The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-26
Tho Pretender to victoria's Throne.

nv EOSOhOSE W
Few persons are aware that IL the prin.
ciple Of primogeniture were applied to the
succession Of the English Crown the name
Of the sovereign Of the United Kingdom
would be, not Queen VICTORIA, but Queen
MARY. 1t Is exclusively by a Parliamen-
tary title that the present sovereign reigns.
So far as her claim to rule by right of birth
Is concerned, 1t Is based upon descent from
q daughter Of JAMES l., and must give way,
therefore, to the superior claim Of another
lady. who Is descended from a daughter OF
CHARLES 1. The lady to whom We refer IL
MARY THERESA HENRIETTA D~oRorHEA,
Archduchess Of Austria Este-Modena, and
wife Of II. R. Fl. Prince LOUIS of Bavaria.
or her genealogical right to the throne Of
England, Scotland, and Ireland. as the
representative Of the senior female line of
the House of STUART. the male line having
become extinct on the death of Cardinal
YORK, there is no doubt whatever. Not
until the whole issue of CHARLES I. Is
exhausted has the issue of the daugh-
ter of JAMES l., that is to say, the Hano-
verian dynasty. any claim to the throne
by right of birth.
Is this a purely academical question, or
are there actually Englishmen who hold
Queen VICTORIA to be a usurper as mucha
usurper, for example, as was HENRY VI,
who vas deposed ON the express ground
that the house of Lancaster, which he rep
resented, had no title to the Crown by right
of birth7 1t is usually supposed that the
English and Scotch Jacobites disappeared
as a party on the death Of the Cardinal
TlrI- ~ Vow --
and younger brother of CHARLES EDWARD,
commonly known as the Young Pretender.
So far as the name. indeed, is concerned
there Is no sense In retaining it, for JACoBUs
means JAMES, and JAMES ii. is dynasti-
cally dead, his issue being exhausted. The
principle of legitimism, however. has sur
vived the extinction of JAMES lis family,
and finds itself, as we have seen, incar-
mated In a descendant of CHARLES l.,
80 that the English and Scotch legit-
tmists might properly describe them
selves as Carllsts. Blu that word Is
associated with the adherents of the Span
ish pretender; consequently those who be-
lieve that the Crown of England and Scot
land ought to descend in accordance with
the laws Of primogeniture prefer to term
themselves Legitimists. or these there are
enough to maintain a party organization
and to publish a Legitimist Kalendar, in
which are set forth the grounds of the
Archduchess MARY's claims to the English
throne, and also the original weakness of
the Parliamentary title, upon which Queen
VICTORIA relies. The facts relating to the
latter subject are generally overlooked,
and for that reason they are recalled in the
current number Of the Nineteenth Century
by the Marquis DE RUvIGNY and Mr.. GRAN
sToUN METCALFE. who are accredited
spokesman OF the English Jacobite or Car
list party.
1t Is we'll known that the claim of the
Prince and Princess of ORANGE to reign
over England, Scotland, and Ireland as
King WILLIAM and Queen MARY was
based exclusively upon an act Of an irreg-
ular Convention" Parliament which met
at Westminster on Jan. %, 1889. Even IL
this so-called Parliament had not been
tainted with irregularity, 1t Is very doubt
full whether 1t had power to change the
succession to the Crown. ITALIAN points
out, in his Constitutional History, that
"only eight years before the nation had
declared, by its representatives, the incom-
potency Oh u tull fdrllalnent, even WIN q
King at its head, to alter the lincal force of
succession. No Wing even had then dared
to assert the doctrine that, not only a
King, but an entire royal family, might
be set aside for public convenience. How
much less. then, had an illegal convention,
assembled at the bidding of a foreign in
vader, a right to dispose of the Crownf'
Even this illegal convention, which was
surrounded by Dutch guards, showed itself
extremely reluctant to declare the throne
vacant, and, therefore, open to the Prince
and Princess Of ORANGE. The House of
Lords refused to say that King JAMES ii.
had "abdicated" the government, and
substituted the word "deserted," and they
proceeded to omit, by a majority of four
teen, the vital clause in the Commons reso-
luton, namely, that 1.-THE throne was there
by vacant" Then it was that WILLIAM, see
ing the Crown about to slip from his grasp,
sent for divers political chiefs and informed
them that he would not consent to be Re-
gc.t, and babe them come to some decision
at once. Coerced by the fear OF a civil war