solicitor, who, according to Mr. Cole, accom. tified in saying, that neither His Royal Highpanied him to Cheltenham to procure some of ness, nor your Majesty, any more than myself, these declarations. On the 13th of February, had been fairly dealt with, in not being fully the next day after Fanny Lloyd's declaration, informed upon this important fact; and your the Earl of Moira sends for Mr. Mills, upon Majesty will forgive a weak, unprotected woman, pressing business. Mr. Mills attends him on like myself, who, under such circumstances, the 14th; he is asked by his Lordship upon the should apprehend that, however Sir John and subject of this conversation; he is told he may Lady Douglas may appear my ostensible acrely upon his Lordship's honour, that what cusers, I have other enemies, whose ill-will I may passed should be in perfect confidence; (a con- have occasion to fear, without feeling myself fidence which Mr. Mills, feeling it to be on assured, that it will be strictly regulated, in its a subject too important to his character, at the proceeding against me, by the principles of moment disclaims;)-that it was his (the Earl fairness and of justice.I have now, Sire, of Moira's) duty to his Prince, as his coun- gone through all the evidence which respects sellor, to inquire into the subject, which he Captain Manby; whether at Montague House, had known for some time.-Fanny Lloyd's Southend, or East Cliff, and I do trust, that statement being then related to Mr. Mills, your Majesty will see, upon the whole of it, Mr. Mills, with great warmth, declared that how mistaken a view the Commissioners have it was an infamous falsehood.-Mr. Lowten, taken of it. The pressure of other duties enwho appears also to have been there by ap-grossing their time and their attention, has pointment, was called into the room, and he made them leave the important duties of this furnished Mr. Mills with the date to which Fan-investigation, in many particulars, imperfectly ny Lloyd's declaration applied. The meeting ends in Lord Moira's desiring to see Mr. Mills's partner, Mr. Edmeades, who, not being at home cannot attend him for a few days. He does, however, upon his return, attend him on the 20th of May: on his attendance, instead of Mr. Lowten, he finds Mr. Conant, the magistrate, with Lord Moira. He denies the conversation with Fanny Lloyd, as positively and peremptorily as Mr. Mills. Notwithstanding however all this, the Declaration of Fanny Lloyd is delivered to His Royal Highness, unaccompanied by these contradictions, and forwarded to your Majesty on the 29th. That Mr. Lowten was the Solicitor of Sir John Douglas in this business, cannot be doubted, that he took some of those declarations, which were laid before your Majesty, is clear; and that he took this declaration of Fanny Lloyd's, seems not to be questionable. That the inquiry by Earl Moira, two days after her declaration was taken, must have been in consequence of an early communication of it to him, seems necessarily to follow from what is above stated; that it was known, on the 14th of May, that Mr. Mills contradicted this assertion; and, on the 20th, that Mr. Edmeades did, is perfectly clear; and yet, notwithstanding all this, the fact, that Mr. Edmeades and Mr. Mills contradicted it, seems to have been not communicated to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, for he, as it appears from the Report, forwarded the declarations which had been delivered to His Royal Highness, through the Chancellor, to your Majesty: and the declaration of Fanny Lloyd, which had been so falsified, to the knowledge of the Earl Moira and of Mr. Lowten, the Solicitor for Sir John Douglas, is sent into your Majesty as one of the documents, on which you were to ground your inquiry, unaccompanied by its falsification by Mills and Edmeades; at least, no declarations by them are amongst those, which are transmitted to me, as copies of the original declarations which were laid before your Majesty. I know not whether it was Lord Moira, or Mr. Lowten, who should have communicated this circumstance to His Royal Highness, but that, in all fairness, it ought unquestionably to have been communicated by some one. I dare not trust myself with any inferences from this proceeding; I content myself with remarking, that it must now be felt, that I was jus discharged-a more thorough attention to it must have given them a better and truer insight into the characters of those witnesses, upon whose credit, as I ani convinced, your Majesty will now see, they have without sufficient reason relied. There remains nothing for me, on this part of the charge to perform; but, adverting to the circumstance which is falsely sworn against me by Mr. Bidgood, of the salute, and the false inference and insinuation, from other facts, that Captain Mariby slept in my house, either at Southend, or East Cliff, on my own part most solemnly to declare, that they are both utterly false; that Bidgood's asser, tion as to the salute, is a malicious slanderous invention, without the slightest shadow of truth to support it; that his suspicions and insinuations, as to Captain Manby's having slept in my house, are also the false suggestions of his own malicious mind; and that Captain Manby never did, to my knowledge or belief, sleep in my House at Southend, East Cliff, or any other house of mine whatever; and, however often he may have been in my company, I solemnly protest to your Majesty, as I have done in the former cases, that nothing ever passed between him and me, that I should be ashamed, or unwilling that all the world should have seen. And I have also, with great pain, and with a deep sense of wounded delicacy, app, lied to Captain Manby to attest to the same truths, and I subjoin to this letter his deposition to that effect. "I never I stated to your Majesty, that Is bould be oblig ed to return to other parts of 1 'anny Lloyd's testimony-At the end of it she says, told Cole that M. Wilson, when she supposed the Princess to be in the library, ha td gone into the Princess's bed-room, and had found a man there at breakfast with the Princess; or that there was a great to do about it, and that M. Wilson was sworn to secrecy, and threatened to be turned away, if she divulged what she had seen." This part of her examination, your Majesty will perceive, must have been called from her, by some precise question, addressed to her, with respect to a supposed communication from her to Mr. Cole. In Mr. Cole's exar nination, there is not one word upon the subject o. fit. In his original declaration, however, there is; and there your Majesty will perceive, that he affirms the fact of her having reported to him Mary Wilson's declaration in the very same words in which Fanny Lloyd denies it, and it is therefore evi dent that the Commissioners, in putting this question to Fanny Lloyd, must have put it to her from Cole's declaration. She positively denies the fact; there is then a flat and precise contradiction, between the examination of Fanny Lloyd and the original statement of Mr. Cole. It is therefore impossible that they both can have spoken true. The Commissioners, for some reason, don't examine Cole to this point at all; don't endeavour to trace out this story; if they had, they must have discovered which of these witnesses spoke the truth, but they leave this contradiction not only unexplained, but uninquired after and in that state, report both these witnesses, Cole and Fanny Lloyd, who thus speak to the two sides of a contradiction, and who therefore cannot by possibility both speak truth, as witnesses who cannot be suspected of partiality, whose credit they see no reason to question, and whose story must be believed till contradicted. -But what is, if possible, still more extraordinary, this supposed communication from F. Lloyd to Cole, as your Majesty observes, relates to something which M. Wilson is supposed to have seen and to have said; yet though M. Wilson appears herself to have been examined by the Commissioners on the same day with Fanny Lloyd, in the copy of her examination, as delivered to me, there is no trace of any question relating to this declaration having been put to her. had seen and related to Fanny Lloyd, they could not have been at a loss to have discovered which of these witnesses told the truth. They would have found, I am perfectly confident, that all that Mary Wilson ever could have told Fanny Lloyd, was that she had seen Sir Sidney and myself in the blue room, and they would then have had to refer to the malicious, and confederated inventions of the Bidgoods and Mr. Cole, for the conversion of the blue-room into the bed-room; for the vile slander of what M. Wilson was supposed to have seen, and for the violent effect which this scene had upon her. I say their con federated inventions, as it is impossible to suppose that they could have been concerned in inventing the same additions to Fanny Lloyd's story, unless they had communicated together upon it. And when they had once found Mrs. Bidgood and Mr. Cole, thus conspiring together, they would have had no difficulty in connecting them both in the same conspiracy with Sir John Douglas, by shewing how connected Cole was with Sir John Douglas, and how acquainted with his proceedings, in collecting the evidence which was to support Lady Donglas's declaration. For, by referring to Mr. Cole's declaration, made on the 23d of February, they would have seen that Mr. Cole, in explaining some observation about Sir Sidney's supposed possession of a key to the garden-door, says that it was what "Mr. Lampert, the servant of Sir John Douglas, And I have not less reason to lament than to " mentioned at Cheltenham to Sir John Douglas be surprised, that it did not occur to the Com- "and Mr. Lowten."-How should Mr. Cole missioners, to see the necessity of following this know that Sir John Douglas and Mr. Lowten inquiry still further; for, if properly pursued, it had been down to Cheltenham, to collect eviwould have demonstrated two things, both very dence from this old servant of Sir John Doug. important to be kept in mind in the whole of las? How should he have known what that this consideration. First, how hearsay represen- evidence was? unless he had either accompanied tations of this kind, arising out of little or no- them himself, or at least had had such a comthing, become magnified and exaggerated by munication either with Sir John Douglas, or the circulation of prejudiced or malicious Re- Mr. Lowten, as it never could have occurred to porters; and, secondly, it would have shewn the any of them to have made to Mr. Cole, unless, industry of Mr. and Mrs. Bidgood, as well as instead of being a mere witness, he were a party Mr. Cole, in collecting information in support of to this accusation? But whether they had conLady Douglas's statement, and in improving vinced themselves, that Fanny Lloyd spoke what they collected by their false colourings and true, and Cole and Mrs. Bidgood falsely; or malicious additions to it. They would have whether they had convinced themselves of the found a story in Mrs. Bidgood's declaration, as reverse, it could not have been possible, that well as in her husband's (who relates it as having they both could have spoken the truth; and, heard it from his wife), which is evidently the consequently, the Commissioners could never same as that which W. Cole's declaration con- have reported the veracity of both to be free tains; for the Bidgoods' declarations state, that from suspicion, and deserving of credit.———There Fanny Lloyd told Mrs. Bidgood, that Mary Wil- only remains that I should make a few observason had gone into the Princess's bed-room, and tions on what appears in the examinations relahad found Her Royal Highness and Sir Sydney tive to Mr. Hood (now Lord Hood), Mr. Chester, in the most criminal situation; that she had left and Captain Moore: and I really should not the room, and was so shocked, that she fainted have thought a single observation necessary upon away at the door. Here, then, are Mrs. Bidgood either of them, except that what refers to them and Mr. Cole, both declaring what they had is stated in the examinations of Mrs. Lisle.—— heard Fanny Lloyd say, and Fanny Lloyd deny- With respect to Lord Hood, it is as follows:ing it. How extraordinary is it that they were "I was at Catherington with the Princess; renot all confronted! and your Majesty will see "member Mr. (now Lord Hood) there, and the presently how much it is to be lamented that they" Princess going out airing with him, alone in were not; for, from Fanny Lloyd's original declaration, it appears that the truth would have come out, as she there states, that, "to the best of her knowledge, Mary Wilson said, that she had seen the Princess and Sir Sydney in the Blue Room, but never heard Mary Wilson say she was so alarmned as to be in a fit." If then, on confronting Fanny Lloyd with Mrs. Bidgood and Mr. Cole, the Commissioners had found Fanny Lloyd's story to be what she related before, and had then put the question to Mary Wilson, and bad heard from her what it really was which she "Mr. Hood's little whiskey; and bis servant was "with them; Mr. Hood drove, and staid out "two or three times; more than once; three or "four times. Mr. Hood dined with us several "times; once or twice he slept in a house in the "garden; she appeared to pay no attention to "him, but that of common civility to an inti"mate acquaintance." Now, Sire, it is undoubtedly true that I drove out several times with Lord Hood in his one-horse chaise, and some few times, twice, I believe, at most, without any of my servants attending us; and considering the time of life, and the respectable character of my Lord Hood, I never should have conceived that I incurred the least danger to my reputation in so doing. If, indeed, it was the duty of the Commissioners to inquire into instances of my conduct, in which they may conceive it to have been less reserved and dignified than what would properly become the exalted station which I hold in your Majesty's Royal Family, it is possible that, in the opinions of some, these drives with my Lord Hood were not consistent with that station, and that they were particularly improper in those instances in which we were not attended by more servants, or any servants of my own. Upon this I have only to observe, that these instances occurred after I had received the news of the lamented death of your Majesty's brother, the Duke of Gloucester, I was at that time down by the sea-side for my health. I did not like to forego the advantage of air and exercise for the short remainder of the time which I had to stay there; and I purposely chose to go out, not in my own carriage, and unattended, that I might not be seen, and known to be driving about (myself and my attendants out of mourning) while His Royal Highness was known to have been so recently dead. This statement, however, is all that I have to make upon my part of the case; and whatever indecorum or impropriety of behaviour the Commissioners have fixed upon me by this circumstance, it must remain; for I cannot deny the truth of the fact, and have only the above explanation to offer of it. As to what Mrs. Lisle's examination contains with respect to Mr. Chester and Captain Moore, it is so connected, that I must trouble your Majesty with the statement of it altogether. "I was with Her Royal Highness at Lady Sheffield's, at Christmas, in Sussex. I inquired what company was there when I came; she said, only Mr. John Chester, who was there by Her Royal Highness's orders; that she could get no other company to meet her, on account of the roads and the season of the year. He dined and slept there that night. The next day other company came; Mr. Chester remained. I heard her Royal Highness say she had been ill in the night, and came out for a light, and lighted her candle in her servant's room. I returned from Sheffieldplace to Blackheath with the Princess; Captain Moore dined there; I left him and the Princess twice alone, for a short time; he might be alone half an hour with her in the room below, in which we had been sitting. I went to look for a book to complete a set Her Royal Highness was lending Captain Moore. She made him a present of an inkstand, to the best of my recollection. He was there one morning in January last, on the Princess Charlotte's birth-day; he went away before the rest of the company. I might be about twenty minutes the second time I was away, the night Captain Moore was there. At Lady Sheffield's Her Royal Highness paid more attention to Mr. Chester than to the rest of the Company. I know of Her Royal Highness walking out alone; twice, with Mr. Chester, in the morning alone; once, a short time, it rained; the other not an hour, not long. Mr. Chester is a pretty young man; her attentions to him were not uncommon; not the same as to Captain Manby." At first, Sire, as to what relates to Mr. Chester. If there is any imputation to be cast upon my character by what passed at Sheffield-place with Mr. Chester (and by the Commissioners return ing to examine Mrs. Lisle upon my attention to Mr. Chester, my walking out with him, and, above all," as to his being a pretty young man," I conceive it to be so intended), I am sure your Majesty will see, that it is the hardest thing imaginable upon me, that, upon an occurrence which passed in Lady Sheffield's house, on a visit to her, Lady Sheffield herself was never examined; for, if she had been, I am convinced that these noble Lords, the Commissioners, never could have put me to the painful degradation of stating any thing upon this subject. The statement begins by Mrs. Lisle's inquiring, what company was there? and Lady Sheffield saying, "only Mr. John Chester, who was there by Her Royal Highness's orders; that she could get no other company, on account of the roads." Is not this, Sire, left open to the inference that Mr. John Chester was the only person who had been invited by my orders? If Lady Sheffield had been examined, she would have been able to have produced the very letter in which, in answer to her Ladyship's request, that I would let her know what company it would be agreeable for me to meet, I said, "every thing of the name of North, all the Legges, and Chesters, William and John, &c. &c. and Mr. Elliott." Instead of singling out, therefore, Mr. John Chester, I included him in the enumeration which I made of the near relations of Lady Sheffield; and your Majesty, from this alone, cannot fail to see how false a colour even a true fact can assume, if it be not sufficiently inquired into and explained. As to the circumstances of my having been taken ill in the night, being obliged to get up, and light my candle; why this fact should be recorded, I am wholly at a loss to conceive. All the circumstances, however, respecting it, connected very much as they are with the particular disposition of Lady Sheffield's house, would have been fully explained, if thought material to have been inquired after, by Lady Sheffield herself; and I should have been relieved from the painful degradation of alluding at all to a circumstance which I could not further detail, without a great degree of indelicacy; and as I cannot possibly suppose such a detail can be necessary for my defence, it would, especially in addressing your Majesty, be wholly inexcusable. With respect to the attention which I paid to Mr. Chester, and my walking out twice alone with him for a short time, I know not how to notice it. At this distance of time I am not certain that I can,` with perfect accuracy, account for the circumstance. It appears to have been a rainy morning; it was on the 27th or 28th of December; and whether, wishing to take a walk, I did not desire Lady Sheffield, or Mrs. Lisle, or any Lady to accompany me in doing what, in such a morning, I might think might be disagreeable to them, I really cannot precisely state to your Majesty. -But here, again, perhaps, in the judgment of some persons, may be an instance of familiarity, which was not consistent with the dignity of the Princess of Wales; but, surely, prejudice against me and my character must exceed all natural bounds in those minds in which any inference of crime or moral depravity can be drawn from such a fact. As to Captain Moore, it seems he was left alone with me, and twice in one afternoon, by Mrs. Lisle; he was alone with me half an hour. The first time Mrs. Lisle left us, her examination says, it was to look for a book which I wished to lend to Captain Moore. How long she was absent on that occasion she is not asked; but it could have been but ten minutes, as she appears to have been absent twenty minutes the second time. The Commissioners, though they particularly return to the inquiry with respect to the length of time of her second absence, did not require her to tell them the occasion of it; if they had, she would have told them, that it was in search of the same book; that having on the first occasion looked for it in the drawing. room, she went afterwards to see for it in Mrs. Fitzgerald's room. But I made him a present of an inkstand. I hope your Majesty will not think I am trifling with your patience when I take notice of such trifles. But it is of such trifles as these that the evidence consists, when it is the evidence of respectable witnesses speaking to facts, and, consequently, speaking only the truth. Captain Moore had conferred on me what I felt as a considerable obligation. My Mother is very partial to the late Dr. Moore's writings. Captain Moore, as your Majesty knows, is his son, and he promised to lend me, for the purpose of sending it to my mother, a manuscript of an unpublished work of the Doctor's. In return for this civility, I begged his acceptance of a trifiing present.There is one circumstance alluded to in these examinations, which I know not how to notice, and yet feel it impossible to omit: I mean what respects certain anonymous papers or letters, marked A. B. and C., to which Lord Cholmondeley appears to have been examined, upon the supposition of their being my handwriting. A letter marked A. appears, by the examination of Lady Douglas, to have been produced by her; and the two papers marked B. and a cover marked C. appear to have been produced by Sir John. These papers I have never seen; but I collect them to be the same as are alluded to in Lady Douglas's original declaration; and, from her representation of them, they are most infamous productions. From the style and language of the letter, she says, Sir John Douglas, Sir Sydney Smith, and herself, would have no manner of hesitation in swearing point blank (for that is her phrase) to their being in my handwriting and it seems, from the statement of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, that Sir Sydney Smith had been imposed upon to believe, that these letters and papers were really written and sent to Sir John and Lady Douglas by me. I cannot help, however, remarking to your Majesty, that though Sir John and Lady Douglas produce these papers, and mark them, yet neither the one nor the other swears to their belief of my hand-writing; it does not, indeed, appear, that they were asked the question; and when it once occurred to the Commissioners to be material to inquire whose hand-writing these papers were, I should have been much surprised at their not applying to Sir John and Lady Douglas to swear it, as in their original declaration they of fer to do, if it had not been that, by that time, I suppose, the Commissioners had satisfied themselves of the true value of Sir John and Lady Douglas's oaths, and therefore did not think it worth while to ask them any further questions. His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, as appears by his narrative, was convinced, by Sir Sidney Smith, that these letters came from me. His Royal Highness had been applied to by me, in consequence of my having received a formal note from Sir John, Lady Douglas, and Sir Sidney Smith, requesting an audience immediately: this was soon after my having desired to see no more of Lady Douglas. I conceived, therefore, the audience was required for the purpose of remonstrance and explanation upon this circumstance; and as I was determined not to alter my resolution, nor admit of any discussion upon it, I requested His Royal Highness, who happened to be acquainted with Sir Sidney Smith, to try to prevent my having any further trouble upon the subject. His Royal Highness saw Sir Sidney Smith, and being impressed by him with the belief of Lady Douglas's story, that I was the anthor of these anonymous letters, he did that which naturally became him, under such belief; he endeavoured, for the peace of your Majesty, and the honour of the Royal Family, to keep from the knowledge of the world what, if it had been true, would have justly reflected such infiuite disgrace upon me; and, it seems, from the narrative, that he procured, through Sir Sidney Smith, Sir John Douglas's assurance that he would, under existing circumstances, remain qniet, if left unmolested. "This result (His Royal Highness says), he communicated to me the following day, and I seemed satisfied with it." And, undoubtedly, as he only communicated the result to me, I could not be otherwise than satisfied: for as all that I wanted was, not to be obliged to see Sir John and Lady Douglas, and not to be troubled by them any more, the result of His Royal Highness's interference, through Sir Sidney Smith, was to procure me all that I wanted. I do not wonder that His Royal Highness did not mention to me the particulars of these infamous letters and drawings, which were ascribed to me; for, as long as be believed they were mine, undoubtedly it was a subject which he must have wished to avoid; but I lament, as it happens, that he did not, as I should have satisfied him as far, at least, as any assertions of mine could have satisfied him, by declaring to him, as I do now most solemnly, that the letter is not mine, and that I know nothing whatever of the contents of it, or of the other papers; and I trust that His Royal Highness, and every one else who may have taken up any false impression concerning them to my preju dice, from the assertion of Sir John and Lady Douglas, will, upon my assertion, and the evidence of Lord Cholmondeley, remove from their minds this calumnious falsehood, which, with many others, the malice of Sir John and Lady Douglas has endeavoured to fasten upon me. To all these papers Lady Douglas states, in her Declaration, that not only herself and Sir John Douglas, but Sir Sidney Smith, would have no hesitation in swearing to be in my hand-writing. What says Lord Cholmondeley? "That he is perfectly acquainted with my manner of writing, Letter A. is not of my hand-writing; that the two papers marked B. appear to be wrote in a disguised hand; that some of the letters in them remarkably resemble mine, but, because of the disguise, he cannot say whether they are or not: as to the cover marked C. he did not see the same resemblance." Of these four papers (all of which are stated by Lady Douglas to be so clearly and plainly mine, that there can be no hesitation upon the subject), two bear no resemblance to it; and although the other two, written in a disguised hand, have some letters remarkably resembling mine, yet, I trust, I shall not, upon such evidence, be subjected to so base an imputation; and really, Sire, I know not how to account for the Commissioners examining and reporting upon this subject in this manner. For I understand from Mrs. Fitzgerald, that these drawings were produced by the Commissioners the compass of their Inquiries-that they would to her; and that she was examined as to her not be warranted in expressing any doubt reknowledge of them, and as to the hand-writing specting the alleged pregnancy of the Princess, upon them; that she was satisfied, and swore as stated in the original declarations, a fact so that they were not my hand-writing, and that fully contradicted, and by so many witnesses, to she knew nothing of them, and did not believe whom, if true, it must in various ways have they could possibly come from any lady in my been known, that we cannot think it entitled to house. She was shewn the seal also, which Lady the smallest credit."-There are, indeed, some Douglas, in her Declaration, says, was the other matters mentioned in the original declara"identical one with which I had summoned Sir|tions, which I might have found it necessary to "John Douglas to luncheon." To this seal, observe upon; but as the Commissioners do not though it so much resembled one that belonged appear to have entered into any examination to herself, as to make her hesitate till she had with respect to them, I content myself with particularly observed it, she was at last as posi-thinking that they had found the means of satistive as to the hand-writing; and having expressed fying themselves of the utter falsehood of those herself with some feeling and indignation at the particulars, and, therefore, that they can require supposition, that either I, herself, or any of my no contradiction or observation from me. -On ladies, could be guilty of so foul a transaction, the declaration, therefore, and the evidence, t the Commissioners tell her they were satisfied have nothing further to remark. And, conscious and believed her; and there is not one word of of the length at which I have trespassed on your all this related in her examination.-Now, if Majesty's patience, I will forbear to waste your their Lordships were satisfied from this, or any time by any endeavour to recapitulate what I other circumstance, that these letters were not have said. Some few observations, however, my writing, and did not come from me, I cannot before I conclude, I must hope to be permitted account for their not preserving any trace of to subjoin.-In many of the observations Mrs. Fitzgerald's evidence on this point, and which I have made, your Majesty will observe leaving it out of their inquiry altogether; but, if that I have noticed, what have appeared to me they thought proper to preserve any evidence to be great omissions on the part of the Comupon it, to make it the subject of any examina-missioners, in the manner of taking their examition, surely they should not have left it on Lord nations; in forbearing to put any questions to the Cholmondeley's alone; but I ought to have had witnesses, in the nature of a cross-examination the benefit of Mrs. Fitzgerald's evidence also; of them; to confront them with each other; and but, as I said before, they take no notice of her to call other witnesses, whose testimony must evidence; nay, they finish their Report, they either have confirmed or falsified, in important execute it according to the date it bears upon particulars, the examinations as they have taken the 14th of July, and it is not until two days af- them. It may perhaps occur, in consequence of terwards, namely, on the 16th, that they ex- such observations, that I am desirous that this amined Lord Cholmondeley to the hand-writing Inquiry should be opened again; that the Com--with what view, and for what purpose, I can- missiouers should recommence their labours, and not even surmise; but with whatever view, and that they should proceed to supply the defects in for whatever purpose, if these letters are at all their previous examinations, by a fuller execu to be alluded to in their Report, or the exami- tion of their duty. I therefore think it necesnations accompanying it, surely I ought to have sary, most distinctly and emphatically to state, had the benefit of the other evidence, which dis- that I have no such meaning; and whatever may proved my connexion with them.I have now, be the risk that I may incur of being charged Sire, gone through all the matters contained in with betraying a consciousness of guilt, by thus the examination, on which I think it, in any de- flying from au extension or repetition of this Ingree, necessary to trouble your Majesty with quiry, I must distinctly state, that so far from any observations. For as to the examination of requesting the revival of it, I humbly request Mrs. Townley the washerwoman, if it applies at your Majesty would be graciously pleased to unall, it must have been intended to have afforded derstand me as remonstrating and protesting evidence of my pregnancy and miscarriage.—against it, in the strongest and most solemn manAnd whether the circumstances she speaks to ner in my power. I am yet to learn the lewas occasioned by my having been bled with gality of such a Commission to inquire, even in leeches, or whether an actual miscarriage did the case of High Treason, or any other crime take place in my family, and by some means known to the laws of the country. If it is lawful linen belonging to me was procured and used in the case of High Treason, supposed to be upon the occasion, or to whatever other circum- committed by me, surely it must be lawful also stance it is to be ascribed, after the manner in in the case of High Treason, supposed to be which the Commissioners have expressed their committed by other subjects of your Majesty. opinion, on the part of the case respecting my supposed pregnancy, and after the evidence on which they formed their opinion, I do not conceive myself called upon to say any thing upon it; or that any thing I could say could be more satisfactory than repeating the opinion of the Commissioners, as stated in their Report, viz. "That nothing had appeared to them which would warrant the belief that I was pregnant in that year (180%), or at any other period within -That there is much objection to it, in reason and principle, my understanding assures me. That such Inquiries, carried on upon ex parte examination, and a Report of the result by persons of high authority, may, nay must, have a tendency to prejudice the character of the parties who are exposed to them, and thereby influ ence the further proceedings in their case;→ that are calculated to keep back from notice, and in security, the person of a false accuser, R Supplement to No. 14, Vol. XXIII.-Price 1s. |