had wanted to force him to break his corona- | BENETT, of PYTHOUSE, at whom some tion oath when he had actually consented to of you are said to have flung flint-stones the measure after all its details had been explained to him; and he had had no objection to it, and no thought of changing the ministry, till the Princess threatened him with the publication of the BOOK! some time ago. I have heard of all your recent sufferings, about which I shall not be more particular here. I have long known how greatly you have suffered from want of a sufficiency of food and raiment; and, in the letter which I intend to address to you, I will explain to you all the causes of that suffering, and will expose the baseness of the cruel villains who would make you live upon potatoes, and who would make you believe that you have of late years been as well off as your forefathers were. 83. These transactions, however, disgraceful as they were to the factions, and little creditable as the temporary delusion might be to the understandings of the people, did a great deal of good in the end, by opening the eyes of the people with regard to the true character of the factions, and of the House of Commons. The people saw Ministers bring in a bill; they saw the House approve of it; they saw the same Ministers withdraw the bill without a word from the House against this step; they heard the Ministers declare that they held it to be their duty to have the King's previous consent to every bill that they brought I am glad to hear that your wages in; they heard them declare that the bill had have been raised, and I need not tell you been withdrawn because the King had changed what has been the cause of that rise. his mind relative to it; they saw one Par The TWO-PENNY TRASH will be publament dissolved, at four years old, to suit one Ministry; they saw another dissolved at lished on the 1st of March, and it will four months, to suit another ministry. They be at Salisbury the next day. I beg could not see all this without great disgust you to read it, when you get it, with being excited in their minds with regard to the factions and the House also. Great dis- great attention, and to fling away the nongust was excited; and from the period of these sensical little books which are given you striking transactions the factions date their to read, and to make you believe that it fall. From this time the main body of the is necessary for you to be starved to people began to see that there was no differ- death in order to ensure you a place in ence in the factions; that both sought the public money; that all their professions and heaven after you are dead. I shall show promises were false; and that, of every quarrel you that God never intended that those between them, the people became the only who did all the work should live on a sufferers. So that from this affair of the poor miserable root, nine-tenths of which ill-treated Princess, arose this great good to the nation, that it never, since that time, has consist of dirt and water. been the sport of any faction; but, as we shall see in the sequel, this was only a small part of the good which ought to endear her memory to the people of England. (To be continued.) I am your friend, TO THE LABOURERS OF WILTSHIRE. Bolt Court, Fleet Street, Feb. 10th, 1831. MY FRIENDS, In the next number of the TwoPENNY TRASH, I shall address a good long letter to you, and shall send a good parcel of copies to Mr. BARLING, of FISHERTON, Salisbury, where you may get them, in any number that you please, for two-pence a-piece. I have just been writing to your member, THE FIRES. THE week before last I addressed the Ministers, and in the most respectful, though in the most urgent manner, to do certain things to put an end to these calamitous and disgraceful conflagrations; and I never was more certain of any thing than I am, that the measures which I recommended would, if adopted, have had that effect. Those measures would, as I then observed, not have taken three days in adopting; would have interfered with no man's property, would have been no innovation, could have given offence reasonably to no man; would have been agreeable to the awe .6 cordial wishes of ninety-nine hundreths" there was a very extensive fire be he was buried. They were seized by the ruthless Henry the Eighth, and given to Wriothesly, one of his tools, who was made Earl of Southampton. From him they passed by marriage into "A messenger arrived yesterday at the hands of the Russels; and from "the town residence of A. Baring, Esq., the present Duke of Bedford they passed "and stated that a valuable farm upon into the hands of these BARINGS. But "that gentleman's estate in Hampshire where did the Morning Chronicle get "had, at a late hour on Monday night, its information, that it is "rather extra"been discovered on fire. Every ex-ordinary" that this should be the work "ertion was used by the servants and of an incendiary? Where did Dr. Black "others to suppress the flames, but learn that these Barings petitioned to "without effect, and the whole was save the life of Cook? And how came "consumed. The fire is supposed to the Doctor to connect Cook's name "be the work of an incendiary, which is with this fire? And who told him to "rather extraordinary, as Mr. Baring say that Baring refused to appear "not only refused to appear against againt Cook, who was hanged? ~ And "Cook, who attempted his life, but had, who told the Doctor that Cook at"together with the whole of the mem-tempted Baring's life? Did the Doctor "bers of his family, signed the petitions dream all this, or did somebody write "in favour of the convicted." it to him that he might publish it? As 1 ; mean to say that this fire was set by man would but go to a pretty large some of poor Cook's relations or farm-house, any-where, either in Hampfriends, and that, therefore, it is extra-shire or Wiltshire or Berkshire, and ordinary, seeing that the Barings were pass two or three dark evenings and so very kind in the case of this poor nights there, he would discover, I beCOOK? However, in the case of the lieve, that the dangers have not ceased farm at Micheldever, we come nearer that peace is not restored; that all is to the remains of this poor young man, suspicion, distrust, fear, alarm, agitawho was only nineteen years of age. tion, and constant racking anxiety; faIn that village he was born; in that milies going to bed with their clothes village he had been bred and had al-half on and half off; lights burning all ways lived; to that village his poor, night; servants watched to their beds; honest, and broken-hearted parents every creature approaching the house, took his dead body; and there they or coming to speak to a servant, watchpaid the parson sixteen shillings, as Ied as if suspected. In short, turning am told, for leave to bury it in the the most happy of all the dwellings church-yard In this very village, and upon earth into dwellings of the deepnecessarily (for I know the village and est misery. Afraid to speak an angry the farms very well) within about a word to a servant: afraid to turn a serhundred and fifty yards from the spot vant off: afraid to hire a new one. And where the dead body of Cook lies, this this is what English farm-houses have farm-yard, as the Chronicle tells us, has been brought to, in consequence of a been consumed, and that, too, since series of measures that have at last rethe hanging and the burial of COOK! duced the labourers to live upon potatoes. WM. COBBETT. Better answer PROTESTANT Will not these facts speak? Will not these facts produce conviction? Will not these facts urge the ministers to reflect, and induce them to adopt measures to tranquillize the minds of the people, and to remove from them that THE following is taken from the bitterness, that vengeful feeling, which COLCHESTER GAZETTE of the 29th of is so manifestly at work? The Attorney- January. Read it, PARSONS, and General said, the other night, in a gnash your teeth! Ah! I have hit speech that he made in consequence of you: I have given you something to the motion of HUNT, that, “ throughmake you remember your Tracts and I have stuck "out the country neither life nor pro- your Sermons against me. "perty was safe for a single hour; but the blister plaster upon you: scratch it "what was the change wrought by the off, firk it off (Hampshire Parsons), if "simple announcement that the law you can. was to take its course? The mischief "ceased, with a single exception, to "which I shall advert presently." I do not perceive, by the report, that the learned gentleman did at all advert to this exception; but I suppose him to have meaned the fires to form the exception; and then all that the special commissions had done was to secure the commodité, as the French people call it, while the house was more ex-origin and perversion of tithes; they were posed to destruction than ever. For, formerly intended to keep the poor, and to what were all the rest of the dangers repair the churches and hospitals. Now, how has it happened that all this was not known till compared to that of the fires! It was now? Why was it left for Mr. Cobbett in the the fires that kept the country in a state History of the Protestant Reformation," of alarm; and, if the learned gentle-as he calls it, to tell us what our historians REFORMATION and TWO-PENNY TRASH, No. 7, than waste your time in abusing me! SIR,-The whole country from one end to the other seems in commotion about tithes, and it seems really as if people were suddenly awakened to the perception of grievances that they ought to have seen and sought some legal remedy for years ago. I picked up the other day a small pamphlet, sold for twopence, bett; in it I found the whole history of the entitled "Two-PENNY TRASH," by Mr. Cob exceedingly base, to honour any one man so much. Buonaparte was not more dreaded, than O'Connell seems to be. We do not, however, feel ourselves at liberty, much as we should wish it, to close our report here. Besides the allegations of the pregnancy and delivery of the princess, those declarations, on the whole of which your Majesty has been pleased to command us to inquire and report, contain, as we have already remarked, other particulars respecting the conduct of her Royal Highness, such as. must, especially considering her exalted rank and station, necessarily give occasion to very unfavourable interpretations. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, WM. COBBETT, JUNR. 7th Dec. P. S. The affair of Belgium is really settled. The intrigues in England have all failed. Intrigues without bayonets and field-pieces are little worth. The From the various depositions and proofs. King has refused bis assent to his son annexed to this report, particularly from the being King of Belgium; and, to be sure, examinations of Robert Bidgood, William because it would only delay that re- Cole, Frances Lloyd, and Mrs. Lisle, your union which must take place. Alas! Majesty will perceive that several strong cir cumstances of this description have been poor VELLINTON! The caricature-positively sworn to by witnesses, who cannot, shops already begin to make one burst in our judgment, be suspected of any unfavourone's sides with the various ludicrous able bias, and whose veracity in this respect exhibitions of the "Conquerant de la we have seen no ground to question. France," ""Le Heros de Waterloo," &c. facts thus appearing, it is not for us to decide; On the precise bearing and effect of the &c. these we submit to your Majesty's wisdom: but we conceive it to be our duty to report on this part of the inquiry as distinctly as on the former facts, that, as on the one hand the facts of pregnancy and delivery are to our minds satisfactorily disproved, so on the other hand, we think that the circumstances to which we now refer, particularly those stated to have passed between her Royal Highness and Captain Manby, must be credited nutil No. III. OF THE REGENCY AND reign of Geo. IV. they shall receive some decisive contradiction; BY WILLIAM COBBETT. and if true are justly entitled to the most serious consideration. We cannot close this report without humbly · assuring your Majesty, that it was on every account our anxious wish to have executed this delicate trust with as little publicity as the nature of the case would possibly allow;TM and we entreat your Majesty's permission to express our full persuasion, that if this wish has been disappointed, the failure is not imputable to any-thing unnecessarily said or done by us. All which is most humbly submitted to your Majesty. (Signed) July 14th, 1806. ERSKINE, (Continued from No. 3, col. 144.) THE identity of the child now with the Princess, its parentage, the place and the date of its birth, the time and the circumstances of its being first taken under her royal highness's protection, are all established by such a coucurrence both of positive and circumstantial evidence, as can, in our judgment, leave no question on this part of the subject. That child was, beyond all doubt, horn in the Brownlow-street hospital, on the 11th of July, 1802, of the body of Sophia Austin, and was first brought to the Princess's house in the month of November following. Neither should we be more warranted in expressing any doubt respecting the alleged pregnancy of the Prin cess, as stated in the original declarations-a 61. It does not comport with my plan to fact so fully contradicted, and by so many enter here into the case of the cruelly-treated witnesses, to whom, if true, it must in various Princess, who was, during the whole of her ways have been known, that we cannot think married life, dogged by spies, and beset by it entitled to the smallest credit. The testi-perjurers and traitors; her case, which forms monies on these two points are contained in the great characteristic of the regency and the annexed depositions and letters. We have reign of this “mild” and “generous not partially abstracted them in this report, "gentleman" king; her case, though as we lest by any unintentional omission we might go along we shall find it force upon us here weaken their effect; but we humbly offer to and there, must wait for full display, till we your Majesty this our clear and unanimous come to the date of her death and burial. judgment upon them, formed on full delibera- In this place it is my business to show how tion, and pronounced without hesitation on this affair of the Princess affected the great the result of the whole inquiry. and general interests of the nation; how it and existence of which, and of the injurious consequences to the country, not one mau out of ten thousand has any the most distant idea. affected the policy of the kingdom, external as well as internal; how clearly it showed that the interests and safety of millions were thought little of in comparison with the in- 64. The Ministers of that day were those dulgence of the passions of one single man. who are called the WHIGS. They consisted 62. One thing, in this report, will have of a coalition indeed; but this was the name stricken every reader; namely, that the they bore; and the principal offices were Princess should have the child in her own house filled thus: Lord Grenville, first lord of the four years, and that no complaint should have treasury; Lord Erskine, lord chancellor : been made by the Prince before now. When Lord Spencer, secretary of state for the home we look at the evidence, we find that the departiment; Mr. Fox, secretary of state for originators of the whole story were a Sir JOHN the foreign department; Mr. Windham, DOUGLAS and HIS WIFE, who had gone to live secretary of state for the department of war at Blackheath (near MONTAGUE-HOUSE, the aud colonies; Mr. Grey (now Earl), first lord Princess's place of residence) in 1801, and of the admiralty; Lord Moira, master general who swore positively to the facts of the preg of the ordnance; Lord Fitzwilliam, president nancy and delivery in 1802. They both swore, of the council; Lord Sidmouth, privy seal; also, that they communicated the facts to the Lord Henry Petty (now Marquis of LansPrince from a deep sense of duty, as loyal sub-down), chancellor of the exchequer; and jects; the four lords say, in this their report, Ellenborough, the lord chief justice, had a seat that it was the bounden duty of the Prince to in the cabinet. How this ministry came to be communicate to the King matter so nearly in power is a matter which belongs to the his"affecting the honour of the royal family, tory of George II. For our present purpose, "and, by possibility, the succession to the it is, as to this matter, sufficient to say, that "crown;" but it does not appear to have this ministry had succeeded that of PITT, upon occurred to those lords to state why the Prince his death, which took place in January, 1806. had not made the communication to the King Now, let it be well remembered, that Fox, at an earlier period! He might not be informed who, and whose adherents, had now got into of the facts before. Strange, indeed! What! power, had always been a sort of political a child kept in the house of the Princess for mentor of the Prince; that ERSKINE, who was four years, nursed as if it were her own; and now the lord chancellor, had, for many years, the Prince, her husband, never hear of it? been one of his chief companions; and that though only at five miles distance from his Lord MOIRA, who was now master general of own palace, though his wife was surrounded the ordnance, had been on the footing of a by servants that had been, for the greater brother with the Prince for a great many part, in his own service! But did those years, his "personal friend" par excellence, Douglases, those loyal people, those people who swore that they communicated the facts to him from a sense of their duty as loyal subjects, did those people suppress their anxiety about the succession to the crown for four years? Did they hide the facts for four years? and if they did, were they to be believed when they communicated the facts? And how came the FOUR LORDS not to ask (and it does not appear that they did) at what time it was that the Douglases first communicated the facts to the Prince?" and if the first communication were in 1806, how came the lords never to ask the Douglases why they did not communicate the facts before the year 1806? And when it became clear that the evidence of the Douglases was false, how came they not to be prosecuted for perjury? And if the tribunal were (as was alleged) not of a nature to bring those who had sworn falsely before it, under the law for punishing perjury, why did the Ministers of that day counsel the King to appoint such a tribunal? 63. Who, then, were the Ministers of that day? And here, when we answer this question, we see all the mystery removed; we see why the child lived so quietly for four years; we see why the Douglases could restrain their feelings of loyalty no longer than the year 1806; we see how it came to burst out all at once at that time; and this leads us to the development of intrigue upon intrigue, of the 65. The Princess, in her answer to the report of the four lords, distinctly declared that the report, and the whole of the proceeding against her, were the fruit of a foul conspiracy ;" and though there be in the documents no proof of any subornation of the Douglases, it is, at any rate, certain, that their information against the Princess was not made known to the King until, as appears by the WARRANT, (paragraph 60,) the month of May, 1806; that is to say, until about a hundred days after the Whigs, the Prince's friends, got into power! For four years, while Addington and Pitt were ministers, the child lived very quietly; the Douglases had known of the pregnancy and delivery; they (as they swore) were alarmed for the succession to the throne, and yet the first trace of their com municating the information is, from the documents, found to be in December, 1805. But, at any rate, we find that they had made the communication to the Prince before the 3rd of that month; what time before is not stated; but on that day Lady Douglas gave a narrative to the Duke of Sussex, who took it down in writing, and it was signed by him, as having been made in his presence: and the “true copy' was attested by BLOOMFIELD. The narrative sets out with stating that the narrator has been "ordered by the Prince of Wales" to give the narrative; but the precise time of the first communication to him does " |