The members of the so-called League of the White Rose, founded to perpetuate English allegiance to the direct line of Stuarts, do many things that are quite absurd.  They refuse to pray for the present King of England and profess to think that the Princess Mary of Bavaria is the true ruler of Great Britain.  All this represents that trace of sentiment which lingers among the English to-day.  They feel that the Stuarts were the last kings of England to rule by the grace of God rather than by the grace of Parliament.  As a matter of fact, the present reigning family in England is glad to derive its ancient strain of royal blood through a Stuart—­descended on the distaff side from James I., and winding its way through Hanover.

This sentiment for the Stuarts is a thing entirely apart from reason and belongs to the realm of poetry and romance; yet so strong is it that it has shown itself in the most inconsistent fashion.  For instance, Sir Walter Scott was a devoted adherent of the house of Hanover.  When George IV. visited Edinburgh, Scott was completely carried away by his loyal enthusiasm.  He could not see that the man before him was a drunkard and braggart.  He viewed him as an incarnation of all the noble traits that ought to hedge about a king.  He snatched up a wine-glass from which George had just been drinking and carried it away to be an object of reverence for ever after.  Nevertheless, in his heart, and often in his speech, Scott seemed to be a high Tory, and even a Jacobite.

There are precedents for this.  The Empress Eugenie used often to say with a laugh that she was the only true royalist at the imperial court of France.  That was well enough for her in her days of flightiness and frivolity.  No one, however, accused Queen Victoria of being frivolous, and she was not supposed to have a strong sense of humor.  None the less, after listening to the skirling of the bagpipes and to the romantic ballads which were sung in Scotland she is said to have remarked with a sort of sigh: 

“Whenever I hear those ballads I feel that England belongs really to the Stuarts!”

Before Queen Victoria was born, when all the sons of George III. were childless, the Duke of Kent was urged to marry, so that he might have a family to continue the succession.  In resenting the suggestion he said many things, and among them this was the most striking: 

“Why don’t you call the Stuarts back to England?  They couldn’t possibly make a worse mess of it than our fellows have!”

But he yielded to persuasion and married.  From this marriage came Victoria, who had the sacred drop of Stuart blood which gave England to the Hanoverians; and she was to redeem the blunders and tyrannies of both houses.

The fascination of the Stuarts, which has been carried overseas to America and the British dominions, probably began with the striking history of Mary Queen of Scots.  Her brilliancy and boldness and beauty, and especially the pathos of her end, have made us see only her intense womanliness, which in her own day was the first thing that any one observed in her.  So, too, with Charles I., romantic figure and knightly gentleman.  One regrets his death upon the scaffold, even though his execution was necessary to the growth of freedom.