The St. Johns herald., 1893-01-26
THE HOUSE OF STUART.
Rhetorical Errors Concerning It's
 Living Representative
Queen victoria's Claim to That Title Q Singular Absurdity-The Count of Paris Hone Entitled to That
 Distinction.

] There is a historical blunder which ever and anon comes up, and which, though Of no practical significance, yet cannot be without an imaginative in- fluenee on Anglo-Saxons, says Dr. Charles C. Starbuck in the Boston Ad- vertiser It respects the question: Who is the representative of the Stuarts? The statement is often made that it is the king of Italy, but this is mistake.
 When by death of Henry Stuart, Car dinal York, in 1907, the house of Stuart, and with it all the heirs of James H., became extinct, then as his eldest sis ter, Mary, had no grandchildren the Stuart representation devolved on King Victor Emmanuel I. of Sardinia as the heir of James younger sister, Henrietta, duchess of Orleans. Victor Emmanuels heir for the throne of Sar- dinia, as he had no sons, was his brother Charles Felix, but for the Stuart representation, which, of course, followed the English rule, it was his eldest daughter, Mary Beatrice. Her heir was her eldest son, Francis V., the last duke of Modena, whom Disraeli, in "Endymion," represents as ac- tually receiving the homage of some English idiots as their true sovereign. At his death wit bout issue in 1875, the Stuart claim (now, of course, purely ideal) passed to his next brother, Ferd- inand's only child, the archduchess Ma ria Theresa, wife of Prince Lewis, of Bavaria, who is thus the representative of the Stuarts, the TudOrs and the Plantagenets. The eldest of this lady's four or five sons bears the sign of his famous descent in the name of ''Prince Rupert" Thus the ideal claims of the ancient English royalty, having passed from the house of Savoy into the Mode nese branch of the house of Hapsburg- Lorraine, will in the next generation be settled in the house of Wittelsbach and ascend the throne of Bavaria, sup posing that monarchy to be then in ex- istence.
 On the death of Charles Felix in 1881 the Sardinian crown passed to the branch of Savoy-Carignano which part ed from the elder line a generation be- fore Henrietta Stuart was born. King Humbert, therefore, and his cousin and wife, Queen Margaret, are not only not the representatives of the Stuarts, but, as pointed out in Chambers Encyco- padia," they are not descendants of the Stuarts.
 Queen Victoria is guilty of singular absurdity in one of her books when she proudly calls herself, with true royal and feminine toryism, ''tho representa- tive of the Stuarts." Her house was chosen for the very reason that it's ele- vation signalized the national rejection of the Stuarts The act of settlement shows that she is not only not the rep resentative of Charles l., but is not even the representative of his sister Elizabeth until all the pOsterity of Elizabeth'S sons shall be extinct, for the act passes over the sons and over the eldest daughter, the abbess of Maubisson, and fixes on the youngest daughter, Sophia, as being Protest ant. The present dynasty, therefore, reigns by no antiquated right of de- scent, but by true act of national election. Victoria is not the reprcsen- tative of the Stuarts, but, which is an infinitely higher dignity, she is, by 6 free act of national choice, the repre- sentative of the majesty of mighty England. And perhaps the now de- caying British monarchy would do well to close its long and bestained, but yet illustrious, history, with this long and virtuous reign.
 may remark that the present repre- sentative of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen Victoria's ancestress, is said to be, curi- ously enough, the count of Paris.