The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-01 00:00:00

LITERA TITRE.

LETTRRS OF MARY STUART, QUEEN OF
SCOTLAND; collected from the Recueil des Lettres
de Marie Stuart; together with the Chronological Sum-
mary of Events during the Reign of the Queen of Scot-
land. By Prince Alexander Labanoff ; translated,
with Niles and an Introduction, by William Turnbull,
Esq., Advocate.
The great exertions made by Prince Labanoff, in in-
vestigating the archives of almost every Court of Eu-
rope, for State papers connected with the life and times
and personal history of the ill-fated but illustrious
daughter of James V. of Scotland, are favourably known
to all European scholars, who are interested in the ex-
tension of our biographical knowledge. Of the admira-
ble abstract which Mr. Turnbull has here made of the
Prince's voluminous " Collections," we cannot speak in
terms of too earnest praise. Suffice it to say, that on
the three momentous incidents connected with Mary, on
which, among modern writers, Hume and Robertson
have laid most stress, ae impheating her in conduct of
the most guilty criminality, these papers, now for the
first time produced by Prince Labanoff, from the various
royal and ducal repositories of continental sovereigns
and princes, where they had remained unexamined
and unknown by all former historiographers, and cor-
roborated by various documents drawn from the
monuments end records of Noble Scottish fami-
lies, completely, in our opinion, establish her in-
nocence. We allude to the suspicion of a guilty inti-
macy between Mary and David Riecio,—the charge of
her having had a guilty pre-knowledge of, or other col-
lusive participation in the murder by gunpowder of het
husband, Darnley ; and the still darker story of her
subsequent union with the ferocious Bothwell. We are
not ashamed to own that on each and every of these
points our own private judgment had long since passed
condemnation on the memory of this great, accom-
plished, but unhappy Queen. On all the evidence
which preceding historians had collected, even of
that produced by Mary's ablest apologists, we had
remained Lepressed with this terrible conviction. We
rise feom the perusal of these letters and papers with a
far different conviction—a clear and distinct perception
that they establish her absolute exoneration from these,
and from a multiplicity of less grave imputations.
lliccio appears, in his capacity of secretary for foreign
corresi,ondence, to have well merited her unbounded
confidence ; and it is certain that Murray, Argyll,
Ceiencairn, Rothes, Boyd, Ochiltree, and the other
parties who signed the bond, by which they cove-
nanted one with the other and each to all to effect
the murder of the Italian, were moved by no sort
of conviction of her gallantries, or resentment for Darn-
ley's supposed dishonour, but simply by the desire to rid
themselves of the man who was thoroughly cognisant of
all the facts of their past conspiracy with the Duke of
Chatelberault (Earl of Arran) to depose her, a?d place
the Regent, Murray, on her throne, supported as they
were by the powerful protection of Elizabeth, the ts.s-
- of which had been communicated to those
rebel Lords by Throckmorton. As to Darnley's death,
no reasonable man can doubt of Bothwell's fiendlike
concern in the matter; but we have abundant evidence
of Mary's regret and unaffected sorrow for the
untimely fate of her worthless husband. All the
authenticated evidence, even that given by quarters most
hostile to her, now removes every suspicion from the
Queen of criminality "or knowledge or act" touching
the appalling fate of Darnley. Then, as to Bothwell,
whom it is certain she detested, we have in these collec-
tions irresistible testimony to the fact of his having
forcibly seized her near Almond bridge, and afterwards
committed eidetic(' on her person. Her marriage with
that ruffian on the l sth of May, 1567, is theretore to be
explained on grounds that will suggest themselves
to every reader. She was married "in mourning ;"
and an original letier of the French Ambas-
sador, M. du Croce preserved in the Royal Li-
brary at Paris, Harley(' Collection, addressed to
Catherine de Medicis, three days after this ill-assorted
but compulsory marriage, at which Du Croc had refused
to be present, has this most: remarkable passage :
" Thursday (the very day of her marriage) her Majesty sent
for me, when I pereeived a strange formality between her and
her husband, which she begged me to excuse, saying that
if I saw her sad, it was because she did not wish to be
happy, as she said she never could be, wishing only
for death. Yesterday b-ing all slope in a closet with
the Earl of Bothwell, she called aloud for them to
give her a knife to kill herself with. Thoe who were in the
room adjoining the closet heard her." Melvil, in his Memoirs,
gives the same details ; they may be found p. 180 of the Banns-
Syne Club edition : " The queer), wha was sa disdanfully hand-
lit, and with sic reprocheful langage, that Arthour Askin and I
being present, hard her ask a knyt to stik hirself, or elis,' said
ache, 1 shall drown myself.' "
It is difficult to say whether the narrative or auto-
biographical itaterest or historical importance of this
work be the more difficult sufficiently to appreciate.

TILE 01. n CHURCH AT FULTIAM.—The venerable
tower of Fulham church, adjoining the palace of the Bishop
of London, has long called for restoration : brickwork capped
with Yorkshire paving formed the battlements, the turret was
stunted, the belfry windows, strings, and plinth, were tumbling
to pieces, and the great west window had disappeared altoge-
ther, and was boarded up. Partly by a rate, and partly by
subscription, funds have been raised, and the work is now
rapidly proci,edirig, under the direction of Mr. Godwin, the
architect. His Lordship the Bishop, the Rev. Mr. Baker, the
rector, Jahn Gunter, Esq., and several other of the principal
inhabitants of the parish, have exerted themselves to effect this
restoration. Mr. Samuel Cundy, of Pimlico, is the con-
tractor. Whin completed we shall give some account of the
church, which has several points of considerable interest.—
Builder.

HYDROPHOBIA AND ALLEGED MURDER.—A case
of hydrophobia occurred at Ennistymon on Tuesday last. A
girl named Anne Gallery, about fifteen years of age, was bitten
six weeks since by a dog. The dog did not show any previous
slaps of madness, but he has not since been heard of or seen.
Or. Shannon was called on, and when on his way met two
other medical men who accompanied him, and they all agreed
it was a confirmed case of hydrophobia. Our informant adds,
" This poor creature was smothered between two beds." Can
this be true ? We presume it was not advised by the medical
attendants. The circumstance being known, an inquiry will
no doubt be instituted into the murder.— Clare Journal.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.—EDINBURGII, AUG. 26.
The discussion on Councillor Russell's motion in favour of the
total repeal of the laws which inflict capital punishments, was
resumed this day in our Town-council, and carried by a majority
of 12 to 5.