The National Register. — London, England, 1820-08-21 00:00:00

------- -AT; • • • ~ 41 0...1•• • • " it. EEN I Li. To Ow' THE MA G. The following letter from her Majesty, which I' is dated August 7th, was sent by the Queen's mes senger early in the morning of the Bth to the Cottage at Windsor, accompanied with a note to Sir ilenjamin Bbainfield,written by the Queen. desiring Sir Benjamin to deliver it. immediately to the King. Sir Benjamin Bloomfield being then absent, the letter was received by Sir Win. Keppell, who for- i warded it immediately to Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, at Carbon House, who returned it in the afternoon of the Bth to the Queen, informing her Majesty that he had received the Kings commands and general instructions, that any communications that might be made. should pass through the channel of his Majesty's Government. The Queen imme diately despatched a messenger with the letter to Lord Liverpool, desiring his Lordship to lay it before his Majesty. Lord Liverpool was at Coombe wood. He returned an answer that lie would lose no time in laving it before the King On the II th im reply Lavin. , been received, the Queen wrote again to Lord Liverpool, requesting information whoilier any further coinionnication would be made on the subject of the letter to his Majesty. Lon' Liverpool wrote the same day from Coombe-wood that he had not received the King's commands to make any communication to her Majesty in ••onse queue of her letter t— sia,—After the unparalleled and unprovoked persecution which during a series of years, has been carried on against me under the name and authority of your Majesty—and which persecution, instead of being molitied by time, time has rendered only mo.e and more 'malignant and unrelenting—it is rot without a great lawritice of private feeling that I now, even in the way of remon strance, bring myself to address this letter to your Majesty. lint, bearing in mind that Royalty rests on the basis of public good ; that to this paramount consideration all others ought to submit; and aware of the consequent-es that may result from the present unconstitutional, illegal, and hitherto unheard-of-proceedings;— with a mind thus impressed. I cannot refrain from laying my grievous wrongs once more before your Majesty, in the hope that the justice which your Majesty may, by evil-minded counsellors, be still disposed to refuse to the claims of a dutiful, faithful, and injured wife, you may be induced to yield to considerations tacted with the honour and dignity of your crown, the stability of your throne, the tranquillity of your dominions, the nappiness and safety of pint just and loyal people, whose generous hearts revolt at oppression and cruelty, and especially when perpetrated by a perversion and mockery of the laws. A sense of what is due to my character and sex forbids ma to Teter minutely to the real causes of our domestic separation, or to the numerous and unmerited insults offered me previously to that period; but leaving to your :Majesty to reconcile with the mar riage ow the act of driving, by such means, a wife from beneath your roof, with an infant in her arms. your Majesty will permit inc to remind you, that that act was entirely your own; that the separation, so far from being sought for by . me. was a sentence pronounced upon me. without any cause assigned. other than that of your own inclinations, which, la your Majesty was pleased to allege, were not under your conwoul. Not to have felt, with regard to myself, chagrin at this decision of your Majesty, would have argued great insensibility to the obligations of decorum; not to have dropped a tear in the face of that beloved child. whose future sorrows were then but too easy to forsee, would have marked me as unworthy of the name of mother ; but not to have submitted so it without repining would have indicated a consciousness of demerit, or a want of those feelings which belong to affronted and insulted female honour. " The tranquil and comfortable society" tendered to me by your Majesty formed, in my mind, but a poor compensation for the grief occasioned by considering the wound given to public morals in the fatal example produced by the indulgence of your Majesty's inclinations; more especially when I contemplated the disappointment of the nation, who hail so munificently pro. vided for our union, who had fondly cherished such pleasing; hopes of happiness arising from that union, and who had hailed it with such affectionate and rapturous joy. But alas ! even tranquillity and comfort were too notch for inc to enjoy. From the very threshold of your Majesty's mansion the mother of your child was pursued by spies, conspirators, and traitors, employed, encouraged, and rewarded to lay snares for th.: feet, and to plot against the reontation and life. of her whole yoor Majesty had so recently and so solemnly vowed to honour, to love, and to chetish. In withdrawing from the embraces of my parents, in giving my hand to the son of George tile Third and the heir-apparent of the throt,e of England, 'muting less than a voice from Heaven would have made me fear injostiee or wrong of any kind. What, then, was my aatortidament at tinning that treasons against me had teen carried on and matured, perjtiries against me had bees mettle). cued and embodied, a secret tribunal had been held, a trial of toy actions had taken place, and a decision had been made upon trios: actions, without my having been informed of the nature of the charge, or of the names of the witnesses ? and what words can express the feelings excited by tile fact, that this proceeding was f,,uneied on a reqtzest made, and on evidence, furnished, by order of the father of iity child, and my natural as well as legal gaardian and protector? Notwithatanding, however, the unprecedented conduct of that tribunal—.conduct which has since undergone, even in Parlia. nom:, severe and unanswered animadversions, and which has been also censured in minutes of the Privy (;ouncil—notwith • standing the secrecy of the proceedings of this tribunal—notwith atand.ng the strong temptation to the giving of false evidence against me befo e it—notwithstanding mat there was no oppor • wilily afforded me of rebutting that evidence—notwithstanoing all these circumstances, so decidedly favourable to my enemies— even this secret tribunal acquitted nic of all crime, and thereby pronounced my princi pal accusers to have been guilty .0 - die grossest perjury. But it was now tatter the trial was over) discovered, that the nature of the tribunal was such as to render false swearing befo to it net legally (.ritniaal ! And thus, at the sugge,tion and request of your Majesty, had been created, to take cognizance of and try my conduct, a tribunal competent to administer oaths, coayetent to examine a itnesses on oath, competent to try, cum - rtent to licqu:t or condemn, and competent, moreover, to screen those who had sworn thlse•ly against me from suffering the pains and penalties which the law awards to wilful and amino perjury. 1. rest as n.) h.e1;,,1r I'.ol*/1:1:'111'18t !lave been tit tlii, slim!e. fill era ion of law and just is that indignation was lust in pity for hint who could lower his princely phones to the dust by pane it:, coJneenance and fiirour us the most conspicuous of cloned And noturious raj u; en, Still there was one whose upiigi.t mind nothing could warp, in whose breast injust.ce never found a piece. wituse hand was always ready to raise the urft.rttnutte, and to tt; the °plat cd. 111.1 RATIONAL REGISTER.. • - - While that good and gracious father and Sovereign remained in I the exercise of hi. royal tioactions, unolinding daughter law had nothing to fear. A= h . /iv a. the protecting hanJ of your laic ever-lieloved and ever lamented father teas held over arc s was safe. But the melancholy event which deprived the nation of the fictive exer ions of its virtnous King, bereft me of friend and protector. and of all hope of future tranquillity and safety.— To calumniate your naai:ent wife was now the shortest road to Royal favour; awl to bet-ay her was to lay the sure foundation of boundless riches and titles of honour. Before claims like these, talent, virtue, long services, your own personal friendahips. your Royal engagements, promises. and pledges, written as well as ye - bal. melted into air. Your Cabinet was founded on this basis. You took to your councils men. of whose persons, as well as whore rine.ples. you had invariably expressed the strongest dislike.— The interest of the nation, and even your own feelings. in all other respects, were sacritietal to the gratification of your desire to aggravate my :offerings. and ensure my humiliution. You took ' "your councils and your bosom, men whom you hated, who.ie abandonment of, and' whose readiness to sari ifiee me were their only merits, and whose power has becu exercise) in a manlier, and has been attended with consequences, worthy of its origin.— From this unprincipled and unnatural union have sprung the manifold evils which this maims has now to endure, sad which present a mass of misery anti of degradation, accompanied with acts of tyranny and cruelty, rather than have seen %hien inflicted on his industrious, faithful, alai brave peop:e, your royal father would have perished at the lead of that petiplic When to calumniate, revile, and betray me, became the sure path to honour and tiches, it would have been steange indeed if calumniators, revilers and traitors, had not abounded. Your Court became much less a scene of polished manners and refined intercourse than of low intrigue and scurrility. Spies, Baccha nalian tale-bearers, and final conspirators, swarmed in those Maces which had before been the resort of sobriety, virtue, and honour. To enumerate all the various privations and mortifi cations which I had to endure—all the insu:ts that were wantonly heaped upon me, from the day of your eleva tion to the Regency to that of my departure for the Conti nent—would be to describe every species of personal offence that can be offered to, and every pain short of bodily vio lence that can be inflicted on, any human being. Bereft of pa rent, brother, and fulier-imlaw, and my husband fir my dead liest foe; seeing those who have promised me support bought by rewards to he amongst my enemies; restrained from accusing my foes in the face of the world, out of regard for the character of the father of my child, and from a desire to prevent her happi ness from being disturbed; shunned from motives of selfishness by those who were my natural associates; living in obscurity, while I ought to have been the centre of all that was splendid ; thus humbled, I had one consolation left—the love of my dear and only child. To permit me to enjoy this was too great an indulgence. To see my daughter; to told her in my arms; to receive her cheering caresses, and to hear front her lips assur ances of never-ceasing love;—thus to be comforted, consoled, upheld, and blessed, was too much to be allowed me. Even on the slave mart the cries of •* Oh ! my mother, my mother ! On! wry child, my child !" have prevented a separation of the victims of avarice. But your advisers, more inhuman than the slave dealers, remorselessly tore the mother from the child. Thus bereft of the society of my child, or reduced to the necessity of imbittering her life by struggles to preserve that society, I resolved on a temporary absence, in the hope that time might restore me to her in happier days. Those days, alas! were never to conic. To mothers—and those mothers who have been suddenly bereft of the best and most affectionate and only daughters—it belongs to estimate my sufferings and my wro n gs. Such mothers will judge of my affliction upon hearing the death of my child, and upon my calling to recollection the last look, the last words, and all the &fleeting circumstances of our separation. Such mothers will see the depth of my sor rows. Every being with a heart of humanity in its bosom will drop a tear in sympathy with me. And will not the world,then, learn with indignation, that this event, calculated to soften the hardest heart. was the signal for new conspilwies, and indefa tigable aorta for the destruction of this of icted mother? Your Majesty had torn my child from me; you had deprived me of the lower of being at hand to succour her; you had taken from ire the possibilky of hearing of her last prayers for her moiler; you saw me bereft. forlorn, and broken-hearted ; and this was the moment you chose for r edoubling your persecutions. Let the world pass its judgment on the constituting of a com mission, in a foreign country, consisting of inquiertors, spies, and informers, to discover, collect, arid arrange matters of accu sation against your wife, without any complaint having been communicated to her : let the world judge of the employment of ambassadors in such a business, and of the enlisting of to. reign courts in the enterprise: but on the measures which have been adopted to give final effect to these preliminary proceedings it is for me to speak; it is for me to remonstrate with your Ma jesty ; it is for me to protest; it is for me to apprize you of nay determination. ...... -..-... I have always demandesi a ,fair trial. T i is is what I now demand, and this is refused me. Instead of a fide ti is!, I ant to be subjected to a sentence by the Parliament, passed in the swipe of a law. Against this I protest, and upon the following br,uods:— Tile in j ustice of refusing me a dear and distinct chatge, of refusing me the name:, of the witnesses, of refusi• g toe the names of the places where the alleged acts have been unlimited —these are sufficiently flagrant and revolting; but it is against the canstitotion of thy Court ii‘elf that I particularly object, and that I most solemnly protest. Whatever nifty he the precedents as to Bills of Pains and Penalties, none of them, except those relating to the Queen of Henry the Eighth, can apply here; for here your Majesty is the pttiniff. Here it is intended by the Bill to do you what you deem good and to do me great harm. You are, therefore, a party, and the only complaining party. You have made your complaint to the House of Lords. You have conveyed to this House written documents sealed up. A Secret Committee of the I louse have examined these documents. They have reported that there arc grounds of proceeding; and then the Ilouse, merely upon that report, have brought forward a Bill containing the mist outrageous slanders on me, and Sell tencing me to divorce and degredatian. The injustice of putting forth this Bill to the world for six weeks bcthre it is even proposed to adind me an opportunity of contradicting its allegations is too toothiest not to have shocked the nation: and, indeed, the proceedings even thus tar are such as to convince every one that no justice is intended me.— But if none of these proceeding,. it mate of these clear indica tions of a determination to do me wrong had taken place, I smuld see, in the co:it-Motion of the House of Loids tt,tit, certainty that I could expect no justice at ;Minot's. Your Majesty's Ministers have adth.al this prosecution; they are responsible tor the advice they give; they are liable to pa• nishmeni if they fail to make good their charges; and not omy ate they part of my judges, but it is they who have brought in a liUl; and it is too notorious that they have always a maim ity in toe House; so ;11111, without any other, hue is ample pool' that the House will decide in favour of the Bill, lOW, of course, against me. But further, there ate reason, for your Ministers having a ma jority in this rase, which tussons do nut apply to common cases. Your Majesty is the plaintiff: to you it be:angs to appoint and to ekeatc Peers. it ar y of the pre,ent Peers have been raised to tl t.: dignity by yours.ll, and almost the whole can be, at your will and pleasure, further elevated. Tne far greater part of me Peers I.•ti I, by themselves and then thmila..t, biters, pensions, and other eam•uments. solely tit the will and pl, :,Anre ut• your Alujesty, and thuie, of course your Majesty cm take away whenever you pha•.e. There are mote than Jou r-Attla of the Puts in this situation. and there arc many of them who might thus be deprived of tlo: better part id their incomes. If. ocntraty to ali exptetation, there should be found, in seine Peers, likely to amotmt to a majority, a disposition to reject the Bill, some of these Peers may be ordered away to their ships. regimmts, governments. and other duties; and which is an equally alarinhg power. new Peers may be created for the pur. po7e. and give their vote in the decision. That your Alajesty's Ministers would devise the a measures, if found necessary to render elicit persecution successful, there can be very little doubt; seeing that they have hitherto stopped at nothing, however unjust or odious. ..... To regard such a body as a Conrt of Justine would be to calumniate that sacred name ; and foe me to suppress an expre.. sion of my opinion on the subject, would be tacitly to lend my self to my own de:Artie:l.m, as well as to an imposition upon the nation and the world. In the House of Commons I can discover no better grounds of security. The power of your Majesty's Ministers is the same in both I louses ; and your Majesty is well acquainted with the fact, that a Majorhy of this )louse is composed of persohs placed in it by the Peels and by your Majesty's Trea , nry. It really gives me pain to state those things to your Majesty; and, it it gives your Nlayesty pain, 1 beg that it may beobserved, and reintinbertd, that the statement has been forced fiom me.— I must Lithtr protest against this mode of - trial, or, by tacitly ctmsentmg to it, stiff..r my honour to be sacrificed. No innocence can ACCiI re, Lite :tt•chied if die Judges and Jtutors be climes by die aceme: ; and if I were tacitly to submit to a tribunal of this description, 1 should he instrumental in my own dishonour. On these grounds I protest against this species of trial. I demand a trial in a Court where the Jurors are taken impartially from amongst the people, and where the proceedings are fair and open. Such a trial I court, and to no other will I willingly submit. If your Majesty persevere in the present proceedings, I shall, even in the Houses of Parliament, face my accusers ; but I shall regard any decision they may make against we as not in the smallest degree reflecting on my honour; and I will not, except compelled by actual love, submit to any sentence which shall not prronotineed by a Court ofJustice. I have now frankly laid bvfore your Majesty a statement of my wrongs, and a declaration of my views anti intentions. You have cast upon nee every slur to which the female character is liable. Instead of loving, honouring, and cherishing me, agreeably to your solemn vow, you have pursued ate with hated and scion, and with all the means of destruction.— You wrested from me my child, and with her my Only comfort and cumulation. You sent me motoring through the world, and even in my sorrows pointed me with unrelenting persecu tion. Having lett me nothing but my innocence, you would now, by a mockery of justice, deprive me even of tile reputation of possessitig that. The poisoned bowl and the poinard are 1 means more manly than perjured witnesses and partial tribunals; anti they are less cruel, inasmuch as life is less valuable than honour. If my life would have satisiiid your Majesty, you should have had it on die sole condition of giving me a place in the same tomb with my child : but, since you would send me dishonoured to the grave, I will resist the attempt with all the means that it shall please God to give me. (Signed) CAROLINE, R. Brandenburgh House, August 7, 1820. On Monday last, about four o'clock, the remains of her late Royal Highness the Duchess of York were privately interred at Weybridge church, Sur rey, in a vault which had previously been prepared. under her Royal Highness's special directions. Lord Byron has arrived in town from Italy. A ballot was taken at the East India House on Wednesday, for the election of a Director in the mom of Sir David Scott, Bart. who had disqualified. At six o'clock the glasses were closed, and delivered to the scrutineers, who repor►ed the election to have fallen on Josias Du Pre Alexander, Esq.— The numbers were—for Josias Du Pre Alexander, Esq. 1059—for Neil Benjamin Edmonstone, Esq. ller Majesty's new state carriage is a singularly neat and very elegant landau, and possesses all the requisite adornments of the art, with every possible convenience. The body is painted of a beautiful lake colour (the favourite colour of his late most excellent Majesty). Thd Royal arms and support ers are most excaently painted on the doors, anti front and back, underneath which is a snake, which appears crushed from the weight. On each of the four side pannels is painted a Royal Coronet, with her Majesty's initials, C. R. The body is roomy and hangs low, the root' is flat and ornamented on the four corners with silver coronets ; the joints at the top are also ornamented with silver Coronets on the four corners of the sides. Near the top there appears a silver Coronet, and her Majesty's cypher in silver letters underneath. The joints are of chased silver, richly ornamented, and nothing can surpass the beauty of the lamps, which are of silver embos sed, surmounted by a superb Coronet of the same metal. The side lining, with the squabs and cushions, are composed ut the richest yellow silk, and the roof lined with the finest blue cloth, all superbly ornamented with rich lace. A Salisbury boot, with the scat cloth of the finest scarlet cloth, ornamented with five rows of deep gold fringe, with hangers. The carriage is very light, mid most su perbly ornamented. the wheels are painted lake and vermillion, together with the hind standers.— Springs and perch richly gilt with gold. The har ness is superbly ornamented with silver, agreeable to royal etiquette, and every way made to corres pond with the carriage. Troops are now stationed at Mitcham and Sutton, and most of the villages round the Metropolis. The northern roads are so crowded with troops on their march towards the Metropolis, that it would seem as if the Town was to be put in a state of blockade. _ The match to fight between Turner and Belcher is off; Reicher challenged to light either Randal or Turii;:r, and the latter tailed upon him to accommodate him, but Belcher very advLsedlY declined. .%i!tE a.