justly offended it. What! the people exclaimed, do they see their daughter and sisterin-law, and she their niece and cousin too, driven from her husband's roof with a baby three months old in her armis, of which baby they are the grandmother and the aunts; do they see this, and feel no compassion for the sufferer, though a stranger in the land, and though they know that she has thus been punished and degraded for no fault, and in violation of the most solemn vows; do they see this, and by keeping aloof from, not only give her no support or consolation, but tacitly tell the world that there is some just cause for her banishment? This conduct gave great offence to the English nation, who, with the exception of the aristocracy, did itself everlasting honour by its conduct towards the persecuted lady; showed a love of ❝ fair play," of that proneness to take part with the weak against the strong which has ever been amongst its best characteristics. And the royal family have not failed to experience the natural effects of this feeling in the nation, whose regard for that family has never been what it was before the period now under consideration.

WHEREAS Our right trusty and wellbeloved Councillor 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 authorise, empower, and direct, the said Thomas Lord Erskine, Our Chancellor ; Our right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin and Councillor George John Earl Spencer, one of Our Principal Secretaries of State Our right trusty and well-beloved Councillor William Wyndham Lord 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 twentyninth day of May, in the forty-sixth year of Our Reign. G. R

59. But, alas! the sufferings of the unfortunate Princess were not to end here; here they but made a mere beginning; her banishment was the smallest part of what she was destined to endure, If, indeed, she had been permitted to enjoy that tranquil and comfortable society," which the Prince, in giving her her discharge, said was "within their power," she might, though injured and insulted, have led a life free from anxiety, particularly as she might with justice have discarded from her mind all regard for, and care about, him. But, to suffer her to lead YOUR majesty having been graciously this sort of life appears to have been very far pleased, by an instrument under your mafrom his thoughts; for, as it was afterwards jesty's royal sign manual, a copy of which is amply proved, she was no sooner in her state annexed to this report, to "authorise, emof banishment, than means were set to work" power, and direct us to inquire into the to obtain against her such evidence as would," truth of certain written declarations, touch if established, justify the husband in demanding a divorce.

THE REPORT.
May it please your Majesty,

"ing the conduct of her royal highness the "Princess of Wales, an abstract of which "had been laid before your majesty, and to examine upon oath such persons as we "should see fit, touching and concerning the "same, and to report to your majesty the "result of such examinations," we have, in dutiful obedience to your Majesty's commands, proceeded to examine the several witnesses, the copies of whose depositions we have hereunto annexed; and, in further execution of the said commands we now most respectfully submit to your majesty the report of these examinations as it has appeared to us: but we beg leave at the same time humbly to refer your majesty, for more complete information, to the examinations themselves, in order to correct any error of judgment into which we may have unintentionally fallen with respect to any part of this busi ness. On a reference to the above-mentioned declarations, as the necessary foundation of all our proceedings, we found that they con

60. No steps were, however, openly taken, until the year 1806; though the pretended" grounds of those steps had, some of them, eristed five years before. These steps were: 1. A COMMUNICATION to the King, by the Prince of Wales, of certain information that he had received relative to the conduct of his wife; 2. A WARRANT of the King, authorising and commanding the Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the First Lord of the Treasury, and the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, to inquire into the truth of the allegations, and to report the result to the king. When we have these documents recorded, we shall have before us the true source of more cabal, intrigue, and mischief, than ought to exist in any nation in ten centuries. The steps were the natural offspring of the cruel and insulting letter from the Prince to his wife, on the 30th of April, 1796, As we shall by-and-by see,

Wales, "respecting the conduct of her royal

the pregnant, bis having observed the fact of

her royal highness, and the

sisted in certain statements, the Prince of the had been Charlotte his wife; who both positively swore, laid before his royal highness highness the Princess. That these statements latter to all the important particulars contained in her former declarations, and above referred to Their examinations are annexed to this report, and are circumstantial and positive.

not only imputed to her royal highness great impropriety and indecency of behaviour, but expressly asserted, partly on the ground of certain alleged declarations from the princess's own mouth, and partly on the personal observations of the informants, the following most important facts; viz.: That her royal highness had been pregnant in the year 1802, in consequence of an illicit intercourse, and that she had in the same year been secretly delivered of a male child, which child had ever since that period been brought up by her royal highness, in her own house, and under her immediate inspection..

The most material of those allegations, into the truth of which we had been directed to inquire, being thus far supported by the oaths of the parties from whom they had proceeded, we then felt it our duty to follow up the inquiry by the examination of such other persons as we judged best able to afford us information as to the facts in question.

We thought it beyond all doubt that, in this course of inquiry, many particulars must be learnt which would be necessarily conclusive on the truth or falsehood of these declarations. So many persons must have been

These allegations thus made, had, as we found, been followed by declarations from other persons, who had not indeed spoken to the important facts of the pregnancy or de-witnesses to the appearances of an actuallylivery of her royal highness, but had related other particulars, in themselves extremely suspicious, and still more so when connected with the assertions already mentioned.

existing pregnancy; so many circumstances must have been attendant upon a delivery; and difficulties so numerous and insurmountable must have been involved in any attempt In the painful situation in which his royal to account for the infant in question, as the highness was placed by these communications, child of another woman, if it had been in we learnt that his royal highness had adopted fact the child of the princess; that we enterthe only course which could, in our judg-tained a full and confident expectation of ment, with propriety be followed. When in- arriving at complete proof, either in the formations such as these had been thus con-affirmative or negative, on this part of the fidently alleged, and particularly detailed, and subject.

had been in some degree supported by colla- This expectation was not disappointed. teral evidence, applying to other points of the We are happy to declare to your majesty our same nature (though going to a far less ex-perfect conviction that there is no foundation tent), one line only could be pursued.

Every sentiment of duty to your majesty, and of concern for the public welfare, required that these particulars should not be withheld from your majesty, to whom more particularly belonged the cognizance of a matter of state so nearly touching the honour of your majesty's royal family, and, by possibility, affecting the succession of your majesty's crown...{

Your majesty had been pleased, on your part, to view the subject in the same light.. Considering it as a matter which, on every account, demanded the most immediate investigation, your majesty had thought fit to commit into our hands the duty of ascertaining, in the first place, what degree of credit was due to the informations, and thereby enabling your majesty to decide what further conduct to adopt concerning them.

On this review, therefore, of the matters thus alleged, and of the course hitherto pursued upon them, we deemed it proper, in the first place, to examine those persons in wh whose declarations the occasion for this inquiry had originated. Because if they, on being examined upon oath, had retracted or varied their assertions, all necessity for further investigation might possibly have been precluded.

We accordingly first examined on oath the

whatever for believing that the child now
with the princess is the child of her royal
highness, or that she was delivered of any child
in the year 1802; nor has any-thing appeared
to us which would warrant the belief that she
was pregnant in that year, or at any other
period within the compass of our inquiries.
[To be continued.]

Hampshire Parsons! My old ac

principal informants, Sir John Douglas, and quaintances, how do you feel now?

When in March, 1817, you met at working man was worse fed and worse
Winchester to congratulate the Prince clad than the felons in the hulks and
Regent on his narrow escape in the jails, but, then, the same thing had
Park, and to thank the Parliament for been told the Parliamentary Commit-
passing the Power-of-imprisonment tees by witnesses that they themselves
Ball, I told you, in answer to LOCKHART, had chosen. Nothing can be truer
that, before ten years were at an end, than that I have, over and over again,
you must begin to look about you, if asserted that the labourers were put up
you meaned to keep the tithes. I was to auction, and their labour sold for
wrong, but only in point of time; I was certain ternis, just as it done with
only two years in advance of the fact. regard to the negroes in Jamaica; but,
But this, the most important of the then, the same thing is stated in evi
subjects on which I am about to address dence taken down by the Parliamentary
you, I must reserve for the close of my Committees, and printed at the people's
letter. But, upon the whole, before I expense, while I print at my own ex-
go any further, how do you feel, par-pense. What blame then attaches to me
sons? And did you, when you were hunt-in this case ? I confess, "I am free to
ing me about," from the year 1805 to confess," as the sensible collective has.
the year 1817, inclusive, anticipate this it, that I have said, that the misery was,
state of things! I often enough told the cause of the crime, and that the law
you that it would come; but did you had no terrors, because the working
anticipate it? And now let me pro- people were better off in jail than at
ceed in the order above laid down. their own homes; but then Sir E. E.,
1. On the blame imputed to me as to somebody, Chairman of the Quarter
the cause of the popular commotions Sessions of Warwickshire, and all his
It is very true, parsons, that I have, brother magistrates, have, in formal
long and long ago, foretold what has resolutions, said the same thing. Why
now happened. I have been, for about not fly at them? Why not fly at the
six-and-twenty years, predicting that, Parliament, who published all the evi-
if such a change were not made as dence mentioned above?
would better the lot of the labourers, a Aye, but I not only related the suffer-
terrible convulsion would take place. Iings and described the degradation of
have always said, that Englishmen the labourers, but I foretold that they
would not, like Irishmen, lie down by would not endure it for ever, and that
hundreds and die quietly from starva- they would finally break forth and al-
tion. It is very true that I have, for tack the rich. It is very true, that my
about ten years, inveighed as bitterly words might amount to this; but then
against making Englishmen draw carts EARL STANHOPE said the same thing, in
like cattle, full as bitterly as the Duke his place in Parliament, last year, only
of Richmond did last winter, that being he said it without any reserve. He said,
the very first time that the matter was that there was an open breach between
ever even alluded to in Parliament, the poor and the rich, and that they
though the Parliament had plenty of would soon come to blows, if some effec-
proofs of the disgraceful fact given tual means of prevention were not
in evidence before their Committees. adopted! Fly at him then, parsons;
It is very true, that I have, for many deal with him first, and then come at
years, been complaining that the lame. Ah! but Earl Stanhope did not
bourers carried potatoes (accursed hog-write the History of the Protestant
food) to field, instead of the bread Reformation! He did not tell all the
and meat and cheese that they used to nation what was the origin, the inten-
carry thither; but, then, the Parlia- tion, and the former application of
ment had the same thing in evidence tithes and of Cathedral and Bishop's
before their Committees so long ago as and College revenues! And, therefore,
the year 1821. It is very true, that I he may take a horse when I do not dare
have long been saying, that the honest look over the hedge.

1 Bat, in defence of his Lordship as been the cause of the FIRES of 1830 well as of myself, let me ask what offence and 1831. Ah! but Ezekiel did not there can be in foretelling an evil, even write the History of the Protestant Res History! if it be positive instead of being con- formation! And ST. JAEs now, that ditional, which latter has always been blunt and home-speaking apostle, 'was the case with me. Suppose I see, in a he criminal, when he foretold thus Le field which is eaten down as bare as a Go to, now, ye RICH MEN, weep board, a lot of oxen, which are shut up "and howl for your miseries that shall in it every night after they have done come upon you. Your riches are corwork; suppose I see a fine field of " rupted and your garments are mothclover over the hedge; suppose I eaten. Your gold and silver is cango to the greedy and grinding bull-" kered; and the rust of them shall be frog, who is the owner of the fields and a witness against you, and shall eat who has the oxen on hire; suppose I your flesh as it were fire: ye have say to him, "Mr. GRINDUM, you'd heaped treasure together for the last "better take the oxen out of that bare" days. Behold, the hire of the labour"field, or cut up and carry to them" ers who have reaped down your fields, some clover, or else they will be" which is of you kept back by frand, through the hedge, as sure as you are "crieth: and the cries of them which "born"; suppose the poor creatures," have reaped are entered into the ears raving with hunger, to get through the "of the Lord of Sabaoth.

Ye have fence that night, and to eat, or trample" lived in pleasure on the earth, and down, his fine field of clover; and sup- "been wanton; you have nourished pose him then to swear and curse and" your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” stamp like mad, and to accuse me of What! will you say that ST. JAMES being the cause of the violence and mis-ought to have been prosecuted for this? chief committed by the oxen. Suppose Will you say that he was the cause of such a result, would you not allow that the miseries of the rich and cruel ruffians SQUIRE GRINDUM ought to have the that he had in his eye? Those basest soul beaten out of his body with a of all earthly villains, "who kept back broomstick or a hedge-stake? Would" by fraud the hire of the labourers you not be "free to confess," that, at" who had reaped down their fields?'' the very least, he ought to have the two horns of one of the oxen in his too-well-filled paunch? And yet, this is precisely the case of these rich ruffians, who have been endeavouring to fix the cause of the disturbances on

me.

Will you say that he, who urged these ruffians to do justice to their labourers, was the cause of those miseries which arose from their not having done their labourers justice? And suppose now, that there had been, amongst those to whom St. James addressed his Epistle, some stupid, half-witted creature, who, having committed some unlawful act,

If to foresee and foretell evil, either to individuals, to bodies of persons, to rulers, to governments, or to whole na-had been brought foreward, the halter tions, be criminal, what will you, the parsons, say to the conduct of the prophets and apostles, and even to Jesus Christ himself? If this were a crime, they were the greatest criminals that ever lived. You will hardly, or at least one would think so, say that EZEKIEL ought to be blamed for the scattering of the infamous Jews; that he ought to have been regarded as the cause of it. One would imagine that you would hardly do this; and yet he was the cause of that event as much as I have

about his neck, by the blasphemous Jews and their priests, to say, that St. James's Epistle was the cause of his committing the act, will you say that he ought to have been believed, and that St. James ought to have been punished? No; you will hardly say this. Why, then, am I to be called the cause of these disturbances? Ah! but St. James did not write the History of the Reformation. He would have done it, however, I dare say, if he had been alive at this day.

2. On the Special Works at Win-|" answer, as it appears to me, is an adchester. It is a little too soon to give a "mission on their part that no mischief true history of these accompanied with" would ensue from not carrying into suitable comments. Indeed, a bare state-" effect the dreadful sentence of the ment of the facts is hardly safe as yet. "law; for I cannot conceive that if A little time for breathing is wanted." they were of opinion that mischief To collect the facts is my business, in" would ensue from it, they would the meanwhile. Whether the following" sign the petition, even though it be a fact I do not know. I take it from" were recommended by all the talent the Bloody Old Times newspaper; and" and respectability of the Court of you will see even that that advocate for " Quarter Sessions. I can understand slaughter finds it to be its interest to the principles on which that man soften a little. "Winchester, Friday" acts, who asserts and laments the ne"morning, (7th Jan.) No day has yet" cessity of vindicating the majesty of "been fixed for the execution of the" the law by the sacrifice of human "six unhappy men who were sentenced life; but I cannot understand the "to die at the conclusion of the special reasons of those who, admitting that “commission which was recently held" there is no necessity for the sword of at this place. The information which "justice to strike the offender, decline to "reached you in London, that the ex-" call upon the executive government to "ecution was to take place this morn- stay its arm, and make their applica"ing, is incorrect.-The scenes of dis-" tion for its mercy dependent on the "tress in and about the jail are most" judgment, or it may be the caprice "terrible. The number of men who" of an influential aristocracy. Surely,, "are to be torn from their homes and "of all classes of society, the clergy is "connexions is so great that there is" that which ought not to be backward "scarcely a hamlet in the county into" in the remission of offences. They “which anguish and tribulation have not" are daily preaching mercy to their "entered. Wives, sisters, mothers, chil-" flocks, and it wears but an ill grace "dren, beset the gates daily, and the" when they are seen refusing their "governor of the jail informs me that" consent to a practical application of "thescenes he is obliged to witness at the" their own doctrines. Whatever my "time of locking up the prison are truly "own opinion may be, as a faithful "heart-breaking.-You will have heard "recorder of the opinions of those "before this of the petitions which have" around me, I am bound to inform "been presented to the Home Office" you, that, except among the ma"from Gosport, Portsmouth, Romsey, gistracy of the county, there is a "Whitchurch, and Basingstoke, praying "general, I had almost said an uni"for an extension of mercy to all the" versal, opinion among all ranks of men who now lie under sentence of" society, that no good will be effected "death. A similar petition has been" by sacrificing human life. It has gat up in this city. It is signed by "been remarked by almost every writer "the clergy of the low church, some of upon criminal law, that when pun"the bankers, and every tradesman in "ishments are so severe as to arm the "the town without exception. Applica-" sympathies of the public against the “tion was made to the clergy of the law, and in favour of the offender "Cathedral for their signatures, but who perishes by it, they ought not to "they refused to give them, except con-" take place; and I repeat it, that if the “ditionally, upon reasons which I can- propriety of these executions were to "not comprehend. They told the" be tried by that test in this county, "petitioners, as I am informed, that" they ought on no account to take "they would not sign any such peti- place.'

66

66

"tion unless the grand jury and the This last part is dictated by base "magistracy of the county previously love of money; for it was this very "affixed their names to it. Now such an paper that called for the Special Com