gerous thing to interfere. One of the "Was it too great an insult for the Livery "instances in which his life was in immi-" of London, even high as its character "nent danger was from such an interfer-" stood for wisdom, prudence, and respectence. He had taken part in a quarrel" ability, to follow the judicious precedent "between a man and his wife, and it was "of the two houses of Parliament ?" "the greatest mercy in his life that he was "MR. STURCH, as an old Liveryman, "now able to stand on his legs (laughing)." anxious to preserve the character of the "He would recognize the innocence of the "body to which he belonged, begged "Princess in its fullest sense; but he "Gentlemen to reflect whether they would thought the best way was to drop the "not DEGRADE themselves by passing subject. He should move that they do "the vole suggested. He did not doubt 66 now adjourn. "that the worthy Alderman acted from à "sense of duty in bringing it forward, and

"SIR JAMES SHAW wished to state "to the Livery the reasons that induced him" he hoped that equal justice would be " to second the amendment. He admitted," done him for his motives in resisting it, that viewing the evidence against the "Loud disapprobation.) It was at least "Princess of Wales with the eye of a ma- "PREMATURE, since the question was gistrate, it appeared to him to be from "NOT YET RIPE FOR DECISION, "beginning to end a tissue of perjury and" and much evidence, he was convinced, "subornation, and had it been given be- " remained behind to shew the origin of this "fore any Court of Record, the witnesses "malignant conspiracy. He highly ap"might and ought to have been subjected "proved of the assembly of a Common to a prosecution. It was clear, therefore," Hall to vote upon questions of parliamen "to him, that the Princess had been com- "tary reform, or peace and war, but of all "pletely vindicated, but the question for "subjects the present was the most impro"the Livery to decide was, whether further "per to be discussed here: why were the "public discussion of this painful subject" Livery to give its decision upon the ques"would tend to any favourable conclusion."tion whether Capt. Manby did or did not "The House of Commons had determined" kiss the Princess of Wales ?-The marks that it was impolitic, and the Livery of " of disapprobation were now so vehement "London would best shew its loyalty and "that Mr. Sturch was unable to proceed." "wisdom by following the example. He "MR. WAITHMAN stepped forward to " acknowledged that the disclosures recent- "entreat the Hall to behave with imparti"ly made tended to lessen the respect of "ality. His excellent Friend, who in the the people for the monarchy, as well as city of Westminster had so long laboured "for the family that filled the throne: he" in the cause of the rights of the people, "wished that, at least, appearances had "might be mistaken in his views, but he been preserved, but the vote proposed" was delivering the honest sentiments of a "would widen the unfortunate breach that "well-informed understanding, and they "existed.-/Marks of disapprobation). "ought to command respect.' MR. "MR. ALDERMAN ATKINS was of "STURCH concluded without interruption, "the same opinion, and would not now "by repeating THE DANGERS that were "have taken any part in the discussion of "to be feared from this injudicious pro"this question, had it not been expected" ceeding, and by impressing the necessity "from him in consequence of the speeches" of at least waiting until ADDITIONAL " of his colleagues. He was one of those "LIGHT was thrown upon this mysterious "who had in vain attempted to sway the" and painful subject. "judgment of the worthy Alderman who "MR. WAITHMAN then addressed "had persisted in this motion, because he" the Hall, not because he could add any "thought (and he trusted he should not "thing new to what had already been urg"stand alone in the opinion) that reconcili- "ed, but because his silence might be mis"ation was not to be forced upon the illus-" interpreted. He was likewise one of "trious parties by the interference of the" those who had endeavoured to dissuade "Livery. In this sentiment he trusted he" the worthy Alderman from persevering in "should persuade many to coincide (No," his motion, not because he differed in the "no. All men of understanding and" general principle (in which all agreed) "judgment, he believed, would vote on his" that the Princess of Wales had been most "side of the question, if, indeed, it were" scandalously ill-treated, but because he "pressed to a vote, but he entreated Mr." did not think that the mode now suggest"Alderman Wood to withdraw his motion. "ed would accelerate redress and promote

"reconciliation. Why should the Livery "ratory of the complete acquittal of the "interfere, when the whole nation was "Princess of Wales, which would obviate "united in one sentiment, that her Royal" the most material objections. (No, no, $6 Highness was as innocent as her accusers "the Address). He was sorry that his "were guilly. He did not desire the "well-weighed opinions were in opposition "Livery to submit to his opinions, if they" to the general sentiment, so hastily adopt"thought their own better, but all heed; but he hoped that the Livery would "desired was that his individual senti- " consider the necessity of preserving its "ments should be heard, because he was "character for purity and wisdom. He "convinced from his heart that the Meet- "concluded by adverting to the shameful "ing was defeating its own purpose, (No, suppression of the able defence of Mr. "no: loud clamours). Probably his opi- "Perceval, and by expressing his wish, "nion might be good for nothing, in com"that the thanks of the Hall should be 66 parison with that of many gentlemen who given to Mr. Whitbread, for his able and "now expressed their disapprobation. At" manly conduct. "the same time that he disapproved of the "MR. ALDERMAN ATKINS came "original motion, his objection to the "forward, but with difficulty obtained a "amendment of Sir W. Curtis was equally" partial hearing. He repelled, with great strong, because if the Hall were dissolv-"warmth, Mr. Waithman's accusation of "ed, and the question thereby incidentally" inconsistency, declaring that he had act "negatived, the proceeding would imply "ed conscientiously, and that he should an undeserved censure on the Princess of "still dare to do his duty, and to avow it 66 Wales, (Hear, hear!). How then was" in all places, and at all times. "the Livery to extricate itself from the di- "MR. WADDINGTON called upon "lemma. To dissolve the Hall would be" every man to do his duty, except such as "a most extraordinary and unwarrantable" were in possession or expectation of the "step, especially when the Hon. Bart. had" loaves and fishes-to such the call would "himself confessed that the question affect-"be ineffectual. In Africa, Turkey, and "ed even the stability of the monarchy." India, women were treated with con"If the fact were so, it was the duty of the "tempt-in England we were more sen66 city to interpose. The fact was so-the "sible of their value, and he hoped that "question did shake the throne itself; but the Livery would shew that they were "the true point to be decided was, in what" not less gallant than the rest of the male "mode was the Livery to interfere? Cer"tainly not in any way that would make "MR. ALDERMAN WOOD shortly "the breach wider, when the object was "replied, explaining, that he meant the "reconciliation and harmony. He lament-" Address to be presented by the whole "ed, if so much danger was apprehended" Livery at Kensington Palace, in the same "from interference, that the illustrious" way as they had waited upon Sir F. Burpersons concerned had not reflected upon dett, at the Tower. He refused to alter "the greater danger of submitting such" his motion, to make it conformable to the "matters to public observation. The wor"wishes of those with whom he usually "thy Alderman (Atkins), who had cen"acted. "sured the interposition of the Livery at "MR. ROWCROFT endeavoured in "all so strongly, should have been consist-" vain to address the impatient Livery—he ❝ent in his conduct, and have blamed with "could only utter one sentence, that the equal severity interference of another" real sentiment of the corporation was ex" kind, by a Royal Duke, who had most" pressed by the number of absentees. "unconstitutionally, intermeddled to de- The question was then put upon the stroy the freedom of election in a certain" Amendment, that the Hall be dissolved, "borough, (applause). How then did he "which was negatived by a large majo"dare to object to that interference, which "rity. "he had elsewhere approved? He (Mr. "The impatience of the Meeting was "W.) did not think that the present pro66 now so much increased, that Mr. Taddy "ceeding would facilitate parliamentary" and Mr. Waithman vainly attempted to "reform; and as there existed no prece"address them. The Address was loudly "dent of an Address, even to the Queen," called for, and it was accordingly read by "he hoped that the worthy Alderman" the Crier; after which the question was "would be persuaded to alter his motion" put upon it, and it was carried with very for an Address into a Resolution, decla-"few opponents. It was also agreed that

66

66

sex.

"it should be presented to the Princess of "Wales by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, "Sheriffs, and 100 of the Livery.

who took up the cause of the Princess in the House of Commons, where only it could be taken up with effect. It was, in fact, this Gentleman's Resolutions, which brought out the Book, by forcing from the Ministers an open confession of the Princess's inno

"MR. WAITHMAN then proposed a vote "of thanks to Mr. Whitbread; and Mr. "Thompson, to Sir Francis Burdett, both "of which motions were carried unani-cence, which confession, as all the world "mously."

I have been too long an observer of the workings of vanity, conceit, presumption, and selfishness, to be astonished at what took place upon this occasion; but, though I have felt no astonishment, others have, and, therefore, I shall enter into as full an examination of this interesting debate as my confined space will allow of. The words of the Address, which was proposed by Mr. Wood, and which was carried with, I am well assured, only TWO hands held up against it, have not been given in the Report of the Morning Chronicle, nor in any other newspaper that I have seen; but, the COURIER has published the substance of the Address, in these words: "It stated, "that the sentiments of affection with " which the Livery of London had contem66 plated the arrival of the Princess in this 66 country were in no degree diminished: "that they were deeply impressed with re66 spect for every branch of the illustrious "house of Brunswick: that they viewed "with indignation and abhorrence, the foul "conspiracy against her honour and her "life; and were inspired with admiration " at her moderation, frankness, and mag"nanimity, under her long persecution. It "concluded with an expression of confi"dence, that the Princess Charlotte, brought up under such a Mother, would "be a blessing to the country, and with a "prayer for the health, happiness, and "prosperity of her Royal Highness."

This, I take it for granted, was the substance of the Address, moved by Mr. Wood, and adopted by the Common Hall; and, so taking it, I have no hesitation in saying, that it expressed the feelings of every impartial man in England.- Before I proceed to discuss the several objections, which were unavailingly urged against this Address, I cannot help noticing an omission in the Report of the Morning Chronicle; namely, the vote of thanks to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. Such a vote was certainly passel, and it would be very curious to come at the precise reason, why Mr. Perry, or his Reporter, thought it right and proper to take no notice of that particular vote; especially when it is considered, that Mr. C. Johnstone was really the first person,

knows, brought out the accusatory depositions through the channel of the Reverend Baronet's news-paper.-Therefore, I say, that, though Mr. Whitbread and Sir Francis Burdett inerited the thanks of the Common Hall, they, upon this particular occasion, did not stand so prominently as Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. But, the numerous unseen wheels by which the press is moved must be seen, before the reader can judge of the causes of partiality like that which I have here noticed. -Now to the debate.-Mr. ALDERMAN Woon, who is remarkable not less for his sound judgment than for his undaunted courage and unaffected manners, did perfectly right in stating at the outset, that the Hall was called at so short a notice. It was due to himself, to the cause, and to the City, to make that fact generally known; and I must say, that the answer of the Lord Mayor does not appear to me to have been, by any means satisfactory.His Lordship was, however, very exact in pointing out, that Mr. VANDERGOMBE had expressed his wish to have his name withdrawn from the Requisition; and this is worthy of notice only on account of the reason which Mr. Vandercombe gave for it, which was this: that he signed the requisition at the moment when there was a great ferment upon the subject of the Princess's treatment, but that now, the ferment being over, he did not wish that any meeting should take place to address her.It might not have been easy to find out a good reason for the extraordinary step of Mr. Vandercombe; but, a worse than this it must, I think, have puzzled an Old Bailey Attorney to hatch.- What! think it right to call such a meeting during the time that men's minds were in a ferment, and think it wrong to call it when men's minds had had time to cool! call a meeting amidst uproar, and wrong to Think it right to call one under the influence of reflection!You will observe, reader, that Mr. Vandercombe retained his full conviction of the innocence of the Princess, and of the wick edness that had been at work against her; he retained this conviction, and all his objection to addressing now was, that there upon the subject!I have not the howas no longer a ferment in men's minds

nour to know any thing of Mr. Vander-
combe, but I must say, that I heartily wish
him joy of his reason for withdrawing his
name. It gave me great pleasure to see
Mr. Wood's motion seconded by such a
man as MR. THOMPSON. It is that descrip-
tion of men who ought to come forward;
men who have no views, and who can have
no views other than those tending to the
public welfare. Such men should not give
way to feelings of disgust or of listlessness.
They would soon see babbling impertinence
slink away from their presence.-
-That
SIR WILLIAM CURTIS, though he acknow-
ledged the perfect innocence of the Prin-
cess; that SIR JAMES SHAW, though, speak-
ing as a magistrate, he viewed the evidence
against the Princess," from beginning to
end as a tissue of perjury and suborna-
"tion;" that Mr. Alderman Atkins,
though he saw the matter in nearly the same
light; that these Gentlemen, who are well
known to be closely attached to the Minis-
ters; that these Gentlemen should wish to
stifle the question; that they should wish to
draw a veil over the proceedings; that they
should call for a dissolution of the Hall,
and so get rid of the Address by a side
wind; that they should tell the Citizens of
London that they ought to look up to the
Honourable House for an example; that
they should tell the people to follow the
footsteps of that paragon of wisdom and
purity; that these Gentlemen should thus
act and speak could be matter of wonder to
nobody; but, there may be, and there
must have been, many persons to wonder
at the conduct of Messrs. STURCH and
WAITHMAN.-
However, I shall not act
the foul part of an insinuator. I will nei-
ther insinuate nor assert any thing at all re-
specting the motives of these Gentlemen;
but, I will freely examine the grounds upon
which they thought proper to overthrow
the motion of Mr. Alderman Wood.-
Mr. STURCH set out by observing, that,
though an old Liveryman, he had never
before troubled them with a speech. And,
he will, I am sure, think it not unnatural,
that I should express my regret and my
surprise, that he should have deviated
from his long-continued course, upon this
particular occasion, when the motion to be
opposed had, surely, nothing hostile to li-
berty in it, and when the person making
that motion was well known to Mr. STURCH
to be one of the most ardent, most indefa-
tigable, and most liberal friends of public
freedom. There has, for years past, been
no man who has suffered in the cause of li-

berty, who has not received marks of
friendship from Mr. Wood, who is, upon
all such occasions, ready not only with his
purse but with his personal exertions.
When a man, so eminent for his exertions
in the cause of public liberty, and withal
so frank, so unaffected, and so amiable in
his manners, so free from all vanity, con-
ceit, and ambitious views; when a man
like this had set his heart upon a measure,
and when it was impossible that that mea-
sure could be injurious to public liberty,
Mr. STURCH should, I think, have hesitat-
ed; I think he should have been very diffi-
cult to persuade to come, for the first time,
out of Westminster to the Common Hall,
for the express purpose of opposing that
measure. Let us, however, give a pa-
tient ear to the reasons upon which this op-
position was built.-He begged the Hall
to reflect, whether they would not degrade
themselves by passing the Address.
You have seen the substance of the Address,
reader; and, do you see any thing in it that
is calculated to degrade those by whom it
was passed? I will say nothing upon the
unmeasured severity of this expression as
applying directly to the mover of the Ad-
dress, who, if the Address was degrading
to those who passed it, must already have
degraded him who moved it; but, I must
say here, that, when Mr. Waithman, was
afterwards reminding the Hall of Mr.
Sturch's exertions in the cause of liberty
in Westminster, he could hardly have for-
gotten, that Mr. Wood did not merit an
attack like this, and especially that it was
not worth while to quit the field of West-
minster for, apparently, the sole purpose
of making this attack.But, Mr. STURCH'S
reasons: we have not yet seen any of them.

-He said, that the motion was premature; that the question was not ripe for discussion.—Not ripe! When, then, I pray, is it to be ripe? The whole of the transactions are before the public; the evidence on both sides is in print; explanations of the conduct of particular parties have been given in parliament and elsewhere; in short, every fact and every circumstance belonging to the matter have found their way into print; and, at the end of seven years of mysterious secrecy, the whole is out in broad day-light, so that nothing is now hidden, or can be hidden, from any person in the kingdom. And yet Mr. STURCH does not think the question ripe for discussion. If it be not yet ripe, it will not be ripe till we are all rotten.Much evidence, he said, remained behind

necessary to guard the throne and the nobility against an overweight in the popular scale; these trifling matters, Mr. Sturch thinks that the Livery may be permitted to handle freely; and also the no less trifling matters of peace and war, the extreme simplicity of which put them within the scope of every understanding!-But as to a question about an Address to a Princess, whose ill-treatment and whose long-suffering was notorious to all the world: this was a matter too high and too complicated for the Livery to meddle with!-I, for my part, should have thought, that this was, of all others, a matter with regard to which the Livefy were competent to decide. It was a question clear in the understanding, and coming home to the heart of every sound-minded and sound-hearted man. It was a question, upon which no man could possibly be in error. There was no room for subtlety or doubt; and the only point upon which a difference of opinion could possibly exist was this: whether the motion for an Address was called for by sound sense as well as by justice.- -Perhaps, Mr. STURCH might mean, that a question of this sort was beneath the Livery to entertain; that the questions as to Parliamen

as to the SOURCE of the conspiracy.We have no evidence at all to that point. Nor did Mr. Wood want any for his purpose. His address only called the thing a conspiracy, without saying any thing about the way in which that conspiracy originated. No evidence, therefore, was wanted as to the source of the conspiracy. It was sufficient for Mr. Wood that the Hall should be convinced that there had been a conspiracy. If it should hereafter appear who were the original hatchers of the conspiracy, Mr. Sturch may then, if he likes, bring forward a motion relative to them. Mr. Wood's Address appears to have had no such object in view.But Mr. STURCH disapproved of the Citizens of London meddling with matters of this kind. He highly approved, he said, of their discussing questions of Parliamentary Reform and of Peace and War, but, he asked, "Why should the Livery "decide, whether Captain Manby did or "did not kiss the Princess of Wales ""'Perhaps Mr. Sturch meant this for wit, and, if so, let it, in that respect, pass for its full worth; but, taking it in a plain commonsense sort of way, I must say that it is one of the poorest attempts at perversion that I have ever met with.- "Why should the Livery decide, &c. ?" But, Mr.tary Reform, Peace and War, and the like, STURCH, why should you ask such a ques- were rendered proper by their importance; tion, when you well know, that they were and that the present question degraded the nol, by Mr. Wood's motion, called upon Livery by its want of importance.—If to decide any such point? The Address Mr. STURCH is ready to avow, that the talked not of kissing; the Address was not conduct of the Royal Family is of no confoolish enough to deal in any such matters; sequence to the nation; that Addresses to it said nothing of Captain Manby; nor does them, or any of them, are, at all times, it appear to have contained any thing im- under whatever circumstances, degrading plying a doubt upon any point whatever. to those who move or pass them, his oppoWas it, then, fair to endeavour so to per-sition to Mr. Wood's Address will appear vert its tendency? -Well, but Mr. consistent; but, then he should have avowSturch, while he tells the Livery that heed this opinion, and not have endeavoured disapproves of their discussing of questions of this kind, is obliging enough to point out to them what kind of questions he does approve of their discussing; which (to speak as mildly as possible of it) might as well have been spared by a gentleman, who, according to his own account, appeared before the Livery for the first time.The questions, however, which he does approve of their discussing, are such as relate to Parliamentary Reform, to Peace and War, and the like.Yes, these trifling concerns, the changing of the state of the representation, the arrangements indispensaibly necessary to a different mode of collecting the voices of the people, the settling of the points as to who shall and who shall not vote at elections, the making of provisions

to disguise his real ground of objection under a plea of want of light, deficiency of evidence, and a mis-statement about kissing and Captain Manby. On the other hand, if Mr. Sturch is not ready to avow such an opinion; if he allow, that Addresses presented by the City upon the recovery of the King; upon his escape from the pen-knife of a mad woman, and from the bullet of a mad man; if Mr. Sturch allow, that these Addresses were not degrading to the City of London, upon what ground, I am curious to know, can he build an objection to an Address to the Princess upon her escape from what all the world is ready to designate a foul and detestable conspiracy? Mr. Alderman Shaw said, and he said it manfully, that, speaking as a magistrate, he