consequence of such "scandalous, disgraceful, and vicious conduct," by which her Majesty has "violated her duty to his Majesty, and rendered herself unworthy of the exalted rank and station of Queen Consort of this realm," she be deprived of her title of Queen, with all the rights annexed to it, and that her marriage be dissolved and annulled. The bill was read a first time, and the second reading is proposed for the 17th of August, when the witnesses will be solemnly examined, and time be afforded for the defence. The House of Commons has in consequence discharged the order for considering the documents laid before it. Copies of the bill were furnished to the King, the Queen, and their respective law-officers.

The whole of these proceedings have given rise to warm debates in every stage. The appointment of a secret committee, in the first place, was contended against as an ex parte and inquisitorial proceeding, and as at variance with the general system of our criminal jurisprudence. It was further argued, that if ministers believed the charges which they alleged, it was their duty to have brought the subject forward in the first instance, on their own responsibility; and that all their attempts to compromise the matter were highly criminal. It was also maintained, that at all events the proceeding ought to have been by impeachment, and not by a bill of pains and penalties, which partook of the injustice of an ex post facto law. To all this it was replied, that ministers, decisive as they conceived the evidence to be against the Queen, did not think it expedient to endanger the peace and contaminate the morals of the country, by the public investigation of such a subject, as long as the possibility of a private compromise appeared within their reach; that no benefit could have resulted from their making the circumstances public, which might not have been sccured by a private arrangement; that not only had parliament sanctioned such a procedure by its own votes, but there was not a single well-disposed person in the kingdom, even of those who were fully persuaded of her Majesty's guilt, who did not feel the utmost solicitude for a private compromise; that the grave and unprecedented nature of the case would have rendered it rash indeed for any set of ministers to have plunged the

nation into an investigation of it without the sanction of a parliamentary committee, which committee would occupy the place of arbiters between the parties, and be, as it were, in the place of a grand jury; that there were no precedents to sanction the adoption of such a measure as the present, without previous parliamentary inquiry; and that with regard to the objection of proceeding by bill rather than by impeachment, it had no force, as the latter course could not, under the circumstances of the case, be adopted, however clear the Queen's guilt might be; as, to constitute it a crime according to the law, the partner in her misconduct must be a subject of Great Britain; and as for referring the matter to the ecclesiastical courts, it was admitted on all hands that it could not be done. Besides, the whole affair lay rather between the Queen and the public, than between the royal parties themselves.

We confess we think these arguments satisfactory, under all the perplexing circumstances of this unhappy case; and we are so much in favour of a private compromise, that we should even now, after all that has passed, prefer it, on every ground of public interest, to the approaching parliamentary investigation; and nothing would rejoice us more than to hear that the Queen had been induced to spare herself and the nation the pain, as well as the mischief, of such au exposure. We are not now assuming either the guilt or the innocence of the Queen. It is our duty, and that of the public in general, to suspend all judgment upon this point till the evidence shall be produced upon which the preamble of the bill is founded. Till that time we feel it incumbent upon us to refrain from expressing the opinions which we have been led to form upon the subject. The same reserve we would earnestly recommend to our readers.-We are sorry to have seen in some of the public prints, (especially the provincial ones) some remarks relative to her Majesty, which are exceedingly unbecoming and reprehensible, These, however, may be considered as infinitely outweighed by public statements of a contrary description; and by corporate addresses presented to her Majesty, which not only assume her complete innocence, but vilify, in the strongest terms, her alleged calumniators. The replies of the Queen on some of these occasions

too, placed in the hands of men so imbecile, and who, we may assume, would be merciless in proportion to their imbecility. Fear is the most cruel of all passions. Let us hope also that these extraordinary and unlooked for changes may be designed by Providence eventually to deliver those countries from the influence of superstition as well as of tyranny, and to introduce among them a purer faith.

TURKEY.

The enterprising Pacha of Albania is stated to have formally thrown off his allegiance to the Porte, and to be preparing for his defence against the troops of his master. That such was his ultimate intention, has long since been conjectured: and should he succeed in repelling the attack which is about to be made upon him, he is likely, from his talents and enterprising character, by no means to limit himself to defensive measures, but to aim at extending his dominion over the neighbouring countries. He has long been employed in introducing European discipline among his troops, and has exerted himself both to obtain and diffuse information; for which purpose he has invited foreigners to his capital, and has dispatched agents to several courts and universities of Europe to acquire whatever might appear worthy of being known with a view to his projects. With all his talents, however, we fear that he is a sanguinary tyrant, whose object is the gratification of his own personal ambition, and not the happiness of his subjects, whom he values only as they can be made instrumental to his own aggrandizement. In the pursuit of this object, he appears hitherto to have been restrained by no considerations of humanity or justice.

DOMESTIC.

In our last Number we detailed the principal circumstances connected with the return of the QUEEN to England: we shall now proceed to relate the occurrences which have since taken place.

On the 4th of July, the committee of the house of lords appointed to examine into the documents laid before parliament relative to her Majesty's conduct while abroad, presented their report, in which they state, that "They find that these documents contain allegations supported by the concurring testimony

of a great number of persons in various situations of life, and residing in different parts of Europe, which deeply affect the honour of the Queen, charging her Majesty with an adulterous connexion with a foreigner, originally in her service in a menial capacity; and attributing to her Majesty a continued series of conduct highly unbecoming her Majesty's rank and station, and of the most licentious character." "These charges," the commrittee add, appear to be calculated so deeply to affect not only the honour of the Queen, but also the dignity of the crown, and the moral feeling and honour of the country, that, in their opinion, it is indispensable that they should become the subject of a solemn inquiry, which it appears to the committee may be best effected in the course of a legislative proceeding, the necessity of which they cannot but most deeply deplore." In framing this very strong and decided report, the most perfect unanimity prevailed in the committee.

en

In compliance with the suggestion of the report, a bill was the next day brought into the house of lords; the preamble of which was, in substance, that her Majesty, then Princess of Wales, being at Milan in 1814, gaged in her service a foreigner of low station, named Bergami, who had before served in a similar capacity;" that "a most unbecoming and disgusting intimacy" commenced between her Royal Highness and this person; that she "not only promoted him to a high station in her household, and in confidential situations about her person, but obtained for him orders of knighthood and titles of honour, and conferred upon him a pretended order of knighthood, which her Royal Highness took upon herself to institute without lawful authority;" and that "further unmindful of her exalted rank and station, and of her duty to his majesty, and wholly regardless of her own honour and character, her Royal Highness conducted herself towards the said Bergami, and in other respects, both in public and private, in the various places and countries which her Royal Highness visited, with indecent and offensive familiarity and freedom, and carried on a licentious, disgraceful, and adulterous intercourse with the said Bergami, which continued for a long period of time, during her Royal Highness's residence abroad." The bill proceeds to enact, that, in

consequence of such "scandalous, disgraceful, and vicious conduct," by which her Majesty has "violated her duty to his Majesty, and rendered herself unworthy of the exalted rank and station of Queen Consort of this realm," she be deprived of her title of Queen, with all the rights annexed to it, and that her marriage be dissolved and annulled. The bill was read a first time, and the second reading is proposed for the 17th of August, when the witnesses will be solemnly examined, and time be afforded for the defence. The House of Commons has in consequence discharged the order for considering the documents laid before it. Copies of the bill were furnished to the King, the Queen, and their respective law-officers.

The whole of these proceedings have given rise to warm debates in every stage. The appointment of a secret committee, in the first place, was contended against as an ex parte and inquisitorial proceeding, and as at variance with the general system of our criminal jurisprudence. It was further argued, that if ministers believed the charges which they alleged, it was their duty to have brought the subject forward in the first instance, on their own responsibility; and that all their attempts to compromise the matter were highly criminal. It was also maintained, that at all events the proceeding ought to have been by impeachment, and not by a bill of pains and penalties, which partook of the injustice of an ex post facto law. To all this it was replied, that ministers, decisive as they conceived the evidence to be against the Queen, did not think it expedient to endanger the peace and contaminate the morals of the country, by the public investigation of such a subject, as long as the possibility of a private compromise appeared within their reach; that no benefit could have resulted from their making the circumstances public, which might not have been secured by a private arrangement; that not only had parliament sanctioned such a procedure by its own votes, but there was not a single well-disposed person in the kingdom, even of those who were fully persuaded of her Majesty's guilt, who did not feel the utmost solicitude for a private compromise; that the grave and unprecedented nature of the case would have rendered it rash indeed for any set of ministers to have plunged the

nation into an investigation of it without the sanction of a parliamentary committee, which committee would occupy the place of arbiters between the parties, and be, as it were, in the place of a grand jury; that there were no precedents to sanction the adoption of such a measure as the present, without previous parliamentary inquiry; and that with regard to the objection of proceeding by bill rather than by impeachment, it had no force, as the latter course could not, under the circumstances of the case, be adopted, however clear the Queen's guilt might be; as, to constitute it a crime according to the law, the partner in her misconduct must be a subject of Great Britain; and as for referring the matter to the ecclesiastical courts, it was admitted on all hands that it could not be done. Besides, the whole affair lay rather between the Queen and the public, than between the royal parties themselves.

We confess we think these arguments satisfactory, under all the perplexing circumstances of this unhappy case; and we are so much in favour of a private compromise, that we should even now, after all that has passed, prefer it, on every ground of public interest, to the approaching parliamentary investigation; and nothing would rejoice us more than to hear that the Queen had been induced to spare herself and the nation the pain, as well as the mischief, of such au exposure.-We are not now assuming either the guilt or the innocence of the Queen. It is our duty, and that of the public in general, to suspend all judgment upon this point till the evidence shall be produced upon which the preamble of the bill is founded. Till that time we feel it incumbent upon us to refrain from expressing the opinions which we have been led to form upon the subject. The same reserve we would earnestly recommend to our readers. We are sorry to have seen in some of the public prints, (especially the provincial ones) some remarks relative to her Majesty, which are exceedingly unbecoming and reprehensible, These, however, may be considered as infinitely outweighed by public statements of a contrary description; and by corporate addresses presented to her Majesty, which not only assume her complete innocence, but vilify, in the strongest terms, her alleged calumniators. The replies of the Queen on some of these occasions

have been far from being so measured as a regard to the delicacy of her own situation, and to the public peace, seemed to require. The populace, in addition to hard words, have proceeded so far as to maltreat, and even violently to assault, a number of persons on their landing at Dover, who were intended to give evidence on the pending charges, but whom it became necessary, with a view to their personal safety, to send back to the continent until they should be wanted. This is clearly not the way to secure the ends of justice, or to produce a favourable impression of the cause which it is meant to serve. Nor would we confine this remark to the savage outrages committed at Dover: we think it equally applicable to the framers of such addresses as those to which we have alluded, and which tend so greatly to inflame the public mind. We would remind them, that without assuming that the Queen is guilty, they can have no ground on which to assert, in the unequivocal terms they generally employ, her innocence. The prima facie bearings of the case supply at least such pregnant ground of suspicion, especially since the presentation of the strong and unequivocal report of the lords' committee, that we might expect in her Majesty's warmest friends, if not an absolute reserve in expressing their opinions, at least such a moderation of language and conduct as the actual state of the case seems to require.

The circumstance, however, which we view with the deepest regret on this unhappy occasion, is the inundation of prints and writings of the most libellous and seditious tendency with which the country has been overspread. In every street of the metropolis, and on every wall to which the bill-sticker is permitted to have access, the eye is met by placards of the most inflammatory description; and the ingenuity of the artist is taxed to produce devices calculated to degrade the king, and to render his government odious. Some of our principal journals pursue a similar course, and seem disposed to employ every safe art of insinuation, mistatement, exaggeration, and falsehood, which the geius of evil can suggest, to pander to the worst passions of the multitude, and to poison the very springs of allegiance. Our Sunday newspapers, nireteen in number, join in this conspiracy; and being framed expressly

for the meridian of St. Giles's and Tothill-fields, with a still more daring defiance both of law and decency. Some of them point more directly to the sol diery, and leave no means untried to poison their minds, both by exhibiting strong pictures of their own alleged debased and degrading servitude, and by dwelling on the facilities which they possess of achieving their own deliverance, and that of their country. And what is there to counteract all this accumulation of mischief; to shield the constitution from the combined effect of all the enginery of sedition which is continually playing on its walls, or undermining its foundations in the very hearts of the people? As for the law, it seems to sleep.-The press does nothing, and perhaps can do little, if any thing, to arrest the evil. Among the millions of placards and halfpenny sheets which the last six weeks have called into existence; among the three or four hundred thousand Sunday newspapers which, during that time have passed into circulation; we have not found a single solitary paragraph which pleads the cause of order, or which endeavours to undeceive the minds of the uninformed, respecting the facts and reasonings of the partizans of Radicalism.-The pulpit, we fear, is almost equally inefficient as the press-but we stop. This last is a large subject, and we fear to do it injustice by enlarging at present on this passing allusion to it. But we must enter upon it in no long time.

It is vital to the peace and safety of the country, and to the very existence of its best and most cherished institutions. We will close therefore with a single question, which we wish our readers to lay to heart, and which we would wish especially to impress on every member of the legislature and of the government, whose eye may pass over these lines-What rational hope can be indulged of long maintaining our internal tranquillity, under such circumstances as have been adverted to, if we shall continué to satisfy ourselves with a policy of mere shifts and expedients, and shrink from looking fairly at the whole of our domestic situation, not merely as it regards the economical circumstances of the labouring classes, and the interests of manufactures and commerce, but as it involves the higher considerations of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual condition of our whole population?

We are glad to state, that the coronation, which was to have taken place on the 1st of August, has been wisely postponed.

The public business in the House of Commons, though greatly impeded by the discussions relative to the Queen, has by no means been unimportant: but we have only time and space at present to allude to one subject; we mean, Mr. Brougham's most important bill for general education. The main provisions of this bill appear to us wise, moderate, and conciliatory; and such as, if passed into a law, with the slight modifications which may be deemed necessary, must be of the most essential benefit to the country. As the consideration of the bill is deferred to next session, for the purpose of affording time for mature deliberation, we shall only slightly notice at present the outline of the proposed plan. Mr. Brougham, in bringing forward his motion, expressed his warmest thanks to the clergy, without whose aid (which had been most cheerfully and cordially given) the friends of the measure would have been unable to proceed with effect in their necessary preliminary inquiries. Many of them, he stated, with scanty benefices and narrow incomes, had instituted schools at their own expense, and all had shewn so much zeal to promote the general object as would have justified the appointment (even had it not been expedient on other and still stronger grounds) of the parochial resident clergy, as the superintendants of the parochial schools which it was the intention of his bill to institute. Mr. Brougham stated the number of chil dren instructed in England, exclusive of those at endowed schools, at 490,000, or about one-twentieth part of the population. If 154,000 were added for the endowed schools, and 11,000 for those instructed by other means, the whole would be 655,000 children, or about one-fourteenth or fifteenth part of the population. Deducting 53,000 for children placed at dame's-schools, the average of children having the means of education would be one in sixteen. But to form a correct estimate of the numbers to be educated, the children between seven and thirteen years of age must be taken at one tenth of the population. Previous to the year 1803, only 456,000 were placed in the way of education; that is, only the twentyfirst part of the population. On the whole, Mr. Brougham considered this

as one of the worst educated nations in Europe prior to that period. In Scot land he found, in twelve counties, the proportion to be one to nine; in Wales, one to twenty: before 1803, it was one to twenty-six. In France, till lately, the average was only onethirty-fifth of the population; but if education proceeded in that country as it had done of late, there would soon be not one uneducated person in it. In Switzerland, the proportion was one to ten; so that in that country, there is not one person in sixty who cannot read and write. In England, taking the endowed and unendowed schools as before, and adding 50,000 for children belonging to persons who have the means of paying, and 100,000 placed at Sunday-schools, the total would be about 700,000 children, leaving about two millions of the population unprovided for. Middlesex, Mr. Brougham stated, was three times worse off than any other county in England, and more deficient than any part of the Christian world, the ave rage being only as one to forty-six.

Mr. Brougham's bill proposes, that the incumbent, or resident clergyman, or two justices, or five householders, or the grand jury, may complain at the quarter-sessions, of the want of education in a parish. The complaint being substantiated, a school is to be built, the public purse defraying the cost of building; and the local rates the master's salary. The candidate for this office is to be a churchman (Mr. Brougham, we are glad to say, sub-equently dispensed with the obligation to receive the sacrament as a test), who is to be recommended by a clergyman and three householders, and to be be tween the ages of twenty-four and forty. The householders are to elect, but the clergyman is to have the power of rejection. Mr. Brougham, after considering the subject maturely, had thought it right to give this power to the clergy, and to identify the whole system with the Established Church. The master's salary is to be small, not generally exceeding 201. or 301.; but from two-pence to fourpence a week are to be contributed by cach scholar. The Scriptures are to be taught, and no other religious book, or book not religious, without the consent of the clergyman, except the church catechisin, to which half a day in the week is to be appropriated, the children of Dissenters attending,or not, as their parents shall think proper.