TOW NERD' S DESCENDANTS OF THE STUARTS. * Tama are various

faults in this curious account of the numerous individuals whose Papistry prior to the Act of Settlement deprived them of the crown of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as of the number of persons yet living who have a nearer right, genealogi- cally speaking, than her present Most Gracious Majesty. 'Like other persons with an heraldic turn, Mr. Townend has a sort of senti- mental loyalty for the house of Stuart, and a pretty strong leaning towards the so-called " virtues " of that unfortunate race. These views have influenced his judgment as to facts. He says that Mary was as popular as her sister Flizabeth,-forgetting her cog- nomen ; and supports Mr. Jesse in the notion that nothing so bad as the massacre of Glencoe was ever ordered by the Stuarts,- with the " Bloody Assizes " staring him in the face. Mr. Town- end has also some historical crotchets as to the importance of genealogy, and would make out that almost all our wars have originated in that subject.

till the book has a curious interest. With proper allow-

ances for a titlepage, The Descendants of the Stuarts is really " an unehronicled page in England's history " ; so that the sub- ject has freshness. Then there is, as Mr. Townend observes, a practical:question connected with his subject in the Oath of Ab- juration; for although the race of James the Second is extinct, there are next claimants by scores. Some of the fullest-written lives are tolerably well known ; but there is an attraction as re- .gards several of these " heirs " to a kingly crown, such as we feel in looking at ruins or any relics of the past. The book might also serve as a sort of introduction. to genealogy ; showing, as it unquestionably does by example, a use in .the science, and ex- citing a specific interest from the unity and importance of the particular. ease," which a mere general treatise could never possess. Of course the facts require a close attention to seize their bear- ing; but they all fall into their right places when that bearing

is seized." • • •

IncludingWilliam and Mary, and Anne, the English Stuarts

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are six in number whose offspring could claim a nearer right to the throne than gephia of Hanover, the youngest and least en- titled of them all by "priority of birth." Three of these- Charles the Second, Mary, and Anne-died childless.t and the SS . _ • The Descendants of the Stuarts: an Unchronicled Paye in Nnyland's History. Tewnend. Published by Longmans and Company.

posterity of James the Second was practically extinct on the death of the young Pretender in 1788, though legally surviving till the death of Henry, the priest and cardinal, in 1807. The existing claims to the heirships of the Stuart family come through Charles the First and James the First. The best representative of this line is through Henrietta Duchess of Orleans, the 'oungest daughter of Charles the First, and rather celebrated in history for her diplomatic talents, shown in settling a treaty between Louis the Fourteenth and her worthy brother Charles the Second, soon after the Restoration. She died in 1670, not without strong suspicion of poison ; leaving two daughters, Mary Louisa, afterwards married to the King of Spain, and Anne, to the Duke of Savoy eventually King of Sardinia. It is through this Anne, grand- daughter of Charles the First, that the house of Savoy derived its priority claim to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. Her descendants in the male line continued sovereigns of Sardinia till 1831, when, male issue failing, the crown passed into another branch of the family. The representation of the Stuarts then merged into the female line : the present legal representative of the Stuarts being the Duke of Modena ; and as he is childless, his pre- sumptive heiress is the daughter of his brother, a little lady born in 1849. His death, or her death, without issue, would not, however, clear the ground. According to a list deduced by Mr. Townend from his genealogical tables, there are no fewer than forty-four representatives of the house of Stuart, embracing seven ruling families whose titles we give, and the head of the respective families. The members of each can be got at from the figures prefixed to the names.

" The Ducal Family of Modena.

"1. Francis V, Duke of Modena, representative of Charles I, b. 1819, s. p.

" The Royal Famil!/ of France.

" 8. Henry V, titular King of France, b. 1820, s. p.

" The Ducal Family of Parma.

"10. Charles U, Ex-Duke of Parma, b. 1799, s. m.

" The Royal Family of Saxony.

"12. John, King of Saxony, b. 1801.

"The Royal Family of Spain. "16. Isabella II, Queen of Spain, b. 1830.

" The Royal Families of Brazil and Portugal. "22. Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, b. 1825.

" The Royal Family of the Two Sicilies. " 35. Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, b. 1810."

The Stuart-Simmerens, an inferior branch, through the youngest of which is traced the right of the house of Brunswick, are de- scendants of James the First, by his celebrated daughter Eliza- beth, Electtess Palatine and titular Queen of Bohemia. She had thirteen children. Three of them died in infancy, one was drowned in his teens, Rupert and Maurice are known in English history ; the others either died unmarried, like Maurice and Ru- pert, or the succession often finished in a generation or two, or, little knowing what they were about, their descendants turned Papists. The exception to this last was in the youngest daugh- ter' Sophia, subsequently the celebrated Eleotress of Hanover, to whom and whose successors " being Protestants " the Aot of Set- tlement limited the crown. So dangerous is prophecy, that on her marriage with a then younger brother of the house of Hanover, her family considered the match derogatory, and blamed her eldest surviving brother, the Elector, for bringing it about ; a scheme to which he is supposed to have been stimulated to save the ex- pense of keeping her.

It is needless to trace her posterity on the throne of England from the accession of George the First. That of her brothers and sister who left successors apostatized to Popery. Of these, the most celebrated, and the only one who left descendants surviving to this day, (without merging into the Sardinian branch,) was the niece of Sophia, Elizabeth Charlotte the Duchess of Orleans, so well known by her own writings. And it is worthy of remark, that it is through the house of Orleans that both branches of the Stuart line have been perpetuated, and under circumstances still more remarkable. The same man was the progenitor of both the first and second branches. This was Philip Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis the Fourteenth, and father of the celebrated Re- gent. He first married Henrietta daughter of Charles the First ; from whom, as already mentioned, sprang the line of Savoy. A year after her death through poison, administered, as was sup- posed, by one of his servants, he married Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of the then Elector Palatine, and granddaughter of Eli- zabeth the English heroine. Through the male line of Orleans was continued, and that of the Stuart-Simmerens extended into the royal family of Austria, and of Belgium, as well as the ducal house of Tuscany. The claimants under the branch of the Stuarts-Simmerens are fewer in number than the genuine line. We quote the whole of the Orleans ex-dynasty of France, and a few of the most promising of the house of Austria.

" The Dynasty of Orleans.

1. Louis Philip, Comte de Paris b. 1838. 2. Robert Due de Chartres, b. 1840. 3. Louis, Duc de Nemours, b. 1814. 4. Francis, Prince de Joinville, b. 1818, s. m: 6. Henry, Duc d'Aumale, b. 1822. 6. Anthony, Due de Montpensier, b. 1824, s. in."

" The Royal Family of Austria. - 20. The Archduke Albert, b. 1817.

21. The Archduke Charles Ferdinand, b. 1818.

22. The Archduke William, b. 1827.

23. Theresa, Queen of the Two Sieilics, nee Archduchess of Austria, b. 1816, s. m.

• 24. Caroline, Archduchess of Austria, b. 1825."

After all this, the conclusion of Mr. Townend does not seem wide of the mark, that it is useless to persist in abjuring the pos- terity of James the Second, seeing there are none in existence ; yet that it would be necessary to continue renouncing the Stuarts, of which we have seen that there is a goodly number. But there seems to be a further diflloulty in the great argument." What if one of these misguided people should see the error of his ways and come forth as a true blue Protestant and claimant of the British crown P Would the point be determined according to the Latin maxim, " lirulliun tempus occurrit regi," or be settled by the homely English, " Possession is nine points of the law "? Or shall a new oath put an end to speculative hopes—exclude all but the house of Brunswick ?

" Proud of pedigree, but poor of purse," is Pope's characteristic of German princes. In the first point an Italian may beat the Germans out of the field. Lo the genealogical greatness of Modena!

"The richness of the Duke of Modena's family in lineal pretensions is unrivalled by any other dynasty in Europe : which will be perceived when we state, that the Duke of Modena himself is the representative of Charles I.; his niece, Mary Theresa, the next in succession, being his heiress; while his elder sister, Theresa, married to Henry V, (Comte de Chambord,) is titu- lar Queen of France; his younger, Mary, married to Don John of Spain, brother of Charles I, (Conde de Montemolin,) inherits the pretensions of that prince to the Spanish monarchy,—pretensions, which, if recent occur- rences may be judged from, will shortly be changed into realities. It is cu- rious to observe that the lineal heirs to the three greatest kingdoms in Eu- rope, Great Britain, France, and Spain, are to be found in the house of Modena : but it is still more curious to note, that had not the Stuarts and Bourbons been respectively superseded in England and France, these coun- tries would probably have been temporarily united under the sway of the Count and Countess of Chambord, (the latter being heiress to her brother after her little niece, the Princess Mary Theresa) ; and on the decease of the latter without issue, England and Spain would then have been united under the regality of her younger sister, Mary. It can excite no surprise that, with these high lineal pretensions, the Duke of Modena should have been almost the only European potentate who refused to recognize the sovereignty of Louis Philippe." It is not uncommon to hear the Duke of Buckingham spoken of as " the right heir " failing " the Royal Family.' Mr. Town- end demurs to this.

" While upon the subject of the claims of Mary Tudor and her descend- ants, (which include in consequence those of her granddaughters the Ladies Jane and Katherine Grey,) it may be as well to dissipate a report sometimes hazarded, that failing issue of the Queen and her family, the present Duke of Buckingham is the next heir to the throne,. he being this Mary's lineal representative. This assertion, though correct in the phraseology of royalty, is not so in the sense usually attributed to it ; which will be perceived when we state, that, in the phraseology of royalty, is understood by the words 'the Queen's family,' all the princes and princesses descending from her Majesty's direct ancestress the Princess Sophia ; whilst the vulgar acceptation of the term circumscribes it to her Majesty's imme- diate relatives, the children of her grandfather George III. Hence the

i mls comprehension innocently enough has arisen. The Duke of Buck- ingham claims only after all the descendants of the Princess Sophia ; and as they count at the present time about a hundred in number, his pro- spective vials of royalty is a contingency which (humanly speaking) can never be realised."

" So much for Buckingham."