66

66

"late hours of the night (twelve and one o'clock,) and whom he left sitting up after he went to bed, was "Mr Lawrence, which happened "two different nights." Here is likewise another trace of a former statement which is not given; for no such person is mentioned before in any that I have been furnished with, Your Majesty here observes then, that after having given evidence in two of his declarations, respecting Mr Lawrence by name, in which he mentions nothing of locked doors,-and after having, in another declaration, given an account of a locked door, but expressly stated that he knew not whether any one was with me within it, and said nothing about whispering being overheard, but, impliedly, at least, negatived it ;-in the deposition before the Commissioners, he puts all these things together, and has the kardihood to add to them that remarkable circumstance, which could not have escaped his recollection, at the first, if it had been true," of his hav"ing, on the same night in which he "found me and Mr Lawrence alone, "after the ladies were gone to bed, come again to the room when he thought Mr Lawrence must have "been retired, and found the door “locked and heard the whispering," and then again he gives another instance of his honesty, and upon the same principle, on which he took no hotice of the man in the great coat, he finds the door locked, heats the whispering, and then he silently and tontentedly retires.

66

And this witness, who thus not only varies in his testimony, but contradicts himself in such important particulars, is one of those who cannot be suspected of unfavourable bias, and whose veracity is not to be questioned, and whose evidence must be credited till decidedly contradicted.

These observations might probably be deemed sufficient upon Mr Cole's deposition, as far as it respects Mr

Lawrence; but I cannot be satisfied without explaining to your Majesty all the truth, and the particulars res pecting Mr Lawrence, which I recol lect.

What I recollect then is as follows. He began a large picture of me, and of my daughter, towards the latter end of the year 1800, or the beginning of 1801. Miss Garth and Miss Hayman were in the house with me at the time. The picture was painted at Montague House. Mr Lawrence mentioned to Miss Hayman his wish to be permitted to remain some few nights in the house, that by rising early he might begin painting on the picture, before Princess Charlotte (whose residence being at that time at Shooter's Hill was enabled to come early,) or myself, came to sit. It was a similar request to that which had been made by Sir William Beechy, when he painted my picture. And I was sensible of no impropriety when I granted the request to either of them. Mr Lawrence occupied the same room which had been occupied by Sir William Beechy;-it was at the other end of the house from my apartment.

It

At that time Mr Lawrence did not dine with me ; his dinner was scrved in his own room. After dinner he came down to the room where I and my Ladies generally sat in an evening-sometimes there was music, in which he joined, and sometimes he read poetry. Parts of Shakespeare's plays I particularly remember, from his reading them very well; and sometimes he played chess with me. frequently may have happened that it was one or two o'clock before I dismissed Mr Lawrence and my Ladies. They, together with Mr Lawrence, went out of the same door, up the same stair-case, and at the same time. According to my own recollection I should have said, that, in no instance, they had left Mr Lawrence behind them alone with me.But I suppose

it did happen once for a short time, since Mr Lawrence so recollects it, as your Majesty will perceive from his deposition, which I annex. He staid in my house two or three nights to gether; but how many nights in the whole, I do not recollect. The pic tare left my house by April 1801, and Mr Lawrence never slept in my house afterwards. That picture now belongs to Lady Townshend. He has. since completed another picture of me; and, about a year and a half ago, he began another, which remains at present unfinished. I believe it is near a twelvemonth since I last sat to him.

Mr Lawrence lives upon a footing of the greatest intimacy with the neighbouring families of Mr Lock and Mr Angerstein; and I have asked him sometimes to dine with me to meet them. While I was sitting to him, at my own house, I have no doubt I must have often sat to him alone; as the necessity for the precaution of having an attendant, as a witness to protect my honour from suspicion, certainly never occurred to me. And upon the same principle, I do not doubt that I may have sometimes continued in conversation with him after he had finished painting. But when sitting in his own house, I have always been attended with one of my Ladies. And indeed nothing in the examinations states the contrary. One part of Mrs Lisle's examination seems as if she had had a question put to her upon the supposition that I had been left alone with Mr Lawrence at his own house; to which she answers, that she indeed had left me there, but that she thinks she left Mrs Fitzgerald with ine.

If an inference of an unfavourable nature could have been drawn from my having been left there alone ;— was it, Sire, taking all that care which might be wished, to guard against such an inference, on the part of the Commissioners, when they omit May 1813.

ted to send for Mrs Fitzgerald to ascertain what Mrs Lisle may have left in doubt? The Commissioners, I give them the fullest credit, were satisfied, that Mrs Lisle thought correctly upon this fact, and that Mrs Fitzgerald, if she had been sent for again, would so have proved it, and therefore that it would have been troubling her to no purpose. But this it is of which I conceive myself to have most reason to complain ;-that the examinations, in several instances, have not been followed up so as to remove unfavourable impressions.

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 arder; 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 Aug. 1803, to the best of her remembrance it was only once; she speaks to his meeting 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 Lething there that can require a single observation from me.The material parts of her

evidence

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, but not in a room alone. He was a person with whom the Princess appeared to have greater pleasure in talking than with her Ladies. Her Royal Highness 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 judgement, which she forms upon them. I mean not to speak disre spectfully, 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 evi dence of crime, of vice, or of inde cency, 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 expence, 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 hon. est 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 after

wards,

wards, 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 sometimes 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 locked over prints in books of voyages with him; he has explained 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

may be said to have been conversing separately, and consequently that Mrs Lisle, in this sense, is perfectly justified in saying that "I used to converse separately with Captain Manby," I have not the least difficulty in admitting. But have 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 uninterrapted, though it by no means asserts any such thing? But whether I used always so to converse with him; or gene rally, 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 icason 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 circumstances? But Miss Fitzgerald is not examined at all; and Ms 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 expres sion 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 unbe

coming a married woman; she cannot say whether I was attached to Captain Manby or not; it was only a flirting conduct."— Now, Sire, f must here again most seriously complain that the Commissioners should have called for, or received, and much more reported, in this mammer, the opinion and judgment of Mrs Lisle upon my conduct. Your Majesty's warrant purports to authorise 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. Mis 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 thera 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 conversa tion to that of the ladies,—it would be observed, probably, that this was not all; that there was always a cer. tain indescribable something in manner, which gave the character to conduct, and must have entered mainly into 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 obser vation; if it is to give a weight and authority to Mrs Lisle's judgment, let me have the advantage of it also.