication. The prejudices againit him 
and his family were not only recent but 
deep; and the public mind, in general, 
too much biafled in favour of his op- 
ponents, to receive fuch a with with 
any degree of candour and impartiality, 
Truths which militated fo firongly 
MONTHLY Mac, No, 112. 
again{t the popular opinions, as well in 
regard to the great events of the Revolu- 
tion as to thofe which marked the rival 
reigns of Elizabeth and Mary, and more 
particularly the cruel fate of the latier, 
would have been rejegted by the prejudiced 
world as fabulous; and, for a long feries 
of years, ic would have been dithcult to 
fix upon, a period, however fhort, that 
thoic authentic documents could. have 
been produced with advantage. 
Bat party animofities having now fub- 
fided, and prejudices being foftened by 
time, it is probable that truth would have 
been eagerly received, and that our hif- 
tory would have been clearsd of all that 
rubbith which intemperate zeal and'revo- 
lutionary fury have heaped upon it. Indeed 
I believe it is pretty generally allowed, that 
no hiftory is, in fome refpeéts, more urs 
faithful than that of our own country; and 
that no writer has been lefs careful to ve- 
rify his affersions, than the favourite 
Mr. Hume. Could the Stuart papers, 
therefore, have been preferved, and had 
the good fortune to fall into the hands of 
of an unprejudiced, difinterefted, and able, 
as well as bold editor, the mifts. which | 
error and party have raifed, would have 
vanifhed before the light of truth. 
But to return to the papers in queftiong 
and, as far as lies in my power, to fatisty 
your enquiries relative to their fate; I 
muft oblerve, that the mafters of the 
Scotch College, finding it impoffible to 
efcape the wreck of the French Revolution, 
which drew every thing that was valuable 
into its vortex, previous to their difpers 
fion, fent down the whole collection to St. 
Omers, where I then refided, addreffed to 
the caie of the Rev. Gregory Stapleton, 
prefident of St. Omer’s College, and of 
the Rev. Mr. Cornthwaite, procurator of 
the {aid houfe, both my very particular 
friends, but both fince dead. Thefe gen 
tlemen in their turn, finding themfelves 
likely- to become the victims of Ro- 
befpierre’s fury, and folicitous for the 
prefervation of the treafure confided to 
them, fent for me, and propoled that £ 
fhould take charge of the whole; to 
which I acceded. Iwas then at large in 
¥ Rue 
