character, to the publication of the proceedings upon the Inquiry into my conduct), I thought it just possible, that the reason for my not having received your Majesty's commands to that effect, might have been occasioned by the circumstance of your Majesty's stay at Windsor through the whole of the week. I, therefore, determined to wait a few days longer, before I took a step, which, when once taken, could not be recalled. Having, however, now assured myself, that your Majesty was in town yesterday as I have received no command to wait upon your Majesty, and no intimation of your pleasure-I am reduced to the necessity of abandoning all hope, that your Majesty will comply with my humble, my earnest, and anxious requests, Your Majesty, therefore, will not be surprised to find, that the publication of the proceedings alluded to, will not be withheld beyond Monday next. As to any consequences which may arise from such publication, unpleasant or hurtful to my own feelings and interests, I may, perhaps, be properly responsible; and, in any event, have no one to complain of but myself, and those with whose advice I have acted; and whatever those consequences may be, I am fully and unalterably convinced, that they must be incalculably less than those which I should be exposed to from my silence: but as to any other consequences, unpleasant or hurtful to the feelings and interests of others, or of the public, my conscience will certainly acquit me of them ;-I am confident that I have not acted impatiently or precipitately. To avoid coming to this painful extremity, I have taken every step in my power, except that which would be abandoning my character to utter infamy, and my station and life to no uncertain danger, and, possibly, to no very distant destruction. With every prayer for the lengthened continuance of your Majesty's health and happiness; for every possible blessing which a gracious God can bestow upon the beloved Monarch of loyal people, and for the continued prosperity of your dominions, under your Majesty's propitious reign, I remain Your Majesty's most dutiful, loyal, and affectionate, But most unhappy, and most injured Daughter-in-law, Subject and Servant, Montague-House, March 5, 1807. C. P. Your Majesty's confidential servants have, in obedience to your Majesty's commands, most attentively considered the original Charges and Report, the Minutes of Evidence, and all the other papers, submitted to the consideration of your Majesty, on the subject of those charges against her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. In the stage in which this business is brought under their consideration, they do not feel themselves called upon to give any opinion as to the proceeding itself, or to the mode of investigation in which it has been thought proper to conduct it. But ad verting to the advice which is stated by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to have directed his conduct, your Majesty's confidential servants are anxions to impress upon your Majesty their conviction that his Royal Highness could not, under such advice, consistently with his public duty, have done otherwise than lay before your Majesty the statement and examinations which were submitted to him upon this subject. After the most deliberate consideration, however, of the evidence which has been brought before the Commissioners, and of the previous examination, as well as of the answer and observations which have been submitted to your Majesty upon them, they feel it necessary to declare their decided coucurrence in the clear and unanimous opinions of the Commissioners, confirmed by all your Majesty's late confidential servants, that the two main charges alleged against her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, of pregnancy and delivery, are completely disproved; and they further submit to your Majesty, their unanimous opinion, that all other particulars of conduct brought in accusation against her Royal Highness, to which the character of criminality can be ascribed, are satisfactorily contradicted, or rest upon evidence of such a nature, and which was given under such circumstances, as render it, in the judgment of your Majesty's confidential servants, undeserving of credit. Your Majesty's confidential servants, therefore, concurring in that part of the opinion of your late servants, as stated in their Minute of the 25th of January, that there is no longer any necessity for your Majesty being advised to decline receiving the Princess into your Royal presence, humbly submit to your Majesty, that it is essentially necessary, in justice to her Royal Highness, and for the honour and interests of your Majesty's illustrious Family, that her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales shouldbe admitted, with as little delay as possible, into your Majesty's Royal presence, and that she should be received in a manner due to her rank and station, in your Majesty's Court and Family. Your Majesty's confidential servants also beg leave to submit to your Majesty, that considering that it may be necessary that your Majesty's Government should possess the means of referring to the state of this transaction, it is of the utmost importance that these documents, demonstrating the ground on which your Majesty has proceeded, should be preserved in safe custody;. and that for that purpose the originals, or authentic copies of all these papers, should be sealed up and deposited in the Office of your Majesty's principal Secretary of State. “THE BOOK !”—APPENDIX (A). GEORGE R. (No. 1.) WHEREAS our trusty and well-beloved Coun cillor Thomas Lord Erskine, our Chancellor, has this day laid before us an Abstract of certain written Declarations touching the conduct of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales: We do hereby authorize, empower, and direct the said Thomas Lord Erskine, our Chancellor; our right trusty and well-beloved Cousin and Councillor Lord George John Earl Spencer, one of our principal Secretaries of State; our right trusty and wellbeloved Councillor William Wyndham Grenville, First Commissioner of our Treasury; and our right trusty and well-beloved Councillor Edward Lord Ellenborough, our Chief Justice to hold Pleas before ourself, to inquire into the truth of the same, and to examine upon oath such persons as they shall see fit touching and concerning the same, and to report to us the result of such examinations. Given at our Castle of Windsor, on the 29th day of May, in the forty-sixth year of our reign. A true Copy-J. Becket. (No. 2.) G. R. THE DEPOSITION OF CHARLOTTE I think I first became acquainted with the Princess of Wales in 1801. Sir John Douglas had a house at Blackheath. One day, in November 1801, the snow was lying on the ground. The Princess and a lady, who, I believe, was Miss Heyman, came on foot, and walked several times before the door. Lady Stewart was with me, and said, she thought that the Princess wanted something, and that I ought to go to her. I went to her. She said, she did not want any thing, but she would walk in; that I had a very pretty little girl. She came in, and staid some time. About a fortnight after Sir J. D. and I received an invitation to go to Montague House; after that I was very frequently at Montague House, and dined there. The Princess dined frequently with us. About May or June, 1802, the Princess first talked to me about her own conduct. Sir Sydney Smith, who had been Sir John's friend for more than twenty years, came to England about November, 1801, and came to live in our house. I understood the Princess knew Sir Sydney Smith before she was Princess of Wales. The Princess saw Sir S. Smith as frequently as ourselves. We were usually kept at Montague House later than the rest of the party, often till three or four in the morning. I never observed any impropriety of conduct between Sir Sydney Smith and the Princess. I made the Princess a visit at Montague House, in March, 1802, for about a fortnight. She desired me to come there, because Miss Garth was ill. In May or June following, the Princess came to my house alone: she said she came to tell me some thing that had happened to her, and desired me to guess-I guessed several things, and at last I said, I could not guess any thing more.— She then said she was pregnant, and that the child had come to life. I don't know whether she said on that day or a few days before, that she was at breakfast at Lady Willoughby's, that the milk flowed up to her breast and came through her gown; that she threw a napkin over herself, and went with Lady Willoughby into her room, and adjusted herself to prevent its being obe served. She never told me who was the father of the child. She said she hoped it would be a boy. She said that if it was discovered she should give the Prince of Wales the credit of being the father, for she had slept two nights at Carlton House within the year. I said that I should go abroad to my mother. The Princess said she should manage it very well, and if things came to the worst, she should give the Prince the credit of it. While I was at Montague House, in March, I was with child, and one day I said I was very sick, and the Princess desired Mrs. Sander to get me a saline draught. She then said that she was very sick herself, and that she would take a saline draught too. 1 observed, that she could not want one, and looked at her." The Princess said, yes, I do. What do you look at me for with your wicked eyes; you are always finding me out. Mrs. Sander looked very much distressed. She gave us a saline draught each. This was the first time I had any suspicion of her being with child. The Princess never said who was the father. When she first told me she was with child, I rather suspected that Sir Sydney Smith was the father, but only because the Princess was very partial to him: I never knew he was with her alone. We had constant intercourse with the Princess, from the time I was at Montague House, till the end of October. After that she had first communicated to me that she was with child, she frequently spoke upon the subject. She was bled twice during the time. She recommended me to be bled too, m About a week or nine or ten days after this, I received a note from the Princess, to desire that I would not come to Montague House, for they were apprehensive that the children she had taken had had the measles in their clothes, and that she was afraid my child might take it. When the Princess came to see me during my lying-in, she told me, that when she should be brought to bed, she wished I would not come to see her for some time, for she might be confused in seeing me. About the end of December I went to Gloucestershire, and stayed there about a month. When I returned, which was in January, I went to Montagne House, and was let in. The Princess was sofa a child was lying, covered over with a piece of red cloth. The Princess got up, and took me by the hand. She then led me to the sofa, and said, "There is the child, I had him only two days after I saw you." The words were, either, " I had him," or "I was brought to bed:" the words were such as clearly imported that it was her own child. She said she got very well through it; she shewed me a mark on the child's hand; it is a pink mark. The Princess said, "he has a mark like your little girl." I saw the child afterwards frequently with the Princess quite till Christmas, 1803, when I left Blackheath. I saw the mark upon the child's hand, and I am sure that it was the same child, I never saw any other child there. The Princess Charlotte used to see the child and play with him. The child used to call the Princess of Wales "Mamma." I saw the child looking out at the window of the Princess's house about a month ago, before the Princess went into Devonshire, and I am sure that it was the same child. Not long after I had first seen the child, the Princess said, that she had the child at first to sleep with her a few nights; but it made her nervous, and now they had got a regular nurse for him. and said that it made you have a better time. Mr. Edmeades bled her; she said, one of the days Mr. Edmeades bled her, that she had a violent heat in her blood, and that Mr. Edmeades should bleed her. I told the Princess that I was very anxious how she would manage to be brought to bed, without its being known; that I hoped she had a safe person. She said, yes: she should have a person from abroad; that she had a great horror of having any man about her upon such an occasion-she said, "I am confident in my own plans, and I wish you would not speak to me on that subject again. I shall tell every thing to Sander." I think this was on the day on which she told me of what happened at Lady Wil-packing up something in a black box. Upon the loughby's that Sander was a very good woman, and might be trusted, and that she must be with her at the labour; that she would send Miss Gouch to Brunswick, and Miss Millfield was too young to be trusted, and must be sent out of the way. I was brought to bed on the 23d July, 1802. The Princess insisted on being present. I determined that she should not, but I meant to avoid it without offending her. On the day on which I was brought to bed, she came to my house and insisted on coming in. Dr. Mackie, who attended me, locked the door, and said she should not come in; but there was another door on the opposite side of the room, which was not locked, and she came in at that door, and was present during the time of the labour, and took the child as soon as it was born, and said that she was very glad that she had seen the whole of it. The Princess's pregnancy appeared to me to be very visible. She wore a cushion behind, and she made Mrs. Sander make one for me. During my lying-in the Princess came one day with Mrs. Fitzgerald. She sent Mrs. F. away, and took a chair, and sat by my bedside. She said, "You will hear of my taking children in baskets, but you won't take any notice of it. I shall have them brought by a poor woman in a basket., I shall do it as a cover to have my own brought to me in that way;" or "that is the way in which I must have myown brought when I have it." Very soon after this, two children, who were twins, were brought by a poor woman in a basket. The Princess took them, and had them carried up into her room, and the Princess washed them herself. The Princess told me this herself. The father, a few days afterwards, came and insisted on having the children, and they were given to him. The Princess afterwards said to me, 6 You see I took the children, and it answered very well." The father had got them back, and she could not blame him that she should take other children, and should have quite a nursery. I saw the Princess on a Sunday, either the 30th or 31st of October, 1802, walking before her door. She was dressed so as to conceal her pregnancy; she had a long cloak and a very great muff; she had just returned from Greenwich church; she looked very ill, aud I thought must be very near her time. She said, We gave it a little milk at first, but it was too much for me, and now we breed it by hand, and it does very well. I can swear positively that the child I saw at the window is the same child as the Princess told me she had two days after she parted with me. The child was called William. I never heard that it had any other name. When the child was in long clothes, we breakfasted one day with the Princess, and she said to Sir John Douglas, This is the Deptford boy. Independently of the Princess's confession to me, I can swear that she was pregnant in 1802. In October, 1804, when we returned from Devonshire, I left my card at Montague House, and on the 4th October I received a letter from Mrs. Vernon, desiring me not to come any more to Montague House. I had never, at this time, mentioned the Princess's being with child, or being delivered of a child, to any person, not even to Sir John Douglas. After receiving Mrs. Vernon's letter, I wrote to the Princess on the subject. The letter was sent back unopened. I then wrote to Mrs. Fitzgerald, saying, that I thought myself extremely ill used. In two or three days after this, I received an anonymous letter, which I produce, and have marked it with the letter A, and signed with my name, both on the letter and the envelope. The Princess of Wales has told me that she got a bedfellow whenever she could; that nothing was more wholesome. She said that nothing was more convenient than her room; "it stands at the head of the staircase which leads into the Park, and I have bolts in the inside, and have a bedfellow whenever I like. I wonder you can be satisfied only with Sir John." She has said this more than once. She has told me that Sir Sydney Smith had lain with her; that she believed all men liked a bedfellow, but Sir Sydney better than any body else; that the Prince was the most complaisant man in the world; that she did what she liked, went where she liked, and had what bedfellow she liked, and the Prince paid for all. CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS. ERSKINE, SPENCER, GRENVILLE, A true Copy-J. Becket. (No. 3.) THE DEPOSITION OF SIR JOHN I had a house at Blackheath, in 1801. Sir Sydney Smith used to come to my house. I had a bed for him. The Princess of Wales formed an acquaintance with Lady Douglas, and came frequently to our house. I thought she came more for Sydney Smith than for us. After she had been some time acquainted with us, she appeared to me to be with child. One day she leaned on the sofa, and put her hand upon her stomach, and said,-Sir John, I shall never be Queen of England.—I said, Not if you don't deserve it. She seemed angry at first. In 1804, on the 27th of October, I received two letters by the twopenny post, one addressed to me, which I now produce, and have marked it with the letter B, both on the envelope and the enclosure, and another letter addressed to Lady Douglas, which I now produce, and have marked with the letter C, both on the envelope and the enclosure. JOHN DOUGLAS. June 1. Sworn before us, at Lord Grenville's house, in Downing-street, Westminster, June 1, 1806. ERSKINE, SPENCER, GRENVILLE, ELLENBOROUGH. true Copy-J. Becket. *No copy of these letters, or either of them, had been sent to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales (No. 4.) THE DEPOSITION OF ROBERT BID. GOOD. I have lived with the Prince twenty-three years next September; I went to the Princess in March, 1798, and have lived with her Royal Highness ever since. About the year 1802, early in that year, I observed Sir Sydney Smith come to Montague House; he used to stay very late at night; I have 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 almost every day. I saw Sir Sydney Smith one day in 1802, in the blue room, about eleven o'clock in the morning, which is full two hours before we expected ever to see any company. I asked why the servants did not let me know that he was there. The footman informed me 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. I never observed any appearance of the Princess which could lead me to suppose that she was with child. I first observed Captain Manby come to Montague House either the end of 1803, or 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 in 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 were crying, and she went into the drawing-room. The Princess went to Southend in May, 1804; I went with her : we were there, I believe, about six weeks before the Africaine came in. Sicard was very often watching with a glass to see when the ship would arrive. One day he said he saw the Africaine, and soon after the Captain put off in a boat from the ship. Sicard went down the shrubbery to meet him. When the Captain came on shore, Sicard conducted him to the Princess's house, and he dined there with the Princess and her ladies. After this he came very frequently to see the Princess. The Princess had two houses on the Cliff, Nos. 8 and 9. She afterwards took the drawing-room of No. 7, which communicated by the balcony with No. 8, the three houses being adjoining. The Princess used to dine in No. 8, and after dinner to remove with the company into No. 7, and I have several times seen the Princess, after having gone into No. 7, with Captain Manby and the rest of the company, retire alone with Captain Manby from No.7, through No. 8 into No. 9, which, was the |