The Last of the Stuarts.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 189, 24 June 1873, Page 6

The Last of the Stuarts.

All old gentleman has just passed away in America who it seems, claimed the right to sit on the throne of England. The New \ York Herald reports the death in that city of William Rysam Grade, in his seventy-first year. For fifty years, says the Herald, Mr Grade believed himself to be the lineal descendant of the great and unfortunate as well as royal houses of Stuart and Sobieski, and many well-in-formed people in New Europe and Europe had an abiding faith in his claims to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. Mr Grade, who called himself William the Fifth of England, was not unlike the late Mr Horace Greeley in appearance, but “his features and carriage weieof the true Stuart stamp." It is perhaps as well that he never succeeded in establishing his claim to the Crown, for although he is described as “being in manner a perfect gentleman, full of courtesy and chivalrous notions, and courageous in character, as no Stuart failed to be,” it is doubtful whether, from his habits and temperament, he would ever have made a good constitutional monarch. Under his pillow for years he had concealed an old rusty one barrelled pistol and a huge clasp-knife, with which he declared he would defend his life against the entire English army. In conversation he would frequently speak of the practicability of landing troops at different points to march to London and seize the Tower with the Crown jewels and the regalia, and ho also, “ when under the influence of liquor,” had a mania for borrowing money for which he had no need. About twelve months ago he had a difficulty with a man larger than himself, and who is not more than thirtyfive years of age. It occurred in the Washington Hotel. “The commingled blood of Arabella Stuart and John Sobieski i rose to fever heat,” and the aged monarch I knocked his opponent flat on the ground | and choked him vigorously. The remains lof William V. now rests in Woodlawn Cemetery.