after this long Inquiry, into matters which required immediate investigation, I have been acquitted of every thing which could call for my banishment from your Royal Presence;-after your Majesty's confidential servants have thus expressly advised your Majesty that they see no reason why you should any longer decline to receive me into your presence ;-after your Majesty had graciously notified to me, your determination to receive me at an early day, His Royal Highness interposes the demand of a new delay; desires your Majesty not to take any step; desires you not to act upon the advice which your own confidential servants have given you, that you need no longer decline seeing me; not to execute your intention, and assurance, that you would receive me at an early day;—because he has laid the documents before his Lawyers, and intends to prepare a further statement. And the judgment of your Majesty's confidential servants, is, as it were, appealed from by the Prince of Wales, (whom, from this time, at least, I must be permitted to consider as assuming the character of my accuser); the justice due to me is to be suspended, while the judgment of your Majesty's sworn servants is to be submitted to the revision of my accuser's Counsel;, and I, though acquitted, in the opinion of your Majesty's confidential servants, of all that should induce your Majesty to decline seeing me, am to have that punishment, which had been inflicted upon me, during the Inquiry, continued after that acquittal, till a fresh

statement is prepared, to be again submitted, for aught I know, to another Inquiry, of as extended a continuance as that which has just terminated.

Can it be said that the proceedings of the four noble Lords, or of your Majesty's confidential servants, have been so lenient, and considerate towards me and my feelings, as to induce a suspicion that I have been too favourably dealt with by them ? and that the advice which has been given to your Majesty, that your Majesty need no longer decline to receive me, was hastily and partially delivered? I am confident, that your Majesty must see the very reverse of this to be the case-that I have every reason to complain of the inexplicable delay which so long withheld that advice. And the whole character of the observations with which they accompanied it, marks the reluctance with which they yielded to the necessity of giving it.

For your Majesty's confidential servants advise your Majesty, "that it is no longer necessary for

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you to decline receiving me into your Royal "Presence." If this is their opinion and their advice now, why was it not their opinion and their advice four months ago, from the date of my answer? Nay, why was it not their opinion and advice from the date even of the original Report itself? For not only had they been in possession of my answer for above sixteen weeks, which at least furnished them with all the materials on which this advice at length was given, but further, your Majesty's confidential servants are forward to state,

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that after having read my observations, and the affidavits which they annexed to them, they agree in the opinions (not in any single opinion upon any particular branch of the case, but in the opinions generally) which were submitted to your Majesty, in the original Report of the four Lords. If therefore (notwithstanding their concurrence in all the opinions contained in the Report) they have nevertheless given to your Majesty their advice, "that "it is no longer necessary for you to decline receiving me;"-what could have prevented their offering that advice, even from the 14th of Juiy, the date of the original Report itself? Or what could have warranted the withholding of it, even for single moment? Instead, therefore, of any trace being observable, of hasty, precipitate, and partial determination in my favour, it is impossible to interpret their conduct and their reasons together in any other sense, than as amounting to an admission of your Majesty's confidential servants themselves, that I have, in consequence of their withholding that advice, been unnecessarily and cruelly banished from your Royal Presence, from the 14th of July, to the 28th of January, including a space of above six months; and the effect of the interposition of the Prince, is to prolong my sufferings, and my disgrace, under the same banishment, to a period perfectly indefinite.

The principle which will admit the effect of such interposition now, may be acted upon again; and the Prince may require a further prolongation,

-upon fresh statements, and fresh charges, kept back possibly for the purpose of being, from time to time, conveniently interposed, to prevent, for ever, the arrival of that hour, which, displaying to the world the acknowledgment of my unmerited sufferings and disgrace, may, at the same time, expose the true malicious and unjust quality of the proceedings which have been so long carried on against me.

This unseasonable, unjust, and cruel interposition of His Royal Highness, as I must ever deem it, has prevailed upon your Majesty to recall, to my prejudice, your gracious purpose of receiving me, in pursuance of the advice of your servants. Do I then flatter myself too much, when I feel assured, that my just entreaty, founded upon the reasons which I urge, and directed to counteract only the effect of that unjust interposition, will induce your Majesty to return to your original determination?

Restored however, as I should feel myself, to a state of comparative security, as well as credit, by being, at length, permitted, upon your Majesty's gracious reconsideration of your last determination, to have access to your Majesty; yet, under all the circumstances under which I should now receive that mark and confirmation of your Majesty's opinion of my innocence, my character would not, I fear, stand cleared in the public opinion, by the mere fact of your Majesty's reception of me. This revacation of your Majesty's gracious purpose has

flung an additional cloud about the whole proceeding, and the inferences drawn in the public mind, from this circumstance, so mysterious, and so perfectly inexplicable, upon any grounds which are open to their knowledge, has made, and will leave so deep an impression to my prejudice, as scarce any thing, short of a public exposure of all that has passed, can possibly efface.

The publication of all these proceedings to the world, then, seems to me, under the present circumstances, (whatever reluctance I feel against such a measure, and however I regret the hard necessity which drives me to it) to be almost the only remaining resource, for the vindication of my honour and character. The falsehood of the accusation is, by no means, all that will, by such publication, appear to the credit and clearance of my character; but the course in which the whole proceedings have been carried on, or rather delayed, by those, to whom your Majesty referred the consideration of them, will shew, that, whatever measure of justice I may have ultimately received at their hands, it is not to be suspected as arising from any merciful and indulgent consideration of me, of my feelings, or of my case.

It will be seen how my feelings had been harassed, and my character and honour exposed, by the delays which have taken place in these proceedings it will be seen, that the existence of the charge against me had avowedly been known to the F f