THE GREAT DOUGLAS CASE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3333, 9 August 1926, Page 8

THE GREAT DOUGLAS CASE.

The marriage of Captain George Hay Campbell of Ouccoth (Scotland to Miss Clematis Waring recalls not only the bridegroom’s eminent legal ancestor. Sir Hay Campbell, who was counsel for the defence in the great Douglas case, but also the interesting story of one of the best known books in the English language, Boswell’s “Dorando” (writes “A.E.” in the Edinburgh Weekly Scotsman. The same hand that wrote the biography of Dr Johnson also wrote this iiction about the Douglas cause. For many years only one copy is known to have come into the market. “Dorundo” went through three editions : n one year, and now there are only three copies known to he in existence. The | writer of the notice of Boswell in the “Dictionary of National Biography” did not oven know the correct title of the |iioyelette—for such it is. “Dorando” is one of Boswell’s indiscretions, / for under thin disguise it deals with many of the persons and incidents of the great Douglas'cause, which in the middle of the eighteenth century agitated the breasts of the gossips of Scotland —and of England. Boswell was a strong partisan of Archibald Douglas, andi was one of the counsel employed when the case came before the House of Lords on appeal. In 1767, when the case was still sub judice, there appeared “Dorando,” in which Boswell managed) to foretell how the litigation would end in the law courts. The great Douglas cause was a struggle . for large possessions, and the point the Judges had to decide was as to the legitimacy of Mr Archibald James Edward Stewart, who claimed to be the offspring of the marriage of Lady Jane Douglas and Colonel John Stewart. Of the fact of the marriage there was no doubt. It occurred in 1746, but was kept secret because the lady rightly feared that it would not be approved by her brother, the first Duke of Douglas. In 1748 she claimed to have borne twin sous, Archibald and Sholto. Of these 'two children, Sholto died in 1749, and the battle of the lawyers was as to the legitimacy of Archibald. The enemies of Lady Jane persuaded even her brother that she had deceived him, and that the twins were not her own, but infants smuggled in for the purpose of inducing him to acknowledge her marriage. He stopped her allowance and disowned her, but after her death in 1753 made a fresh investigation, and was convinced of the truth of hor statement as to the birth of the children. He died in 1761, having settled his estates upon Archibald Stewart, henceforward called Douglas, whose right was contested by the Duke of Hamilton. The Duke was the inheritor of the Marquisate of Douglas and as heir-male of the family would be enalso to the estates of the Duke of Douglas if young Stewart’s illegitimacy could be proved. The case bristled with debatable points , and the lawyers, no doubt, reaped a good harvest of fees. The Court of Session favored Hamilton’s claim, but only bv the casting vote of the President, and in the highest Court of Appeal the decision—-and the Judges included Mansfield and Camden—was in favor of Stewart, who in 1790 was created Baron Douglas of Douglas. Such is the theme of Boswell’s “Dorando ’’ a pamphlet which contains less than 7,000 words in all, and is what the French call a Uvre a clef—a booklet in which the “Prince of Dorando” stands for the Duke of Douglas, “Don Spiritoso” for* Colonel Stewart, the “Princess Maria” for Lady Jane Douglas, the “Prince of Arvidoso” for the Duke of Hamilton, and so forth—disguises that in 1767 would present no . difficulties of intrep rotation, If there were aiiy doubt as to the author’s meaning a judicious application to “Don Ferdinand” (Archibald) of the words “the' young eaglet of a valiant nest,” from Home’s “Douglas,” would be a significant finger-post. Boswell had the shrewdness to see what the final judgement would he in the Douglas cause, and this gives additional interest to his story. Perhaps with the hope of mak'ng it more palatable to those of the opposite opinion, he ends with a pictu;e of the friendly reconcilement of tne two claimants.