MARIA STELLA, LADY NEWBOROUGH.
The Mystery of Maria Stella, Lady Newborough. By Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bart. Illustrated. (E. Arnold. 7s. 6d. net.)— All the old stories are sure to be raked up again sooner or later, and that of Maria Stella was not likely to be an exception, con- sidering the names and the interests involved in it. The poor lady herself would have been happier if she had never followed up the doubtful clue which led her and others to believe that she was the eldest surviving child of Philippe Rgalite, exchanged at her birth for the infant son of the Tuscan policeman, Chiappini. This boy, according to Maria Stella and her supporters, was after- wards Louis Philippe, King of the French. There is no doubt, it appears, that an exchange of children did take place, and that Maria Stella, afterwards Lady Nowborough and Baroness Stern- berg, was actually the child of a French nobleman calling himself Comte de Joinville. To put it beyond question that this personage was identical with the then Dim de Chartres there should be some proof that he and the Duchess were in Italy during the spring of 1773. As far as we can see, the probabilities are the other way. As to the argument by likeness, it appears to us from the portraits here given that Maria Stella's re- semblance to Mrs. de Winton, née Chiappini, is rather stronger than to Madame Adelaide. And there is certainly no likeness at all between Louis Philippe's very ordinary countenance and the quaint Italian looks of Mrs. de Winton.
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