by Rev. Aeneas McDonnell Dawson

PEACEFUL DISTRICTS SUBJECTED TO MILITARY LAW—THE LORD PRESIDENT FORBES REMONSTRATES—NO CONDEMNATION BY GEORGE II. OF HIS SONS BARBARITY—THE CARDINAL DUKE OF YORK DEPRIVED OF HIS INCOME—HIS GENEROSITY TO THE POPE—OBLIGED TO FLY FOR HIS LIFE—GEORGE III. BESTOWS 4,000 YEARLY FOR THE CARDINAL’S SUPPORT—THE CARDINAL BEQUEATHS TO THE PRINCE OF WALES THE ORDER OF THE GARTER WHICH HAD BELONGED TO HIS GREAT-GRANDFATHER, CHARLES I., TOGETHER WITH A RING ANCIENTLY WORN BY THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND AT THEIR CORONA­TION—MONUMENT BY PRINCE OF WALES TO THE CHEVALIER ST. GEORGE AND HIS TWO SONS, PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD AND HENRY, CARDINAL YORK.

The Hanoverian Party were not satisfied with laying waste the lands of the active insurgents; they extended their ravages throughout peaceful districts even to the gates of the capital; so that Scotland might be said to have been treated, all over its length and breadth, as a conquered country, and subjected to military law.

The Lord President Forbes, who could not be suspected of any want of friendship to the Hanover cause, felt compelled to remonstrate against the outrageous measures of the Duke of Cumber­land and the extravagant way in which he carried them out in defiance of all law at the very doors of the Courts of Justice. The worthy gentleman was only treated to the coarse and scornful reply: “The laws, my Lord! By G—I’ll make a brigade give laws.” He afterwards alluded to the President as that old woman who talked to him about humanity. No form of trial was allowed to the insurgents; nor did the soldiers ask for warrants from the justices when they set about plun­dering houses. This was indeed brigade law.

It does not appear to be on record anywhere that George II. ever remonstrated against the barba­rous conduct of his hopeful son or that he used paternal authority in order to mitigate his cruelty.

In speaking of the Catholics of Scotland, it would be a serious omission not to mention, and with honour, a very illustrious personage who, though not born in Scotland, was by descent a Scotchman, a lineal descendant of Scotland’s long line of warrior and statesman kings. This is no other than Henry Stewart, so long known as His Eminence Cardinal Duke of York. We do not say Royal Highness, nor, as a consequence, Henry IX of Great Britain, for, all hope of a restoration of the House of Stewart had vanished, even before Henry Stewart was invested with the dignity of Cardinal. Mr. Robt. Chambers states that the Cardinal in middle life was not a favourite with the Jacobite party. This may have been by his having barred the way to his being head of the party by becoming a Cardinal. Probably, also, from his apparent indifference, when there was no longer any hope of the restoration of his family. In earlier life he was full of zeal in the cause and placed himself at the head of an army, provided by the King of France, and which was preparing to proceed to the assistance of Prince Charles, but was discouraged from making any attempt, on hearing that the latter had retreated from Derby. He became Bishop of Frescati, and possessed the revenues of two rich abbeys in France, Auchin and St. Amand. This, with a pension from Spain, and his income as Bishop and Cardinal, must have constituted a princely fortune. He was not, however, destined to enjoy it long. The French Revolution deprived him of the abbeys in France. The successes of Bonaparte in Italy and Spain caused his income as Cardinal and Bishop, together with his Spanish pension, to be lost. Notwithstanding these ruinous losses, he sacrificed his family jewels in order to enable the Pope to make up the sum exacted by the French general. One of these was a ruby, the largest and the most perfect that was known, and which was valued at £50 sterling. Thus, greatly reduced in fortune, he resided quite retired at his villa near Rome, till the year 1798, when the revolutionary troops attacked and plundered his palace, and obliged him to fly for his life. He made his way to Padua and afterwards to Venice, subsisting by the sale of some silver plate. This was soon exhausted, and he became quite destitute. When such was the case, Cardinal Borgia, who had become acquainted with Sir John Hippesley Coxe in Italy, communicated to this gentleman the sad condition of Cardinal York. The same was imparted to Mr. Andrew Stewart, who drew up a memorial stating the whole case. Mr. Secretary Dundas laid this memorial before King George III, who immediately ordered the Earl of Minto, who was, at the time, ambassador at Vienna, to communicate to the Cardinal, in the most delicate manner possible, the King’s resolution to offer him an allowance of £4,000 sterling yearly. Lord Minto, in consequence, addressed to His Eminence the following letter, dated Vienna, February 19th, 1800: “I have received the orders of His Majesty, the King of Great Britain, to remit to your Eminence the sum of £2,000, and to assure your Eminence, that in accepting this mark of the interest and esteem of His Majesty, you will give him sensible pleasure. I am, at the same time, ordered to acquaint your Eminence with his Majesty’s intention to transmit a similar sum in the month of July, if the circumstances remain such that your Eminence continues disposed to accept it.... In executing the orders of the King, my Master, your Eminence will do me the justice to believe that I am deeply sensible of the honour of being the organ of the noble and touching sentiments with which His Majesty has condescended to charge me, and which have been inspired into him, on the one hand, by his own virtues, and on the other, by the eminent qualities of the august person in whom he wishes to repair, as far as possible, the disasters into which the universal scourge of our times has dragged, in a special manner, all who are most worthy of veneration and respect.” It has been remarked that the Cardinal and his brother Charles had a legal claim on the British Government for the arrears of the settlement made by Parliament on their grandmother, the Queen Consort of James II. It cannot be supposed, however, that this circumstance affected in the slightest degree the generous conduct of George III.

The Cardinal returned to Rome, and continued to enjoy the liberal pension till his death in June, 1807, He bequeathed to the, Prince of Wales the Order of the Garter which had belonged to his great-grandfather, Charles I., together with a still more precious relique, a ring which had been worn in ancient times by the Kings of Scotland at their coronation.

Cardinal York was far from ignoring these hereditary honours. Although he knew well that he never could be King, he, nevertheless asserted his claim on occasion of the death of his Brother Charles. He maintained it in a paper presented to the Pope, the foreign minister at Rome, and others. With this declaration he appears to have been perfectly satisfied, and struck a medal bearing the inscription: Henricus IX. Angliae Rex Dei gratia, sed non voluntate hominum. (Henry IX., King of Great Britain, by the grace of God, but not by the will of man.)

Somewhat later, the Prince of Wales caused a monument to be erected in St. Peter’s to the memory of the Chevalier St. George, the father, and his two sons, Prince Charles Edward, and Henry, Cardinal York.

    
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