in any instance, under the influence of foreign habits, and foreign education, have observed a conduct, in any degree deviating from the reserve and severity of British manners, and partaking of a condescension and familiarity which that reserve and severity would, perhaps, deem beneath the dignity of my exalted rank, I feel confident, (since such deviation will be seen to have been ever consistent with perfect innocence), that not only your Majesty's candour and indulgence, but the candour and indulgence, which, notwithstanding the reserve and severity of British manners, always belong to the British Public, will never visit it with severity or

censure,

It remains for me now to make some remarks.

-upon the further contents of the paper, which was transmitted to me by the Lord Chancellor, on the *28th ult. And I cannot, in passing, omit to remark, that that paper has neither title, date, signaturę, nor attestation; and unless the Lord Chancellor had accompanied it with a note, stating, that it was copied in his own hand from the original, which his Lordship had received from your Majesty, I should have been at a loss to have perceived any single mark of authenticity belonging to it; and as it is, I am wholly unable to discover what is the true character which does belong to it. It contains, indeed, the advice which your Majesty's servants have offered to your Majesty, and the Message which, according to that advice, your Majesty directed to be delivered to me.

Hh

Considering it, therefore, wholly as their act, your Majesty will excuse and pardon me, if, deeply injured as I feel myself to have been by them, I express myself with freedom upon their conduct. I may speak, perhaps, with warmth, because I am provoked by a sense of gross injustice; I shall speak certainly with firmness and with courage, because I am emboldened by a sense of conscious innocence.

Your Majesty's confidential servants say, they agree in the opinions of the four Lords," and they say this," after the fullest consideration of my observations, and of the affidavits which were annexed to them." Some of these opinions, your Majesty will recollect, are, that "William Cole, Fanny Lloyd, Robert Bidgood, and Mrs. Lisle, are wit"nesses who cannot," in the judgment of the four Lords, "be suspected of any unfavourable bias;" and" whose veracity, in this respect, they had seen

no ground to question ;" and "that the circum"stances to which they speak, particularly as re

lating to Captain Manby, must be credited until "they are decisively contradicted." Am I then to understand your Majesty's confidential servants to mean, that they agree with the four Noble Lords in these opinions? Am I to understand, that after having read, with the fullest consideration, the observations which I have offered to your Majesty; after having seen William Cole there proved to have submitted himself, five times at least, to private, unauthorized, voluntary examination by Sir John Douglas's Solicitor, for the express pur

pose of confirming the statement of Lady Douglas, (of that Lady Douglas, whose statement and depo→ sition they are convinced to be so malicious and false, that they propose to institute such prosecu, tion against her, as your Majesty's Law Officers may advise, upon a reference, now at length, after six months from the detection of that malice and. falsehood, intended to be made)-after having seen this William Cole, submitting to such repeated voluntary examinations for such a purpose, and although he was all that time a servant on my establishment, and eating my bread, yet never once communicating to me, that such examinations were going on am I to understand, that your Majesty's confidential servants agree with the four Lords in thinking, that he cannot, under such circumstances, be suspected of unfavourable bias? That after

having had pointed out to them the direct, flat contradiction between the same William Cole and Fanny Lloyd, they nevertheless agree to think them both (though in direct contradiction to each other, yet both) witnesses, whose veracity they see no ground to question? After having seen Fanny Lloyd directly and positively contradicted, in an assertion, most injurious to my honour, by Mr. Mills and Mr. Edmeades, do they agree in opinion with the four Noble Lords, that they see no ground to question her veracity ?-After having read the observations on Mr. Bidgood's evidence after having seen, that he had the hardihood to swear, that he believed Captain Manby slept in my house, at Southend, and to insinuate that he

slept in my bed-room; after having seen that he founded himself on this most false fact, and most foul and wicked insinuation, upon the circumstance of observing a bason and some towels where he thought they ought not be placed; after having seen that this fact, and this insinuation, were disproved before the four Noble Lords themselves, by two maid-servants, who, at that time, lived with me at Southend, and whose duties about my person, and my apartments, must have made them acquainted with this fact, as asserted, or as insinuated, if it had happened; after having observed too, in confirmation of their testimony, that one of them mentioned the name of another female servant (who was not examined), who had, from her situation, equal means of knowledge with themselves— I ask whether, after all this decisive weight of contradiction to Robert Bidgood's testimony, I am to understand your Majesty's confidential servants to agree with the four Noble Lords in thinking, that Mr. Bidgood is a witness, who cannot be suspected of unfavourable bias, and that there is no ground to question his veracity? If, Sire, I were to go through all the remarks of this description, which occur to me to make, I should be obliged to repeat nearly all my former observations, and to make this letter as long as my original answer; but to that answer I confidently appeal, and I will venture to challenge your Majesty's confidential servants to find a single impartial, and honourable man, unconnected in feeling and interest with the parties, and unconnected in Council, with those

who have already pledged themselves to an opinion upon this subject, who will lay his hand upon his heart, and say that these three witnesses, on whom that Report so mainly relies, are not to be suspected of the grossest partiality, and that their veracity is not most fundamentally impeached.

Was it then noble, was it generous, was it manly,. was it just, in your Majesty's confidential servants, instead of fairly admitting the injustice, which had been, inadvertently, and unintentionally, no doubt, done to me, by the four Noble Lords in their Report, upon the evidence of these witnesses, to state to your Majesty, that they agree with these Noble Lords in their opinion, though they cannot, it seems, go the length of agreeing any longer to withhold the advice, which restores me to your Majesty's presence? And with respect to the ticulars to my prejudice, remarked upon in the Report as those "which justly deserve the most "serious consideration, and which must be credited

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till decisively contradicted," instead of fairly avowing, either that there was originally no pretence for such a remark, or that, if there had been originally, yet that my answer had given that decisive contradiction which was sufficient to discredit them; instead, I say, of acting this just, honest, and, open, part, to take no notice whatsoever of those contradictions, and content themselves with saying, that none of the facts or allegations " stated in preliminary examinations, carried on in"the absence of the parties interested, could be con"sidered as legally or conclusively establislied ?”