what may have been decined more important duties and of this I should have made but little complaint, if this Inquiry, where it is imperfect, had not been followed by a Report, which the most accurate only could have justified, and which such an accurate Inquiry, I am confident, never could have produced.

If any credit was given to Mr. Cole's story of the locked door, and the whispering; and to Mr. Lawrence having been left with me so frequently of a night when my ladies had left us, why were not all my ladies examined? why were not all my servants examined as to their knowledge of that fact? And if they had been so examined, and had contradicted the fact so sworn to by Mr. Cole, as they must have done, had they been examined to it; that alone would have been sufficient to have removed his name from the list of unsuspected and unquestionable witnesses, and relieved me from much of the suspicion which his evidence, till it was examined, was calculated to have raised in your Majesty's mind. And to close this statement, and these observations and in addition to them,-I most solemnly assert to your Majesty, that Mr. Lawrence, neither at his own house, nor at mine, nor any where else, ever was for one moment, by night or by day, in the same room with me when the door of it was locked; that he never was in my company of an evening alone, except the momentary conversation which Mr. Lawrence speaks to, may be thought an exception; and that

nothing ever passed between him and me which all the world might not have witnessed. And, Sire, I have subjoined a deposition to the same effect from Mr. Lawrence.

To satisfy myself, therefore, and your Majesty, I have shewn, I trust, by unanswerable observations and arguments, that there is no colour for crediting Mr. Cole, or, consequently, any part of this charge, which rests solely on his evidence. But to satisfy the requisition of the Commissioners, I have brought my pride to submit, (though not without great pain, I can assure your Majesty) to add the only contradictions which I conceive can be given, those of Mr. Lawrence and myself.

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 order; 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 nothing there that can require a single observation from me.*The material parts of her 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 Christinas 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 thé 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, conversing separately, but not in a rooui 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 judgment, which she forms upon them. I mean not to speak disrespectfully, 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 evidence of crime, of vice, or of indecency, 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 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?

from my

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 honest 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 afterwards, 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