ment and these observations, and in addition to them, I most solemnly assert to your Majesty, that Mr. Lawrence, neither at his own house, nor at mine, nor any where else, ever was for one moment, by night or by day, in the same room with me when the door of it was locked; that he never was in my company of an evening alone, except the momentary conversation which Mr. Lawrence speaks to may be thought an exception; and that nothing ever passed between him and me which all the world might not have witnessed. And, Sire, I have subjoined a deposition to the same effect from Mr. Lawrence. -To satisfy myself, therefore, and your Majesty, I have shewn, I trust, by unanswerable observations and arguments, that there is no colour for crediting Mr. Cole, or, consequently, any part of this charge, which rests solely on his evidence. But to satisfy the requisition of the Commissioners, I have brought my pride to submit (though not without great pain, I can assure your Majesty) to add the only nly contradictions which I con ceive can be given, those of Mr. Lawrence and myself. The next person with whom these examinations charge my improper familiarity, and with regard to which the Report represents the evidence as particularly strong, is Captain Manby. With respect to him, Mr. Cole's examination is silent. But the evidence on which the Commissioners rely on this part of the case is Mr. Bidgood's, Miss Fanny Lloyd's, and Mrs. Lisle's. It respects my conduct at three different places; at Montague House, Southend, and at Ramsgate; I shall preserve the facts and my observations more distinct, if I consider the evidence, as applicable to these three places, separately and in its order; and I prefer this mode of treating it, as it will enable me to consider the evidence of Mrs. Lisle in the first place, and consequently put it out of the reach of the harsher observations which I may be under the necessity of making upon the testimony of the other two. For though Mrs. Lisle, indeed, speaks to having seen Captain Manby at East Cliff in August, 1803, to the best of her remembrance it was only once. She speaks to his mecting her at Deal in the same season; that he landed there with some boys whom I took on charity, and who were under his care; yet she speaks of nothing there that can require a single observation from me. The material parts of her evidence respect her seeing him at Blackheath the Christmas before she had seen him at East Cliff. She says, it was the Christmas after Mr. Austin's child came, consequently the Christmas 1802-3. He used to come to dine there, she says he always went away in her presence, and she had no reason to think he staid after the Ladies retired. He lodged on the heath at that time; his ship was fitting up at Deptford; he came to dinner three or four times a week, or more. She supposes he might be alone with the Princess, but that she was in the habit of seeing Gentlemen and tradesmen without her being present. She (Mrs. Lisle) has seen him at luncheon and dinner both. The boys (two boys) came with him two or three times, but not to dinner. Captain Manby always sat next the Princess at dinner. The constant company were Mrs. and Miss Fitzgerald and herself-all retired with the Princess, and sat in the same room. Captain Manby generally retired about eleven, and sat with us all till then. Captain Manby and the Princess used, when we were together, to be speaking together separately, conversing separately, but not in a room alone. He was a person with whom the Princess appeared to have greater pleasure in taiking than with her Ladies. Her Royal High ness behaved to him ONLY as any woman would who likes flirting. She (Mrs. Lisle) would not have thought any married woman would have behaved properly, who behaved as Her Royal Highness did to Captain Manby. She can't say whether the Princess was attached to Captain Manby, only that it was a flirting conduct. She never saw any gallantries, as kissing her hand, or the like." I have cautiously stated the whole of Mrs. Lisle's evidence upon this part of the case; and I am sure your Majesty, in reading it, will not fail to keep the facts which Mrs. Lisle speaks to separate from the opinion or judgment which she forms upon them. I mean not to speak disrespectfully or slightingly of Mrs. Lisle's opinion, or express myself as in any degree indifferent to it. But whatever there was which she observed in my conduct that did not become a married woman, that "was ONLY like a woman who liked flirting," and "ONLY a flirting conduct," I am convinced your Majesty must be satisfied that it must have been far distant from affording any evidence of crime, of vice, or of indecency, as it passed openly in the company of my Ladies, of whom Mrs. Lisle herself was one. ---The facts she states are, that Captain Manby came very frequently to my house; that he dined there three or four times a week in the latter end of the year 1802; that he sat next to me at dinner; and that my conversation after dinner, in the evening, used to be with Captain Manby, separate from my Ladies. These are the facts: and is it upon them that my character, I will not say, is to be taken away, but is to be affected? Captain Manby had, in the autumn of the same year, been introduced to me by Lady Townshend, when I was upon a visit to her at Rainham. I think he came there only the day before I left it. He was a naval officer, as I understood, and as I still believe, of great merit. What little expense, in the way of charity, I am able to afford, I am best pleased to dedicate to the education of the children of poor, but honest persons; and I most generally bring them up to the service of the navy. I had at that time two boys at school, whom I thought of an age fit to be put to sea. I desired Lady Townshend to prevail upon Captain Manby to take them. He consented to it, and of course I was obliged to him. - About this time, or shortly afterwards, he was appointed to the Africaine, a ship which was fitting up at Deptford. To be near his ship, as I understood and believe, he took lodgings at Blackheath; and as to the mere fact of his being so frequently at my house-his intimacy and friendship with Lord and Lady Townshend, which of itself was assurance to me of his respectability and character-my pleasure in shewing my respect to them, by notice and attention to a friend of theirs-his undertaking the care of my charity boys-and his accidental residence at Blackheath, will, I should trust, not unreasonably account for it. I have a similar account likewise to give of paying for the linen furniture, with which his cabin was furnished. Wishing to make him some return for his trouble with the boys, I desired that I might choose the pattern of his furniture. I not only chose it, but had it sent to him, and paid the bill; finding, however, that it did not come to more than about twenty pounds, I thought it a shabby present, and therefore added some trifling present of plate, So I have frequently done, and I hope, without offence, may be permitted to do again, to any Captain on whom I impose such trouble. Sir Samuel Hood has now two of my charity boys with him; and I have presented him with a silver epergne. I should be ashamed to notice such things, but your Majesty perceives that they are made the subject of inquiry from Mrs. Fitzgerald and Mr. Stikeman, and I was desirous that they should not appear to be particular in the case of Captain Manby. But to return to Mrs. Lisle's examination. Mrs. Lisle says, that Captain Manby, when he dined with me, sat next to me at dinner. Before any inference is drawn from that fact, I am sure your Majesty will observe that, in the next line of Mrs. Lisle's examination, she says, "that the constant company was Mrs. and Miss Fitzgerald, and herself, Mrs. Lisle." The only gentleman, the only person of the whole party who was not of my own family, was Captain Manby; and his sitting next to me, under such circumstances, I should apprehend could not possibly afford any inference of any kind. In the evening we were never alone. The whole company sat together; nay, even as to his being with me alone of a morning, Mrs. Lisle seems to know nothing of the fact, but from a conjecture founded upon her knowledge of my known usual habit, with respect to seeing gentlemen who might call upon me. And the very foundation of her conjecture demonstrates that this circumstance can be no evidence of any thing particular with regard to Captain Manby. As to my conversing with Captain Manby separately, I do not understand Mrs. Lisle as meaning to speak to the state of the conversation uninterruptedly, during the whole of any of the several evenings when Captain Manby was with me; if I did so understand her, I should certainly most confidently assert, that she was not correct. That in the course of the evening, as the ladies were working, reading, or otherwise amusing themselves, the conversation was sometimes more and sometimes less general; and that they some times took more, sometimes less part in it;that frequently it was between Captain Manby and myself alone; and that, when we were all together, we two might frequently be the only persons not otherwise engaged, and therefore be justly said to be speaking together separately. Besides, Captain Manby has been round the world with Captain Vancouvre. I have looked over prints in books of voyages with him; he has plained them to me; the ladies may or may not have been looking over them at the same time; they may have been engaged with their own amusements. Here again, we may be said to have been conversing separately, and consequently that Mrs. Lisle, in this sense, is perfect ly justified in saying that "I used to converse separately with Captain Manby," I have not the least difficulty in admitting. But have I not again reason to complain that this expression of Mrs. Lisle's was not more sifted, but left in a manner calculated to raise an impression that this separate conversation was studiously sought for, was constant, uniform, and uninterrupted, though it by no means asserts any such thing? But whether I used always so to converse with him; or generally, or only sometimes, or for what proportion of the evening I used to be so engaged, is left unasked and unexplained. Have I not likewise just reason to complain, that though Mrs. Lisle states, that Mrs. Fitzgerald and Miss Fitzgerald were always of the party, they are not both examined to these circum stances? But Miss Fitzgerald is not examined at all; and Mrs. Fitzgerald, though examined, and examined too with respect to Captain Manby, does not appear to have had a single question put to her with respect to any thing which passed concerning him at Montague House. May I not therefore complain that the examination, leaving the generality of Mrs. Lisle's expression unexplained by herself; and the scenes to which it relates unexamined into, by calling the other persons who were present, is leaving it precisely in that state, which is better calculated to raise a suspicion, than to ascertain the truth? - But I am persuaded that the unfavourable impression which is most likely to be made by Mrs. Lisle's examination, is not by her evidence to the facts, but by her opinion upon them. "I appeared, she says, " to like the conversation of Captain Manby better than that of my ladies. I behaved to him only as a woman who likes flirting; my conduct was unbecoming a married woman; she cannot say whether I was attached to Captain Manby or not; it was only a flirting conduct."-Now, Sire, I must here again most seriously complain that the Commissioners should have called for, or received, and much more, reported, in this manner, the opinion and judgment of Mrs. Lisle upon my conduct. Your Majesty's Warrant purports to authorize them to collect the evidence, and not the opinion of others; and to report it, with their own judgment surely, and not Mrs. Lisle's. Mrs. Lisle's judgment was formed upon those facts which she stated to the Commissioners, or upon other facts. If upon those she stated, the Commissioners, and your Majesty, are as well able to form the judgment upon them as she was. If upon other facts, the Commissioners should have heard what those other facts were, and upon them have formed and reported their judgment. - I am aware, indeed, that if I were to argue that the facts which Mrs. Lisle states, afford the explanation of what she means by "only flirting conduct," and by " behaviour unbecoming a married woman," namely, that it consisted in having the same gentleman to dine with me three or four times a week; -letting him sit next me at dinner, when there were no other strangers in company;-conversing with him separately, and appearing to prefer his conversation to that of the ladies, it would be observed probably, that this was not all; that there was always a certain indescribable something in manner, which gave the character to conduct, and must have entered mainly iuto such a judgment as Mrs. Lisle has here pronounced. To a certain extent I should be obliged to agree to this; but if I am to have any prejudice from this observation; if it is to give a weight and authority to Mrs. Lisle's judgment, let me have the advantage of it also. If it justifies the couclusion that Mrs. Lisle's censure upon my conduct is right, it requires also that equal credit should be given to the qualification, the limit, and the restriction which she herself puts upon that censure.- Mrs. Lisle, seeing all the facts which she relates, and observing much of manner, which perhaps she could not describe, limits the expression " flirting conduct" by calling it "only flirting," and says (upon having the question asked to her, no doubt, whether from the whole she could collect that I was attached to Captain Manby) says "she could not say whether I was attached to him, my conduct nas not of a nature that proved any attachment to him, it was only a flirting conduct." Unjust therefore, as I think it, that any such question should have been put to Mrs. Lisle, or that her judgment should have been taken at all; yet what I fear from it, as pressing with peculiar hardship upon me, is, that though it is Mrs. Lisle's final and ultimate judgment upon the whole of my conduct, yet, when delivered to the Commissioners and your Majesty, it becomes evidence, which, connected with all the facts on which Mrs. Lisle had formed it, may lead to still further and more unfavourable conclusions, in the minds of those who are afterwards to judge upon it; that her judgment will be the foundation of other judgments against me, much severer than her own; and that though she evidently limits her opinion, and by saying "ONLY flirting" impliedly negatives it as affording any indication of any thing more improper, while she proceeds expressly to negative it as affording any proof of attachment; yet it may be thought by others, to justify their considering it as a species of conduct, which shewed an attachment to the man to whom it was addressed; which in a married woman was criminal and wrong. - What Mrs. Lisle exactly means by only flirting conduct-what degree of impropriety of conduct she would describe by it, it is extremely difficult, with any precision, to ascertain. How many women are there, most virtuous, most truly modest, incapable of any thing impure, vicious, or immoral, in deed or thought, who, from greater vivacity of spirits, from less natural reserve, from that want of caution, which the very consciousness of innocence betrays them into, conduct themselves in a manner, which a woman of a graver character, of more reserved disposition, but not with one particle of superior virtue, thinks too incautious, too unreserved, too familiar; and which, if forced upon her oath to give her opinion upon it, she might feel herself, as an honest woman, bound to say in that opinion, was flirting? But whatever sense Mrs. Lisle annexes to the word "flirting" it is evident, as I said before, that she cannot mean any thing criminal, vicious, or indecent, or any thing with the least shade of deeper impropriety than what is necessarily expressed in the word "flirting." She never would have added, as she does in both instances, that it was ONLY flirting; if she had thought it of a quality to be recorded in a formal Report, amongst circumstances which must occasion the most unfavourable interpretations, and which deserved the most serious consideration of your Majesty. To use it so, I am sure your Majesty must see is to press it far beyond the meaning which she would assign to it herself. --And as I have admitted that there may be much indescribable in the manner of doing any thing, so it must be admitted to me that there is much indescribable, and most material also in the manner of saying any thing, and in the accent with which it is said. The whole context serves much to explain it; and if it is in answer to a question, the words of that question, the manDer and the accent in which it is asked, are also most material to understand the precise meaning, which the expressions are intended to convey; and I must lament therefore extremely, if my character is to be affected by the opinion of any witness, that the question by which that opinion was drawn from her, were not given too, as well as her answers, and if this inquiry had been prosecuted before your Majesty's Privy Council, the more solemn and usual course of proceeding there would, as I am informed, have furnished, or enabled me to furnish, your Majesty with the questions as well as the answers. Mrs. Lisle, it should also be observed, was at the time of her examination, under the severe oppression of having, but a few days before, heard of the death of her daughter;-a daughter, who had been happily married, and who had lived happily with her husband, in mutual attachment till her death. The very circumstance of her then situation would naturally give a graver and severer cast to her opinions. When the question was proposed to her, as a general question, (and I presume it must have been so put to her) whether my conduct was such as would become a married woman, possibly her own daughter's conduct andwhat she would have expectedofher, might present itself to her mind. And I confidently submit to your Majesty's better judgment, that such a general question ought not, in a fair and candid consideration of my case, to have been put to Mrs. Lisle, or any other woman. For, as to my conduct being, or not being, becoming a married woman; the same conduct, or any thing like it, which may occur in my case, could not occur in the case of a married woman, who was not living in my unfortunate situation; or, if it did occur, it must occur under circumstances which must give it, and most deservedly, a very different character. A married woman, living well and happily with her husband, could not be frequently having one gentleman at her table, with no other company but ladies of her family, -she could not be spending her evenings frequently in the same society, and separately conversing with that gentleman, unless either with the privity and consent of her husband; or by taking advantage, with some management of his ignorance and his absence;-if it was with his privity and consent, that very circumstance alone would unquestionably alter the character of such conduct, if with management she avoided his knowledge, that very management would betray a bad motive. The cases therefore are not parallel; the illustration is not just; and the question, which called for such an answer from Mrs. Lisle, ought not, in candour and fairness, to have been put.--I entreat your Majesty, however, not to misunderstand me; I should be aslıamed indeed to be suspected of pleading any peculiar or unfortunate circumstance in my situation, as an excuse for any criminal or indecent act. With respect to such acts, most unquestionably such circumstances can make no difference; and afford no excuse. They must bear their own character of disgrace and infamy, under al circumstances. But there are acts, which are unbecoming a married woman, which ought to be avoidedbyher, from an apprehension lest they should render her husband uneasy, not because they might give him any reason to distrust her chastity, her virtne or her morals, but because they might wound his feelings, by indicating a preference to the society of another man, over his, in a case, where she had the option of both. But surely, as to such acts, they must necessarily bear a very different character, and receive a very different construction, in a case, where, unhappily, there can be no such apprehension, and where there is no such option. I must there. fore be excused for dwelling so much upon this part of the case; and I am sure your Majesty will feel me warranted in saying, what I say with a confidence, exactly proportioned to the respectability of Mrs. Lisle's character, that, whatever she meant, by any of these expressions, she could not, by possibility, have meant to describe conduct, which to her mind afforded evidence of crime, vice, or indecency. If she had, her regard to her own character, her own delicacy, her own honourable and virtuous feelings, would in less than the two years, which have since elapsed, have found some excuse for separating herself from that intimate connexion, which, by her situation in my household, subsists between us. She would not have remained exposed to the repetition of so gross an offence, and insult, to a modest, virtuous, and delicate woman, as that of being made, night by night, witness to scenes, openly acted in her presence, offensive to virtue and decorum. If your Majesty thinks I have dwelt too long and tediously on this part of the case, I entreat your Majesty to think what I must feel upon it. I feel it a great hardship, as I have frequently stated, that under the cover of a grave charge of High Treason, the proprie ties, and decencies, of my private conduct and behaviour, have been made the subject, as I believe so unprecedently, of a formal investigation upon oath. And that, in consequence of it, I may, at this moment, be exposed to the danger of forfeiting your Majesty's good opinion, and being degraded and disgraced in reputation through the country, because what Mrs. Lisle has said of my conduct, that it was "only that of a woman who liked flirting," has become recorded in the Report on this formal inquiry, made into matters of grave crimes, and of essential importance to the state. Let me conjure your Majesty, over and over again, before you suffer this circumstance to prejudice me in your opinion, not only to weigh all the circumstances I have stated, but to look round the first ranks of female virtue in this country, and see how many women there are of most unimpeached reputation, of most unsullied and unsuspected honour, character and virtue, whose conduct, though living happily with their husbands, if submitted to the judgment of persons of a severer cast of mind, especially if saddened, at the moment, by calamity, might be styled to be "flirting." I would not, however, be understood as intending to represent Mrs. Lisle's judgment, as being likely to be marked with any improper austerity, and therefore I am certain she must either have had no idea that the expressions she has used, in the manner which she used them, were capable of being understood, in so serious a light as to be referred to, amongst circumstances deserving the most serious consideration, and which must occasion most unfavourable interpretations; or she must by the imposing novelty of her situation, in private examination before four such grave characters, have been surprised into the use of expressions, which, with a better opportunity of weighing them, she would either not have used at all, or have accompanied with still more of qualification than that, which she has, however, in some degree, as it is, annexed to them. But my great complaint is the having, not, particularly, Mrs. Lisle's opinion, but any person's opinion, set up, as it were, in judgment against the propriety of my private conduct. How would it be endured, that the judgment of one man should be asked, and recorded in a solemn Report, against the conduct of another, either with respect to his behaviour to his child ren, or to his wife, or to any other relative? How would it be endured, in general, and I trust, that my case ought not, in this respect, to form an exception, that one woman should in a similar manner be placed in judgment, upon the conduct of another? And that judgment be reported, where her character was of most importance to her, as amongst things which must be credited till decidedly contradicted? Let every one put these questions home to their own breasts, and before they impute blame to me, for protesting against the fairness and justice of this procedure, ask how they would feel upon it, if it were their own case? - But perhaps they cannot bring their imaginations to conceive that it could ever become their own case. A few months ago I could not have believed that it would have been mine. But the just ground of my complaint may perhaps be more easily appreciated and felt, by supposing a more familiar, but an analogous case. The High Treason, with which I was charged, was supposed to be committed in the foul crime of adultery. What would be the impression of your Majesty, what would be the impression upon the mind of any one, acquam acquainted with the excellent laws of your Majesty's kingdom, and the admirable administration of them, if upon a Commission of this kind, secretly to inquire into the conduct of any man, upon a charge of High Treason, against the state, the Commissioners should not only proceed to inquire, whether in the judgment of the witness, the conduct of the accused was such as became a loyal subject; but, when the result of their Inquiry obliged them to report directly against the charge of Treason, they, nevertheless, should record an imputation, or libel, against his character for loyalty, and reporting, as a part of the evidence, the opinion of the witness, that the conduct of the accused was such as did not become a loyal subject, should further report, that the evidence of that witness, without specifying any part of it, must be credited till decidedly contradicted, and deserved the most serious consideration? How could he appeal from that report? How could he decidedly contradict the opinion of the witness! Sire, there is no difference between this supposed case and mine, but this. That in the case of the man, a character for loyalty, however injured, could not be destroyed by such an insinuation. His future life might give him abundant opportunities of falsifying the justice of it. But a female character, once so blasted, what hope or chance has it of recovery? Your Majesty will not fail to perceive, that I have pressed this part of the case, with an earnestness which shews that I have felt it. I have no wish to disguise from your Majesty, that I have felt it, and felt it strongly. It is the only part of the case, which I conceive to be in the least degree against me, that rests upon a witness who is at all worthy of your Majesty's credit. How unfair it is, that any thing she has said should be pressed against me, I trust I have sufficiently shewn. In canvassing, however, Mrs. Lisle's evidence, I hope I have never forgot what was due to Mrs. Lisle. I have been as anxious not to do her injustice, as to do justice to myself. I retain the same respect and regard for Mrs. Lisle now, as I ever had. If the unfavourable impressions, which the Commissioners seem to suppose, fairly arise out of the expres sious she has used, I am confident they will be understood, in a sense, which was never intended by her. And I should scorn to purchase any advantage to myself, at the expense of the slightest imputation, unjustly cast upon Mrs. Lisle, or any one else. - Leaving therefore, with these observations, Mrs. Lisle's evidence, I must proceed to the evidence of Mr. Bidgood. The parts of it which apply to this part of the case, I mean my conduct to Captain Manby at Montague House, I shall detail. They are as follows. "I first observed Captain Manby came to Montague House either the end of 1803, or the beginning of 1804. I was waiting one day' in the anti-room; Captain Manby had his hat in his hand, and appeared to be going away: he was a long time with the Princess, and, as I stood on the steps waiting, I looked into the room in which they were, and in the reflection on the looking-glass I saw them salute each other. I mean that they kissed each other's lips. Captain Manby then went away. I then observed the Princess have her handkerchief in her hands, and wipe her eyes, as if she was crying, and went into the drawing room." In his second deposition, on the 3d July, talking of his suspicions of what passed at Southend, he says, "they arose from seeing them kiss each other, as I mentioned before, like people fond of each other; a very close kiss." In these extracts from his depositions, there can undoubtedly be no complaint of any thing being left to inference. Here is a fact, which must unquestionably occasion almost as unfavourable interpretations, as any fact of the greatest impropriety and indecorum, short of the proof of actual crime. And this fact is positively and affirmatively sworn to. And if this witness is truly represented, as one who must be credited till he is decidedly contradicted; and the decided contradiction of the parties accused, should be considered us unavailing, it constitutes a charge which cannot possibly be answered. For the scene is so laid, that there is no eye to witness it, but his own: and therefore there can be no one who can possibly contradict him, however false his story may be, but the per sons whom he accused. As for me, Sire, there is no mode, the most solemn that can be devised, in which I shall not be anxious and happy to contradict it. And I do here most solemnly, in the face of Heaven, most directly and positively affirm, that it is as foul, malicions, and wicked a falsehood, as ever was invented by the malice of man. Captain Manby, to whom under the necessity of applying, for that purpose, in the deposition which I annex, most expressly and positively denies it also. Beyond these our two denials, there is nothing which can by possibility be directly opposed to Mr. Bidgood's evidence. All that remains to be done is to examine Mr. Bidgood's credit, and to see how far he deserves the character which the Commissioners give to him. How unfoundedly they gave such a character to Mr. Cole, your Majesty, I am satisfied, must be fully convinced. I suppose there must be some mistake, I will not call it by any harsher name, for I think it cau be no more than a mistake, in Mr. Bidgood's saying, that the first time he knew Captain Manby come to Montague House, was at the end of 1803, or beginning of 1804; for he first came at the end of the former year; and the fact is, that Mr. Bidgood must have seen him then. But, however, the date is comparatively immaterial, the fact it is, that is important. And here, Sire, surely I have the same complaint which I have so often urged. I would ask your Majesty, whether I, not as a Princess of Wales, I have been but as a party accused, had not a right to be The first |