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advantage, by any part of a Report, founded | authors of the original declarations, who may be

upon partial evidence, taken in my absence, upon charges, not yet communicated to me, until your Majesty had heard, what might be alleged in my behalf, in answer to it. But your Majesty will not be surprised nor displeased, that I, a woman, a stranger to the laws, and usages of your Majesty's kingdom, under charges, aimed, originally, at my life and honour, should hesitate to determine, in what manner I ought to act, even under the present circumstances, with respect to such accusations, without the assistance of advice in which I could confide. And I have had submitted to me the following observations, respecting the copies of the papers with which I have been furnished. And I humbly solicit from your Majesty's gracious condescension and justice a compliance with the requests, which arise out of them. In the first place, it has been observed to me, that these copies of the Report, and of the accompanying papers, have come unauthenticated by the sig nature of any person, high, or low, whose veracity, or even accuracy, is pledged for their correctness, or to whom resort might be had, if it should be necessary, hereafter, to establish, that these papers are correct copies of the originals. I am far from insinuating that the want of such attestations was intentional. No doubt it was omitted through inadvertence; but its importance is particularly confirmed by the state, in which the copy of Mrs. Lisle's examination has been transmitted to me. For in the third page of that examination there have been two erasures; on one of which, some words have been, subsequently introduced, apparently in a different haud-writing from the body of the examination; and the passage, as it stands, is probably incorrect, because the phrase is unintelligible. And this occurs in an important part of her examination. The humble, but earnest request, which I have to make to your Majesty, which is suggested by this observation, is, that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct, that the Report, and the papers which accompany it, and which, for that purpose, I venture to transmit to your Majesty with this letter, may be examined, and then returned to me, authenticated as correct, under the signature of some person, who, having attested their accuracy, may be able to prove it. In the second place, it has been observed to me, that the Report proceeds, by reference to certain written declarations, which the Commissioners describe as the necessary foundation of all their proceedings, and which contain, as I presume, the charge or information against my conduct. Yet copies of these written declarations have not been given to me. They are described, indeed, in the Report, as consisting in certain statements, respecting my conduct, imputing not only, gross impropriety of behaviour, but expressly asserting facts of the most confirmed, and abandoned criminality, for which, if true, my life might be forfeited. These are stated to have been followed by declarations from other persons, who, though not speaking to the same facts, had related other particulars, in themselves extremely suspicious, and still more so, as connected with the assertions already mentioned. On this, it is observed to me, that it is most important that I should know the extent, and the particulars of the charges or informations against me, and by what accusers they have been made; whether I am answering the charges of one set of accusers, or more. Whether the

collected from the Report to be Sir John and
Lady Douglas, are my only accusers; and the
declarations which are said to have followed, are
the declarations of persons adduced as witnesses
by Sir John and Lady Douglas, to confirm their
accusation; or whether such declarations are the
charges of persons, who have made themselves
also, the anthors of distinct accusations against
me. The requests, which, I humbly hope,
your Majesty will think reasonable, and just to
grant, and which are suggested by these further
observations are, First, That your Majesty
would be graciously pleased to direct, that I
should be furnished with copies of these decla-
rations: and, if they are rightly described, in
the Report, as the necessary foundation of all
the proceedings of the Commissioners, your Ma-
jesty could not, I am persuaded, but have gra-
ciously intended, in directing that I should be
furnished with a copy of the Report, that I
should also see this essential part of the pro-
ceeding, the foundation on which it rests.-
Secondly, That I may be informed whether I
have one or more, and how many accusers; and
who they are; as the weight and credit of the
accusation cannot but be much affected by the
quarter from whence it originates. Thirdly,
That I may be informed of the time when the
declarations were made. For the weight and
credit of the accusation must, also, be much
affected by the length of time, which my ас-
cusers may have been contented to have been
the silent depositories of those heavy matters of
guilt, and charge; and, Lastly, That your
Majesty's goodness will secure to me a speedy
return of these papers, accompanied, I trust,
with the further information which I have so-
licited; but at all events a speedy return of
them. And your Majesty will see, that it is not
without reason, that I make this last request,
when your Majesty is informed, that, though
the Report appears to have been made upon the
14th of July, yet it was not sent to me, till the
11th of the present month. A similar delay, I
should, of all things, deplore. For it is with
reluctance, that I yield to those suggestions,
which have induced me to lay, these my humble
requests, before your Majesty, since they must,
at all events, in some degree, delay the arrival
of that moment, to which, I look forward with
so earnest, and eager an impatience; when I
confidently feel, I shall completely satisfy your
Majesty, that the whole of these charges are
alike unfounded; and are all parts of the same
conspiracy against me. Your Majesty, so sa-
tisfied, will, I can have no doubt, be as anxious
as myself, to secure to me that redress, which
the laws of your kingdom (administering, under
your Majesty's just dispensation, equal protec-
tion and justice, to every description of your
Majesty's subjects), are prepared to afford to
those, who are so deeply injured as I have been.
That I have in this case, the strongest claim to
your Majesty's justice, I am confident I shall
prove: but I cannot, as I am advised, so satis-
factorily establish that claim, till your Majesty's
goodness shall have directed me, to be furnished
with an authentic statement of the actual charges
against me, and that additional information,
which it is the object of this letter most humbly,
yet earnestly, to implore. I am, Sire, your
Majesty's most dutiful, submissive, and humble
Daughter-in-law.
Montague-house.
To the King.

(Signed) C. P.

407]

Aug. 20th, 1806. The Lord Chancellor has the honour to return, to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, the box, as he received it this morning from His Majesty. It contains the papers he formerly sent to Her Royal Ilighness, and which he sends as they are, thinking that it may be, in the mean time, most agreeable to her Royal Highness.The reason of their not having been authenticated by the Lord Chancellor, was, that he received them as copies from Earl Spencer, who was in possession of the originals; and he could not, therefore, with propriety, do so, not having himself compared them;

commands, in case it should be Her Royal High-
ness's pleasure to return the papers by him.
Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.

Lincoln's Inn Fields, Aug. 19th, 1806. The Lord Chancellor has the honour to transmit to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales the papers desired by Her Royal Highness, just as he received them a few minutes ago from Earl Spenser, with the note accompanying them.

* N. B. These papers, being the original declarations, on which the inquiry proceeded, will be found in

Appendix (A.) but her Royal

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Highness may depend upon having other copies
sent to her, which have been duly examined and
certified to be so. The box will be delivered
to one of Her Royal Highness's Pages in waiting,
by the principal officer attendant upon the Lord
Chancellor, and he trusts he shall find full credit
with Her Royal Highness; that in sending
vant formerly with the papers the moment he
received them (no messenger being in waiting,
and the officers who attend him being detained
by their duties in court), he could not be sup-
posed to have intended any possible disrespect,
which he is incapable of shewing to any lady,
but most especially to any member of His Ma-
jesty's Royal family.

To Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.

Lincoln's Inn Fields, Aug. 24th, 1806. His Majesty has been pleased to transmit to me the letter which he has received from your Royal Highness, dated the 17th instant; and to direct that I should communicate the same to the Lords Commissioners who had been com

manded by His Majesty to report to His Ma-
jesty on the matters therein referred to; and I
have now received His Majesty's further com-
mands, in consequence of that letter, to acquaint
I transmitted to
your Royal Highness, that when
your Royal Highness, by the King's commands,
and under my signature, the copies of official
papers, which had been laid before His Majesty,
those papers were judged thereby duly authenti-
cated, according to the usual course and forms
of office; and sufficiently so, for the purposes
for which His Majesty has been graciously pleas-
ed to direct them to be communicated to your
Royal Highness. That, nevertheless, there
does not appear to be any reason for His Ma-
jesty's declining a compliance with the request
which your Royal Highness has been advised to
make, that those copies should, after being ex-
amined with the originals, be attested by some
person to be named for that purpose: and that,
if your Royal Highness will do me the honour to
transmit them to me, they shall be examined and
attested accordingly, after correcting any errors
that may have occurred in the copying. -His
Majesty has further authorized me to acquaint
your Royal Highness, that he is graciously
pleased, on your Royal Highness's request, to
consent that copies of the written declarations
referred to in the Report of the Lords Commis-
sioners, should be transmitted to your Royal
Highness, and that the same will be trans-
mitted accordingly, so soon as they can be
transcribed.

(Signed)

ERSKINE, С.

The Lord Chancellor has the honour to add to the above official communication, that his Pursebearer respectfully waits her Royal Highness's

Aug. 31, 1806.

Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales acquaints the Lord Chancellor, that the gentleman with whom Her Royal Highness advises, and who had possession of the copies of the offi. cial papers communicated to Her Royal Highness by the Lord Chancellor, returned from the country late yesterday evening. Upon the subject of transmitting these papers to the Lord Chancellor, for the purpose of their being examined and authenticated, and then returned to Her Royal Highness, he states, that in consequence of the Lord Chancellor's assurance, contained in his note of the 20th instant, that Her Royal Highness might depend upon having other copies sent to her, which had been duly examined and certified to be so; he has relied upon being able to refer to those already sent, and therefore it would be inconvenient to part with them at present: and Her Royal Highness therefore hopes, that the Lord Chancellor will procure for her the other authenticated copies, which his Lordship promised in his note of the 20th inst. With respect to the copies already sent, being, as the Lord Chancellor expresses it, in his letter of the 24th instant, "judged to be duly authenticated "according to the usual course and forms of of "fice, and sufficiently so for the purpose for " which His Majesty had been graciously pleased "to direct them to be communicated to His "Royal Highness, because they were transmit"ted to her, by the King's commands, and under his Lordship's signature." Her Royal High

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ness could never have wished for a more authen

tic attestation, if she had conceived that they were authenticated under such signature. But she could not think that the mere signature of his Lordship, on the outside of the envelope which contained them, could afford any authenticity to the thirty papers which that envelope contained; or could, in any manner, identify any of those papers as having been contained in that envelope. And she had felt herself confirmed in that opinion, by his Lordship's saying in his note of the 20th instant, " that the reason of their not " having been authenticated by the Lord Chan"cellor was, that he received them as copies "from Earl Spencer, who was in possession of "the originals, and he could not, therefore, with "propriety do so, not having himself compared "them." Her Royal Highness takes this opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of the declarations referred to in the Commissioners' Report.

To the Lord Chancellor.

Lincoln's Inn Fields, Sept. 2d, 1806. The Lord Chancellor has taken the earliest opportunity in his power of complying with the wishes of Her Royal Highness the Princess of

Wales. He made the promise of other copies, without any communication with the other Commissioners, wholly from a desire to shew every kind of respect and accommodation to Her Royal Highness, in any thing consistent with his duty, and not at all from any idea that the papers, as originally sent, (though there might be errors in the copying), were not sufficiently authenticated; an opinion, which, he is obliged to say, he is not removed from; nevertheless, the Lord Chancellor has a pleasure in conforming to Her Royal Highness's wishes, and has the honour to enclose the attested copies of the Depositions, as he has received them from Earl Spencer.

To Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.

[The two following I etters, not in the Book, copied from Morning Herald, March 17, 1813.] Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales to the

King.

SIRE-In discharge of the duty I owe to myself, and the great duty I owe to your Majesty and your Illustrious Family, I have herewith transmitted a statement, which I confidently trust will appear to prove me not unworthy of the protection and favour with which your Majesty has pleased to honour me.--To be restored to that favour and protection, in consequence of a conviction in your Majesty's mind of my innocence, produced by the Papers I now humbly lay before your Majesty, is the first wish of my heart. Grieved, Sire, deeply grieved as I cannot but be, that your Majesty should be exposed to so much trouble on so painful an occasion, and, on my account, it is yet my humble trust that your Majesty will graciously forgive me, if extreme anxiety about my honour, and your Majesty's favourable opinion, leads me humbly to solicit, as an act of justice, that scrupulous attention on your Majesty's part to these Papers, which cannot fail, I think, to produce, in your Majesty's mind, a full conviction of my innocence, and a due sense of the injuries I have suffered. One other prayer I with all possible humility and anxiety address to your Majesty, that, as I can hope for no happiness, nor expect to enjoy the benefit of that fair reputation to which I know I am entitled, till I am re-admitted into your Majesty's presence, and as I am in truth without guilt, suffering what to me is heavy punishment, whilst I am denied access to your Majesty, your Majesty will be graciously pleased to form an early determination whether my conduct and my sufferings do not authorize me to hope that the blessing of being restored to your Majesty's presence may be conferred upon, Sire, your Majesty's dutifully attached, affectionate, and afflicted daughter-in-law and subject.

(Signed) CAROLINE.

Blackheath, Oct. 2, 1806.

Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales to the King.

SIRE-I received yesterday, and with inexpressible pain, your Majesty's last verbal communication. The duty of stating, in a representation to your Maj Majesty, the various grounds upon which I feel the hardships of my case, and upon which, I confidently think, that upon a review of it, your Majesty will be disposed to recal your last determinatio tion, is one I owe to myself; and I cannot forbear, at the moment when I acknowledge the receipt of your Majesty's letter, to announce to your Majesty, that I propose to execute that uty without delay. After having suffered the punishment of banishment from

your Majesty's presence for seven months, pend. ing an inquiry which your Majesty had directed to be made into my conduct, affecting both my life and my honour-after that inquiry had at length terminated in the advice of your Majesty's Confidential and Sworn Servants, that there was no longer any reason for your Majesty's declining to receive me-after your Majesty's gracious communication, which led me to rest assured that your Majesty would appoint an early day to receive me if, after all this, by a renewed application on the part of the Prince of Wales (upon whose communications the first inquiry had been directed), I now find, that that punishment to which I had been condemned during the same seven months' inquiry previous to the determination in my favour, should, contrary to the opinion of your Majesty's Servants, be continued after that determination, to await the result of some new proceeding, to be suggested by the Lawyer of the Prince of Wales, it is impossible that I can fail to assert to your Majesty, with the effort due to truth, that I am, in the consciousness of my own innocence, and with a strong sense of my unmerited sufferings, Sire, your Majesty's most dutiful and affectionate, but much injured, subject and daughter-in-law, (Signed) CAROLINE.

Montague-house, Blackheath,
Feb. 12, 1807.

Copy of a Letter from Her Royal Highness the
Princess of Wales to the King.

Sire, When I last troubled your Majesty upon my unfortunate business, I had raised my mind to hope that I should have the happiness of hearing from your Majesty, and receiving your gracious commands to pay my duty in your Royal presence before the expiration of the last week; and, when that hope was disappointed, eagerly clinging to any idea which offered me a prospect of being saved from the necessity of having recourse (for the vindication of my character) to the publication of the proceedings upon the inquiry into my conduct, I thought it just possible, that the reason for my not having received your Majesty's commands to that effect might have been occasioned by the circumstance of your Majesty's staying at Windsor through the whole of the week. I, therefore, determined to wait a few days longer before I took a step which, when once taken, could not be recalled. Having, however, now assured myself that your Majesty was in town yesterday, -as I have received no command to wait upon your Majesty, and no intimation of your pleasure, -I am reduced to the necessity of abandoning all hope that your Majesty will comply with my humble, my earnest, and anxious request. Your Majesty, therefore, will not be surprised to find that the publication of the proceedings alluded to will not be withheld beyond Monday next. --As to any consequences which may arise from such publication, unpleasant or hurtful to my own feelings and interests, I may perhaps be properly responsible, and in any event have no one to complain of but myself, and those with whose advice I have acted; and whatever those consequences may be, I am fully and unalterably convinced that they must be incalculably less than those which I should be exposed to from my silence. But as to any other consequences, unpleasant or hurtful to the feelings and interests of others, or of the Public, my conscience will certainly acquit me of them. -I am confident that I have not acted impa

tiently or precipitately. To avoid coming to this painful extremity, I have taken every step in my power, except that which would abandon my character to utter infamy, and my station and life to no uncertain danger, and possibly to no very distant destruction. With every prayer for the lengthened continuance of your Majesty's health and happiness, for every possible blessing which a gracious God can bestow upon the beloved Monarch of a loyal people, and for the continued prosperity of your dominions, under your Majesty's propitious reigu, I remain, your Majesty's most dutiful, loyal, and affectionate, but most unhappy and most injured, daughter-in-law, subject and servant, C. P.

(Signed)

Montague-house, March 5, 1807.

To the King.

Sire, Impressed with the deepest sentiments of gratitude for the countenance and protection which I have hitherto uniformly received from your Majesty, I approach you with a heart undismayed upon this occasion, so awful and momentous to my character, my honour, and my happiness. I should indeed, (under charges such as have now been brought against me,) prove myself undeserving of the continuance of that countenance and protection, and altogether unworthy of the high station, which I hold in your Majesty's illustrious family, if I sought for any partiality, for any indulgence, for any thing more than what is due to me in justice. My entire confidence in your Majesty's virtues assures me that I cannot meet with less. The situation, which I have been so happy as to hold in your Majesty's good opinion and esteem; my station in your Majesty's august family; my life, my honour, and, through mine, the honour of your Majesty's family have been attacked. Sir John and Lady Douglas have attempted to support a direct and precise charge, by which they have dared to impute to me, the enormous guilt of High Treason, committed in the foul crime of Adultery. In this charge, the extravagance of their malice has defeated itself. The Report of the Lords Commissioners, acting under your Majesty's warrant, has most fully cleared me of that charge. But there remain imputations, strangely sanctioned and countenanced by that Report, on which I cannot remain silent, without incurring the most fatal consequences to my honour and character. For it states to your Majesty, that " The circumstances detailed against me must be credited, till they are decisively contradicted." To contradict, with as much decision as the contradiction of an accused can convey; to expose the injustice and malice of my enemies; to shew the utter impossibility of giving credit to their testimony; and to vindicate my own innocence, will be the objects, Sire, of this letter. In the course of my pursu ing these objects, I shall have much to complain of, in the substance of the Proceeding itself, and much in the manner of conducting it. That any of these charges should ever have been entertained upon testimony so little worthy of which betrayed, in every sentence, the malice in which it originated; that, even if they were entertained at all, Your Majesty should have been advised to pass by the ordinary legal modes of Inquiry into such high crimes, and to refer them to a Commission, open to all the objection, which I shall have to state to such a quiry; that the Commissionero,

belief,

mode of In after having ne

gatived the principal charge of substantive crime, should have entertained considerations of matters that amounted to no legal offence, and which were adduced, not as substantive charges in themselves, but as matters in support of the principal accusation; That through the pressure and weight of their official occupations, they did not, perhaps could not, bestow that attention on the case, which, if given to it, must have enabled them to detect the villany and falsehood of my accusers, and their foul conspiracy against me; and must have preserved my character from the weighty imputation which the authority of the Commissioners has, for a time, cast upon it; but, above all, that they should, upon this ex parte examination, without hearing one word that I could urge, have reported to your Majesty an opinion on these matters, so prejudicial to my honour, and from which I can have no appeal to the laws of the country, (because the charges, constituting no legal offence, cannot be made the ground of a judicial inquiry;)-These and many other circumstances connected with the length of the Proceeding, which have cruelly aggravated, to my feelings, the pain necessarily attendant upon this Inquiry, I shall not be able to refrain from stating, and urging, as matters of serious lamentation at least, if not of well-grounded complaint. In commenting upon any part of the circumstances, which have occurred in the course of this Inquiry, whatever observations I may be compelled to make upon any of them, I trust, I shall never forget what is due to oneers in high station and employment, under your Majesty. No apology, therefore, can be required for any reserve in my expressions towards them. But if, in vindicating my innocence against the injustice and malice of my enemies, I should appear to your Majesty not to express myself with all the warmth and indignation, which innocence, se foully calumniated, must feel, your Majesty will, I trust, not attribute my forbearance to any insensibility to the grievous injuries I have sustained; but will graciously be pleased to ascribe it to the restraint I have imposed upon myself, lest in endeavouring to describe in just terms the motives, the conduct, the perjury, and all the foul circumstances, which characterize and establish the malice of my accusers, I might use language, which, though not unjustly applied to them, might be improper to be used by me to any body, or unfit to be employed by any body, humbly, respectfully, and dutifully addressing your Majesty. a fit opportunity has occured for laying open my heart to your Majesty, perhaps, I shall, hereafter, have no reason to lament. For more than two years, I had been informed, that, upon the presumption of some misconduct in me, my behaviour had been made the subject of investigation, and my neighbours and servants had been examined concerning it. And for some time I had received mysterious and indistinct intimations, that some great mischief was meditated towards me. And, in all the circumstances of my very peculiar liar situation, will not be thought strange, scious I was, that I bad no just cause of fear, I should yet feel some uneasiness on this account. With surprise c certainly (because the first tidings tid were of a kind kind to excite surprise), prise), but without alarm, I received the some reason, a formal investigation of some parts of my conduct had been advised, and had actually

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taken place. His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, on the 7th of June, announced it to me. He announced to me, the Princess of Wales, in the first communication made to me, with respect to this proceeding, the near approach of two attorneys (one of them, I since find, the solicitor employed by Sir John Douglas), claiming to enter my dwelling, with a warrant, to take away one half of my household, for immediate examination upon a charge against myself. Of the nature of that charge I was then uninformed. It now appears, it was the charge of High Treason, committed in the infamous crime of adultery. His Royal Highness, I am sure, will do me the justice to represent to your Majesty, that I betrayed no fear, that I manifested no symptonis of conscious guilt, that I sought no excuses to prepare, or to tutor, my servants for the exantination which they were to undergo. The only request which I made to His Royal Highness was, that he would have the goodness to remain with me till my servants were gone; that he might bear witness, that I had no conversation with them before they went. In truth, Sire, my anxieties, under a knowledge that some serious mischief was planning against me, and while I was ignorant of its quality and extent, had been ⚫ great that I could not but rejoice at an event, which seemed to promise me an early opportnnity of ascertaining what the malice of my enemies intended against me. It has not been, indeed, without impatience the most painful, that I have passed the interval, which has since elapsed. When once it was not only known to me, but to the world (for it was known to the world), that Inquiry of the gravest nature had been instituted into my conduct, I looked to the conclusion with all the eagerness that could belong to an absolute conviction, that my innocence and my honour, to the disgrace and confusion of my accusers, would be established; and that the groundless malice and injustice of the whole charge would be manifested to the world, as widely as the calumny had been circulated. I knew that the result of an ex parte inquiry, from its very nature, could not, unless it fully asserted my entire innocence, be in any degree just. And I had taught myself most firmly to believe, that it was utterly impossible that any opinion which could, in the smallest degree, work a prejudice to my honour and character, could ever be expressed in any terms, by any persons, in a Report upon a solemn formal Inquiry, and more especially to your Majesty, without my having some notice and some opportunity of being heard. And I was convinced that, if the proceeding allowed me, before an opinion was expressed, the ordinary means which accused persons have, of vindicating their honour and their innocence, my honour and my innocence must, in any opinion which could then be expressed, be fully vindicated and effectually established.

" be questioned;" and their infamous stories and insinuations against me, to be " such as deserve "the most serious consideration, and as must be "credited till decisively contradicted." The Inquiry, after I thus had notice of it, continued for above two months. I venture not to com plain, as if it had been unnecessarily protracted. The important duties and official avocations of the Noble Lords, appointed to carry it on, may naturally account for and excuse some delay. But however excusable it may have been, your Majesty will easily conceive the pain and anxiety which this interval of suspense has occasioned; and your Majesty will not be surprised if I further represent, that I have found a great aggravation of my painful sufferings, in the delay which occurred in communicating the Report to me. For though it is dated on the 14th July, I did not receive it, notwithstanding your Majesty's gracious commands, till the 11th of August. It was due unquestionably to your Ma jesty, that the result of an Inquiry, commanded by your Majesty, upon advice which had been offered, touching matters of the highest import, should be first and immediately communicated to you. The respect and honour due to the Prince of Wales, the interest which he must necessarily have taken in this Inquiry, combined to make it indisputably fit that the result should be forthwith also stated to His Royal Highness. I complain not, therefore, that it was too early communicated to any one; I complain only (and I complain most seriously, for I felt it most se verely), of the delay in its communication to me.--Rumour had informed the world, that the Report had been early communicated to your Majesty and to His Royal Highness. I did not receive the benefit intended for me by your Ma jesty's gracious command, till a month after the Report was signed. But the same rumour had represented me, to my infinite prejudice, as in possession of the Report during that month; and the malice of those, who wished to stain my ho. nour, has not failed to suggest all that malice could inter, from its remaining in that possession so long unnoticed. May I be permitted to say, that if the Report acquits me, my innocence en titled me to receive from those, to whom your Majesty's commands had been given, an inmediate notification of the fact that it did acquit me. That if it condemned me, the weight of such a sentence should not have been left to set. tle in any mind, much less upon your Majesty's, for a month, before I could even begin to pre pare an answer, which, when begun, could not speedily be concluded; and that, if the Report could be represented as both acquitting and con demning me, the reasons, which suggested the propriety of an early communication in each of the former cases, combined to make it proper and necessary in the latter. And why all consideration of my feelings was thus cruelly neg.

What then, Sire, must have been my astonish-lected; why was I kept upon the rack, during

ment and my dismay, when I saw, that notwithstanding the principal accusation was found to be utterly false, yet some of the witnesses to those charges which were brought in support of the principal accusation, witnesses whom any person, interested to have protected my character, would easily have shewn, out of their own mouths, to be utterly unworthy of credit, and confederates in foul conspiracy with my false accusers, are reported to be "free from all sus"picion of unfavourable bias;" their veracity, "in the judgment of the Commissioners, not to

all this time, ignorant of the result of a charge, which affected my honour and my life; and why, especially in a case where such grave matters were to continue to be "credited, to the preju

* The time that the Inquiry was pending, after this notice of it, is here confounded with the time which elapsed before the Report was com municated to her Royal Highness. The Inquiry itselt only lasted to the 14th or 16th of July, which is but between five and six weeks from the 7th of June,

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