to wait upon me only when I went to Carlton House, and not to come to Montague House except when specially required. This arrangement, it seems, offended him. It certainly deprived him of some perquisites which he had when living at Blackheath; but upon the whole, as it left him so much more of his time at his own disposal, I should not have thought it had been much to his prejudice. It seems, however, that he did not like it; and I must leave this part of the case with this one observation more-That your Majesty, I trust, will hardly believe, that, if Mr. Cole had, by any accident, discovered any improper conduct of mine, towards Sir Sidney Smith, or any one else, the way which I should have taken to suppress his information, to close his mouth, would have been by immediately adopting an arrangement in my family, with regard to him, which was either prejudicial or disagreeable to him: or that the way to remove him from the opportunity and the temptation of betraying my secret, whether through levity or design, in the quarter where it would be most fatal to me that it should be known, was by making an arrangement which, while all his resentment and anger were fresh and warm about him, would place him frequently, nay, almost daily, at Carlton House; would place him precisely at that place, from whence, unquestionably, it must have been my interest to have kept him as far removed as possible.

There is little or nothing in the examinations of

the other witnesses which is material for me to ob serve upon, as far as respects this part of the case. It appears from them indeed, what I have had no difficulty in admitting, and have observed upon before, that Sir Sidney Smith was frequently at Montague House-that they have known him to be alone with me in the morning, but that they never knew him alone with me in an evening, or staying later than my company or the ladies-for what Mr. Stikemaur says, with respect to his heing alone with me in an evening, can only mean, and is only reconcileable with all the rest of the evi dence on this part of the case, by its being understood to mean alone, in respect of other company, but not alone, in the absence of my Ladies. The deposition indeed of my servant, S. Roberts, is thus far material upon that point, that it exhibits. Mr. Cole, not less than three years ago, endeavouring to collect evidence upon these points to my prejudice. For Your Majesty will find that he says, "I recollect Mr. Cole* once asking me, I "think three years ago, whether there were any "favourites in the family. I remember saying, that Captain Manby and Sir Sidney Smith were frequently at Blackheath, and dined there "oftener than other persons." He then pro"ceeds-" I never knew Sir Sidney Smith stay "later than the Ladies; I cannot exactly say at "what time he went, but I never remember his staying alone with the Princess."

"

As to what is contained in the written declara* See Appendix (A) No. 8.

tions of Mr. and Mrs. Lampert, the old servants of Sir John and Lady Douglas (as from some circumstances or other respecting, I conceive, either their credit or their supposed importance) the Commissioners have not thought proper to examine them upon their oaths, I do not imagine Your Majesty would expect that I should take any notice of them. And as to what is deposed by my Lady Douglas, if your Majesty will observe the gross and horrid indecencies with which she ushers in, and states my confessions to her, of my asserted criminal intercourse with Sir Sidney Smith, Your Majesty, I am confident, will not be surprised that I do not descend to any particular observations on her deposition.-One, and one only observation will I make, which, however, could not have escaped Your Majesty, if I had omitted it.-That Your Majesty will have an excellent portraiture of the true female delicacy and purity of my Lady Douglas's mind, and character, when you will observe that she seems wholly insensible that what a sink of infamy she degrades herself by her testimony against me. It is not only that it appears, from her statement, that she was contented to live, in familiarity and apparent friendship with me, after the confession which I made of my adultery (for by the indulgence and liberality, as it is called, of modern manners, the company of adulteresses has ceased to reflect that discredit upon the characters of other

* For the same reason they are not printed in Appendix (B). ]

women who admit of their society, which the best interests of female virtue may, perhaps, require.) But she was contented to live in familiarity with a woman, who, if Lady Douglas's evidence of me is true, was a most low, vulgar, and profligate disgrace to her sex. The grossness of whose ideas and conversation, would add infamy to the lowest, most vulgar, and most infamous prostitute. It is not, however, upon this circumstance, that I rest assured no reliance can be placed on Lady Douglas's testimony; but after what is proved, with regard to her evidence respecting my pregnancy and delivery in 1802, I am certain that any observations upon her testimony, or her veracity, must be flung

away.

Your Majesty has therefore now before you the state of the charge against me, as far as it respects Sir Sidney Smith. And this is, as I understand -the Report, one of the charges which, with its unfavourable interpretations, must, in the opinion of the Commissioners, be credited till decidedly contradicted.

As to the facts of frequent visiting on terms of great intimacy, as I have said before, they cannot be contradicted at all. How inferences and unfavourable interpretations are to be decidedly contradicted, I wish the Commissioners had been so good as to explain. I know of no possible way but by the declarations of myself and Sir Sidney Smith. Yet we being the supposed guilty parties, our denial, probably, will be thought of no great

weight. As to my own, however, I tender it to your Majesty, in the most solemn manner, and if I knew what fact it was that I ought to contradict, to clear my innocence, I would precisely address myself to that fact, as I am confident, my conscience would enable me to do, to any, from which a criminal or an unbecoming inference could be drawn. I am sure, however, your Majesty will feel for the humiliated and degraded situation, to which this Report has reduced your Daughter-inlaw, the Princess of Wales; when you see her reduced to the necessity of either risking the danger, that the most unfavourable interpretations should be credited; or else of stating, as I am now degraded to the necessity of stating, that not only no adulterous or criminal, but no indecent or improper intercourse whatever, ever subsisted between Sir Sidney Smith and myself, or any thing which I should have objected that all the world should have seen. I say degraded to the necessity of stating it; for your Majesty must feel that a woman's character is degraded when it is put upon her to make such statement, at the peril of the contrary being credited, unless she decidedly contradicts it. Sir Sidney Smith's absence from the country prevents my calling upon him to attest the same truth. But I trust when your Majesty shall find, as you will find, that my declaration to a similar effect, with respect to the other gentlemen referred to in this Report, is confirmed by

8