advice. And the whole character, of the observations with which they accompanied it, marks the reluctance with which they yielded to the necessity of giving it. For your majesty's confidential servants advise your majesty, "that it is no longer necessary for you to decline receiving me into your royal presence." If this is their opinion and their advice now, why was it not their opinion and their advice four months ago, from the date of my answer? Nay, why was it not their opinion and advice from the date even of the original report itself? For not only had they been in possession of my answer for above sixteen weeks, which at least furnished them with all the materials on which this advice at length was given, but further, your majesty's confidential servants are forward to state, that after having read my observations and the affidavits which they annexed to them, they agree in the opinions (not in any single opinion upon any particular branch of the case, but in the opinions generally) which were submitted to your majesty, in the original report of the four lords. If therefore (notwithstanding their concurrence in all the opinions contained in the report) they have nevertheless given to your majesty their advice," that it is no longer necessary for you to decline receiving me"-what could have prevented their offering that advice, even from the 14th of July, the date of the original report itself? Or what could have warranted the withholding of it, even for a single moment? Instead, therefore, of any trace being observable, of hasty, precipitate, and partial determination in my favour, it is impossible to interpret their conduct and their reasons together in any other sense, than as amounting to an admission of your majesty's confidential servants themselves, that I have, in consequence of their withholding that advice, been unnecessarily and cruelly banished from your royal presence, from the 14th of July to the 28th of January, including a space of above six months; and the effect of the interposition of the prince, is to prolong my sufferings, and my disgrace, under the same banishment, to a period perfectly indefinite. The principle which will admit the effect of such interposition now, may be acted upon again; and the prince may require a further prolongation, upon fresh statements and fresh charges, kept back possibly for the purpose of being from time to time conveniently interposed, to prevent for ever the arrival of that hour, which, displaying to the world the acknowledgment of my unmerited sufferings and disgrace, may at the same time expose the true malicious and unjust quality of the proceedings which have been so long carried on against me. .This unseasonable, unjust, and cruel interposition of his royal highness, as I must ever deem it, has prevailed upon your majesty to recall to my prejudice your gracious purpose of receiving me, in pursuance of the advice of your servants. Do I then flatter myself too much, when I feel assured that my just entreaty, founded upon the reasons which I urge, and directed to counteract only the effect of that unjust interposition, will induce your majesty to return to your original determination? Restored, however, as I should feel myself, to a state of compara tive security, as well as credit, by being at length permitted, upon your to have access to your majesty; yet, under all the circumstances under which I should now receive that mark and confirmation of your majesty's opinion of my innocence, my character would not, I fear, stand cleared in the public opinion, by the mere fact of your majesty's reception of me. This revocation of your majesty's gracious purpose has flung an additional cloud about the whole proceeding, and the inferences drawn in the public mind, from this circumstance, so mysterious and so perfectly inexplicable, upon any grounds which are open to their knowledge, has made, and will leave so deep an impression to my prejudice, as scarce any thing short of a public exposure of all that has passed can possibly efface. ter and honour exposed by the de your majesty's gracious reconsideration of your last determination, lays which have taken place in these proceedings: it will be seen that the existence of the charge against me had avowedly been known to the public from the 7th of June in the last year-I say known to the public, because it was on that day that the commissioners, acting, as I am to suppose, (for so they state in their report) under the anxious wish, that their trust should be executed with as little publicity as possible, authorized that unneces sary insult and outrage upon me, as I must always consider it, which, however intended, gave the utmost publicity and exposure to the exist ence of these charges-I mean the sending two attornies, armed with their lordships' warrant, to my house, to bring before them, at once, about one half of my household for examination. The idea of privacy, after an act so much calculated, from the extraordinary nature of it, to excite the greatest attention and surprise, your ma jesty must feel to have been impossible and absurd; for an attempt at secrecy, mystery, and concealment, on my part, could, under such circumstances, only have been construed into the fearfulness of guilt. The publication of all these proceedings to the world, then, seems to me, under the present circumstances, (whatever reluctance I feel against such a measure, and how ever I regret the hard necessity which drives me to it,) to be almost the only remaining resource, for the vindication of my honour and character. The falschood of the accusation is, by no means, all that will, by such publication, appear to the credit and clearance of my character; but the course in which the whole proceedings have been carried on, or rather delayed, by those to whom your majesty referied the consideration of them, will show that, whatever measure of justice I may have ultimately received at their hands, it is not to be suspected as arising from any merciful and indulgent consideration of me, of my feelings, or of my case. It will be seen how my feelings had been harassed, and my charac、 It will appear also, that from that time, I heard nothing authentically upon the subject till the 11th of August, when I was furnished, by your majesty's commands, with the report. The several papers necessary to my understanding the whole of these charges, in the au thentic state in which your majesty thought it proper, graciously to di rect that I should have them, were not delivered to me till the beginning of September. My answer to these various charges, though the whole subject of them was new to those those whose advice I had recourse to, long as that answer was necessarily obliged to be, was delivered to the lord chancellor, to be forwarded to your majesty, by the 6th of October; and, from the 6th of October to the 28th of January, I was kept in total ignorance of the effect of that answer. Not only will all this delay be apparent, but it will be generally shown to the world how your majesty's servants had, in this important business, treated your daughter-in-law, the princess of Wales; and what measure of justice she, a female and a stranger in your land, has experienced at their hands. Undoubtedly against such a proceeding I have ever felt, and still feel, an almost invincible repugnance. Every sentiment of delicacy, with which a female mind must shrink from the act of bring ing before the public such charges, however conscious of their scandal and falsity, and however clearly that scandal and falsity may be manifested by the answer to those charges; the respect still due from me, to persons employed in authority under your majesty, however little respect I may have received from them;-my duty to his royal highness the prince of Wales; my regard for all the members of your august family; my esteem, my duty, my gratitude to your majesty,my affectionate gratitude for all the paternal kind. ness which I have ever experienced from you;-my anxiety, not only to avoid the risk of giving any of fence or displeasure to your majesty, but also to fly from every occasion of creating the slightest sentiment of uneasiness in the mind of your majesty, whose happiness it would be the pride and pleasure of my life to consult and to pro, 1813, mote; all these various sentiments have compelled me to submit, as long as human forbearance could endure, to all the unfavourable inferences which were through this delay daily increasing in the public mind. What the strength and efficacy of these motives have been, your majesty will do me the justice to feel, when you are pleased, graciously, to consider how long I have been contented to suffer those su spicions to exist against my innocence, which the bringing before the public of my accusation and my defence to it, would so indisputably and immediately have dispelled. The measure, however, of making these proceedings public, whatever mode I can adopt (considering especially the absolute impossibility of suffering any partial production of them, and the necessity that, if for any purpose any part of them should be produced, the whole must be brought before the public) remains surrounded with all the ob jections which I have enumerated; and nothing could ever have prevailed upon me, or can now even prevail upon me to have recourse to it, but an imperious sense of indispensable duty to my future safety, to my present character and honour, and to the feelings, the cha racter, and the interests of my child. I had flattered myself, when once this long proceeding should have terminated in my reception into your majesty's presence, that that circumstance alone would have so strongly implied my innocence of all that had been brought against me, as to have been perfectly sufficient for my honour and my security; but accompanied, as it now must be, with the knowledge of the fact, that your majesty has been brought to hesitate upon its pro (0) priety, priety, and accompanied also with the very unjustifiable observations, as they appear to me, on which I shall presently proceed to remark; and which were made by your majesty's servants, at the time when they gave you their advice to receive me; I feel myself in a situation, in which I deeply regret that 1 cannot rest in silence without an immediate reception into your majesty's presence; nor, indeed, with that reception, unless it be attended by other circumstances which may mark my satisfactory acquittal of the charges which have been brought against me. It shall at no time be said, with truth, that I shrunk back from these infamous charges; that I crouched before my enemies, and courted them, by my submission, into moderation! No, I have ever boldly defied them. I have ever felt and still feel, that, if they should think, either of pursuing these accusations, or of bringing forward any other which the wickedness of individuals may devise, to affect my honour; (since my conscience tells me, that they must be as base and groundless as those brought by lady Douglas,) while the witnesses to the innocence of my conduct, are all living, I should be able to disprove then all; and, whoever may be my accusers, to triumph over their wickedness and malice. But should these accusations be renewed; or any other be brought forward, in any future time, death may, I know not how soon, remove from my inpocence its best security, and deprive me of the means of my justification, and my defence. There are therefore other measures, which I trust your majesty will think indispensable to be taken, for my honour, and for my security. Amongst these, Imost humbly submit to your majesty my most earnest entreaties that the proceedings, including not only my first answer, and my letter of the 8th of December, but this letter also, may be directed by your majesty to be so preserved and deposited, as that they may, all of them, securely remain permanent authentic documents and memorials, of this accusation and of the manner in which I met it; of my defence, as well as of the charge. That they may remain capable at any time, of being resorted to, if the malice which produced the charge originally, shall ever venture to renew it. Beyond this, I am sure your majesty will think it but proper and just, that I should be restored, in every respect, to the same situation, from whence the proceedings, under these false charges, have removed me. That, besides being graciously received, again, into the bosom of your majesty's royal family, restored to my former respect and station amongst them, your majesty will be graciously pleased, either to exert your influence, with his royal highness the prince of Wales, that I may be restored to the use of my apartment in Carltonhouse, which was reserved for me, except while the apartments were undergoing repair, till the date of these proceedings; or to assign to me some apartment in one of your royal palaces. Some apartment in or near to London is indispensably necessary for my convenient attendance at the drawing-room. And if I am not restored to that at Carlton-house, I trust your majesty will graciously perceive, how rea sonable it is, that I should request, that some apartment should be assigned to me, suited to my dignity and situation, which may mark my reception and acknowledgment, as If these measures are taken, I should hope that they would prove satisfactory to the public mind, and that I inay feel myself fully restored in public estimation, to my former character. And should they prove so satisfactory, I shall indeed be delighted to think, that no further step may, even now, appear to be necessary to my peace of mind, my security, and my honour. But your majesty will permit me to say, that if the next week, which will make more than a month from the time of your majesty's informing me that you would receive me, should pass without my being received into your presence, and without having the assurance that these other requests of mine shall be complied with; I shall be under the painful necessity of considering them as refused. In which case, I shall feel myself compelled, how ever reluctantly, to give the whole of these proceedings to the world. Unless your majesty can suggest other adequate means of securing my honour and my life, from the effect of the continuance or renewal of these proceedings, for the future, as well as the present. For I entreat your majesty to believe, that it is only in the absence of all other adequate means, that I can have resort to that measure. That I consider it with deep regret; that I regard it with serious apprehension, by no means so much on account of the effect it may have upon myself, as on account of the pain which it may give to your majesty, your august family, and your loyal subjects. As far as myself am concerned, I am aware of the observations to which this publication will expose me. But I am placed in a situation in which I have the choice only of two most unpleasant alternatives. And I am perfectly confident that the imputations and the loss of character which must, under these circumstances, follow from my silence, are most injurious and unavoidable; that my silence, under such circumstances, must lead inevitably to my utter infamy and ruin. The publication, on the other hand, will expose to the world nothing, which is spoken to by any witness (whose infamy and discredit is not unanswerably exposed and established) which can, in the slightest degree, affect my character, for honour, virtue, and delicacy. There may be circumstances disclosed, manifesting a degree of condescension and familiarity in my behaviour and conduct, which in the opinions of many, may be considered as not sufficiently guarded, dignified, and reserved. Circumstances however which my foreign education, and foreign habits, misled me to think, in the humble and retired situation in which it was my fate to live, and where I had no relation, no equal, no friend to advise me, were wholly free from offence. But when they have been dragged forward, from the scenes of private life, in a grave proceed. ing on a charge of high treason and adultery, they seem to derive a colour and character, from the nature of the charge, which they are brought forward to support. And I cannot but believe, that they have been used for no other purpose than to afford a cover, to screen from view the injustice of that charge; that they have been taken advantage of, to let down my ac cusers more gently; and to deprive me of that full acquittal on the re(02) port |
