〃 of this description; they are, if true, justly deserving of most serious consideration;" and they "must be credited till decidedly contradicted." But what are these circumstances? What are these deeds without a name? Was there ever a charge so framed ? Was ever any one put to answer any charge, and decidedly to contradict it, or submit to have it credited against him, which was conceived in such terms, without the means of ascertaining what these things are, except as conjecture may enable me to surmise, to what parts of the examinations of the four witnesses, on whom they particularly rely, they attach the importance and the weight which seem to them to justify these dark and ambiguous censures on my conduct? But such as they are, and whatever they may be, they must, your Majesty is told, be credited, unless they are decidedly contradicted. Circumstances, respecting Captain Manby, indeed are particularized; but referring to the depositions which apply to him, they contain much matter of opinion, of hearsay, of suspicion. Are these hearsays, are these opinions, are these suspicions and conjectures of these witnesses to be believed against me, unless decidedly contradicted? How can I decidedly contradict another person's opinion? I may reason against its justice, but how can I contradict it? Or how can I decidedly contradict any thing which is not precisely specified, nor distinctly known to me? Your Majesty will also observe, that the Report states that it is not for the Commissioners to decide upon the bearing and effect of these facts; these are left for your Majesty's decision; but they ade, that if true, they are justly entitled to the most serious consideration. I cannot, Sire, but collect from these passages an intimation, that some further proceedings may be meditated; and, perhaps, if I acted with perfect prudence, seeing how much reason I have to fear, from the fabrications of falsehood, I ought to have waited till I knew what course, civil or criminal, your Majesty might be advised to pursue, before I offered any observations or answer. To this alternative, however, I am driven: I must either remain silent, and reserve my defence, leaving the imputation to operate most injuriously and fatally to my character; or I must, by entering into a defence against so extended a charge, expose myself with much greater hazard to any future attacks; but the fear of possible danger, to arise from the perverted interpretation of my answer, cannot induce me to acquiesce, under the certain mischief of the unjust censure and judgment which stands against me, as it were, recorded in this Report. I shall therefore, at whatever hazard, proceed to submit to your Majesty, in whose justice I have the most satisfactory reliance, my answer and my observations upon this part of the case. And here, Sire, I cannot forbear again presuming to state to your Majesty, that it is not a little hard that the Commissioners (who state, in the beginning of their Report, that certain particulars, in themselves extremely suspicious, were, in the judgment which they had formed upon them, before they entered into the particulars of the Inquiry, rendered still more suspicious, from being connected with the assertion of pregnancy and delivery) should have made no observation upon the degree in which that suspicion must be proportionably abated, when those assertions of pregnancy and delivery have been completely falsified and disproved; that they should make no remark upon the fact; that all the witnesses (with the exception of Mrs. Lisle) on whom they specifically rely, were, every one of them, brought forward by the principal informers, for the purpose of supporting the false statement of Lady Douglas; that they are the witnesses therefore of persons, whom, after the complete falsification of their charge, I am justified in describing as conspirators, who have been detected in supporting their conspiracy by their own perjury. And surely where a conspiracy, to fix a charge upon an individual, has been plainly detected, the witnesses of those who have been so de tected in that conspiracy, witnesses that are brought forward to support this false charge, cannot stand otherwise than considerably affected in their credit, by their connection with those who are detected in that conspiracy. But instead of pointing out this circumstance, as calling, at least, for some degree of caution and reserve, in considering the testimony of these witnessss, the Report, on the contrary, holds them up as worthy of particular credit, as witnesses, who, in the judgment of the Commissioners, cannot be suspected of unfavourable bias: whose veracity, in that respect, they have seen no ground to question, and who must be credited till they receive some decided contradiction. Now, Sire, I feel the fullest confidence that I shall prove to your Majesty's most perfect satisfaction, that all of these witnesses (of course I still exclude Mrs. Lisle) are under the influence, and exhibit the symptoms of the most unfavourable bias; that their veracity is, in every respect, to be doubted; and that they cannot, by any candid aud attentive mind, be deemed worthy of the least degree of credit upon this charge, your Majesty will easily conceive how great my surprise and astonishment must have been at this part of the Report. I am indeed a little at a loss to know whether I understand the passage which I have cited from the Report. "The witnesses, in the judgment of the Commissioners, are not to be suspected of unfavourable bias, and their veracity in that respect they have seen no reason to question." What is meant by their having seen no reason to suspect their veracity in that respect? Do they mean, what the qualification seems to imply, that they have seen reason to question it in other respects? Is it meant to be insinuated that they saw reason to question their veracity, not in respect of an unfavourable bias, but of a bias in my favour? I cannot impute to them such an iusinuation, because I am satisfied that the Commissioners would never have intended to insinuate any thing so directly contrary to the truth. * The witnesses specifically pointed out, as thus particularly deserving of credit, are W. Cole, R. Bidgood, † F. Lloyd,‡ and Mrs. Lisle.§ With respect to Mrs. Lisle, I trust your Majesty will permit me to make my observations upon her examination as distinctly and separately as I possibly can from the others; because, as I ever had, and have now as much as ever, the most perfect respect for Mrs. Lisle, I would avoid the possibility of having it imagined that such observatious as I shall be under the absolute necessity of making upon the other witnesses, could be intended, in any degree, to be applied to her. With respect to Cole, Bidgood, and Lloyd, they have all lived in their places for a long time; they had lived with his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales before he married, and were appointed by him to situations about me; Cole and Lloyd immediately upon my marriage, and Bidgood very shortly afterwards. I know not whether from this circumstance they may consider themselves as not owing that undivided duty and regard to me which servants of my own appointment might possibly have felt; but if I knew nothing more of them thau that they had consented to be voluntarily examined, for the purpose of supporting the statement of Lady Douglas on a charge so deeply affecting my honour, without communicating to me the fact of such examination, your Majesty would not, I am sure, be surprised to find that I saw, in that circumstance alone, sufficient to raise some suspicions of an unfavourable bias. But when I find Cole, particularly, submitting to this secret and voluntary examination against me, no less than four times, and when I found, during the pendency of this Inquiry before the Commissioners, that one of them, R. Bidgood, was so far connected * Appendix (A.) No. 5. † Appendix (A.) No. 4. · § Appendix (A). No. 27. d and in league with Sir John and Lady Douglas, as to have communication with the latter, I thought I saw the proof of such decided hostility and confederacy against me, that I felt obliged to order the discontinuance of his attendance at my house till further orders. Of the real bias of their minds, however, with respect to me, your Majesty will be better able to judge from the consideration of their evidence. The imputations which I collect to be considered as cast upon me by these several' witnesses, are too great familiarity and intimacy with several gentlemen-Sir Sidney Smith, Mr. Lawrence, Captain Manby, and I know not whether the same are not meant to be extended to Lord Hood, Mr. Chester, and Captain Moore. With your Majesty's permission, therefore, I will examine the depositions of the witnesses, as they respect these several gentlemen, in their order, keeping the evidence, which is applicable to each case as distinct from the others as I can. . And I will begin with those which respect Sir Siduey Smith, as he is the persou first mentioned in the deposition of W. Cole. W. Cole says, *"that Sir Sidney Smith first visited at Montague-house in 1802; that he observed that the Princess was too familiar with Sir Sidney Smith. One day, he thinks in February, he (Cole) carried into the blue room, to the Princess, some sandwiches which she had ordered, and was surprised to see that Sir Sidney was there. He must have come in from the park. If he had been let in from Blackheath, he must have passed through the room in which he (Cole) was waiting. When he had left the sandwiches he returned, after some time, into the room, and Sir Sidney Smith was sitting very close to the Princess on the sofa; he (Cole) looked at her Royal Highness, she caught his eye, and saw that he noticed the manner in which they were sitting together; they appeared both a little confused." R. Bidgood says also, in his deposition † on the 6th of June (for he was examined twice), "that it was early in 1802 that he first observed Sir Sidney Smith come to Montague-house. He used to stay very late at night; he had seen him early in the morning there, about ten or eleven o'clock. He was at Sir John Douglas's, and was in the habit, as well as Sir John and Lady Douglas, of dining or having luncheon, or supping there every day. He saw Sir Sidney Smith one day, in 1802, in the blue room, about eleven o'clock in the morning, which was full two hours before they expected ever to see company. He asked the servants why they did not let him know Sir Sidney Smith was there; the footmen told him that they had let no person in. There was a private door to the Park, by which he might have come in if he had a key to it, and have got into the blue room without any of the servants perceiving him." And, in his second deposition, taken on the 3d of July, he says he lived at Montague-house when Sir Sidney came. Her (the Princess's) manner with him appeared very familiar; she appeared very attentive to him, but he did not suspect any thing further. Mrs. Lisle says, that the Princess at one time appeared to like Sir John and Lady Douglas. "I have scen Sir Sidney Smith there very late in the evening, but not alone with the Princess. I have no reason to suspect he had a key of the Park gate; I never heard of any body being found wandering about at Blackheath." Fanny Lloyd does not mention Sir Sidney Smith in her deposition, Upon the whole of this evidence, then, which is the whole that respects Sir Sidney Sinith in any of these depositions (except some particular passages in Cole's evidence, which are so important as to require very particular and distinct statement), I would request your Majesty to understand that, with respect to the fact of Sir Siduey Smith's visiting frequently at Montague-house, both with Sir John and Lady Douglas, and without them. With respect to his being frequently there at luncheon, dinner, and supper, and staying with the rest of the company till twelve, one o'clock, or even sometimes later, if these are some of the facts" which must give occasion to unfavourable interpretations, and must be credited till they are contradicted;" they are facts which I never can coutradict, for they are perfectly true. And I trust it will imply the confession of no guilt, to admit that Sir Sidney Smith's conversation, his account of the various and ́extraordinary events and heroic achievements in which he had been concerned, amused and interested me; and the circumstance of his living so much with his friends, Sir John and Lady Douglas, in my neighbourhood on Blackheath, gave the opportunity of his increasing his acquaintance with me. It happened also that about this time I fitted up, as your Majesty may have observed, one of the rooms in my house after the fashion of a Turkish tent. Sir Sidney furnished me with a pattern for it, in a drawing of the tent of Murat Bey, which he had brought over with him from Egypt; and he taught me how to draw Egyptian Arabesques, which were necessary for the ornaments of the ceiling. This may have occas sioned, while that room was fitting up, several visits, and possibly some, though I do not recollect them, as early in the morning as Mr. Bidgood mentions. I believe also that it has happened more than once, that, walking with my ladies in the Park, we have met Sir Sidney Smith, and that he has come in with us through the gate from the Park. My ladies may have gone up to take off their cloaks, or to dress, and have left me alone with him: and, at some one of these times, it may very possibly have hap pened that Mr. Cole and Mr. Bidgood may have seen him, when he has not come through the waiting-room, nor been let in by any of the footmen. But I solemnly declare to your Majesty, that I have not the least idea or belief that he ever had a key of the gate into the Park, or that he ever entered in, or passed out at that gate, except in company with myself and my ladies. As for the circumstance of my permitting him to be in the room alone with me, if suffering a man to be so alone is evidence of guilt, from whence the Commissioners can draw any unfavourable inference, I must leave them to draw it; for I cannot deny that it has happened, and happened frequently, not only with Sir Sidney Smith, but with many, many others; gentlemen who have visited me; tradesmen who have come to receive my orders; masters whom I have had to instruct me in painting, in music, in English, &c. that I have received them without any one being by. In short, I trust I am not confessing a crime, for unquestionably it is a truth, that I never had an idea that there was any thing wrong or objectionable in thus seeing men in the morning, and I confidently believe your Majesty will see nothing in it from which any guilt can be inferred. I feel certain, that there is nothing immoral in the thing itself; and I have always understood that it was perfectly customary and usual for ladies of the first rank, and the first character in the country, to receive the visits of gentlemen in a morning, though they might be themselves alone at the time. But if, in the opinions and fashions of this country, there should be more impropriety ascribed to it than what it ever entered into my mind to conceive, I hope your Majesty, and every candid mind, will make allowance for the different notions which my foreign education, and foreign habits, may have given me. But whatever character may belong to this practice, it is not a practice which commenced after my leaving Carlton-house. While there, and from my first arrival in this country, I was accustomed, with the knowledge of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and without his ever having hinted to me the slightest disapprobation, to receive lessons from various masters, for my amusement and improvement; I was attended by them frequently, from twelve o'clock to five in the afternoon :-Mr. Atwood for music, Mr. Geffadiere for English, Mr. Troufronelli for painting, Mr. Tutoye for imitating marble, Mr. Elwes for the harp. I saw them all alone; and, indeed, if I were to see them at all, I could do no otherwise than see them aloue. Miss Garth who was then sub-governess to my daughter, lived certainly under the same roof with me, but she could not be spared from her duty and attendance on my daughter. I desired her sometimes to come down stairs, and read to me, during the time when I drew or painted, but my Lord Cholmondeley informed me this could not be. I then requested that I might have one of my bed-chamber women to live constantly at Carlton-house, that I might have her at call whenever I wanted her; but I was answered that it was not customary that the attendants of the Royal Family should live with them in town, so that request could not be complied with. But, independent of this, I never conceived that it was offensive to the fashions and manners of the country to receive gentlemen, who might call upon me in a morning, whether I had or had not any one with me; and it never occurred to me to think that there was either impropriety or indecorum in it, at that time, nor in continuing the practice at Montaguehouse. But this has been confined to morning visits, in no private apartments of my house, but in my drawing-room, where my ladies have, at all times, free access; and as they usually take their luncheon with me, except when they are engaged with visitors, or pursuits of their own, it could but rarely occur that I could be left with any gentleman alone for any length of time, unless there were something in the known and avowed business which might occasion his waiting upon me, that would fully account for the circumstance. I trust your Majesty will excuse the length at which I have dwelt upon this topic. I perceived, from the examinations, that it had been much inquired after, and I felt it necessary to represent it in its true light. And the candour of your Majesty's mind will, I am confident, suggest, that those who are the least conscious of intending guilt are the least suspicious of having it imputed to them; and therefore that they do not think it necessary to guard themselves, at every turn, with witnesses to prove their innocence, fancying their character to be safe as long as their conduct is innocent, and ` that guilt will not be imputed to them from actions quite indifferent. The deposition, however, of Mr. Cole, is not confined to my being alone with Sir Sidney Smith. The circumstances in which he observed us together he particularizes, and states his opinion. He introduces, indeed, the whole of his evidence, by saying that I was too familiar with Sir Sidney Smith; but as I trust I am not yet so far degraded as to have my character decided by the opinion of Mr. Cole, I shall not comment upon that observation. He then proceeds to describe the scene which he observed on the day when he brought in the sandwiches, which I trust your Majesty did not fail to notice, I had myself ordered to be brought in; for there is an obvious insinuation that Sir Sidney must have come in through the Park, and that there was great impropriety in his being alone with me. And, at least, the witness's own story proves, whatever impropriety there might be in this circumstance, that I was not conscious of it, nor meant to take advantage of his clandestine entry from the Park, to conceal it from my servant's observation; for, if I had such consciousness or such meaning, I never could have ordered sandwiches to have been brought in, or any other act to have been done, which must have brought myself under the notice of my servants, while I continued in a situation which I thought improper, and wished to conceal. Any of the circumstances of this visit, to which this part of the deposition refers, my memory does not enable me in the least degree to particularize and recal. Mr. Cole may have seen me sitting on the same sofa with Sir Sidney Smith; nay, I have no doubt, he must have seen me, over and over again, not only with Sir Sidney Smith, but with other men, sitting upon the same sofa; and I trust your Majesty will feel it the hardest |