The National Register. — London, England, 1813-04-04 00:00:00

I'HE NiTIONAL REGISTER. In making that determination, however, it will not escape your Majesty to consider, that the conduct which does Or does not be come a married woman, materiady depends upon what is, or is not known by her to be agreeable to her husband. His pleasure and happiness ought, unquestionably, to be her law : and his approba tion the most favourite object of her pursuit. Different characters of men require different modes of conduct in their wives; but %viten a ‘sife can no longer be capable of perceiving from time to time ax hat is agreeable or oftincdve to her husband—when her conduct eau no longer contribute to his happicess, no longer hope to be rewarded by hi , appronation,—sure:y to examine that conduct 17 the standaid of what ought id general to be the conduct of a mar. tied woman, is altogether unreasonable and unjust, _ _ What, then, is my case ? Your Majesty do lee the justice to remark, that, in the above letter of the Prim's. of Wales, there is not the most distant surmise, that crime, that vice, that indelicacy of any description, gave occasion to his determination : and all the tales of infamy and discredit, which the inventive malice of my cue inks has brought forward on these charges, have their date years and years after the period to which I am lIJW What then, let me repeat the question, is my ease? After the receipt of the above letter, and in about two years from my arrival in this country, I had the tnistiirtune entirely to lose the support, the countenance, the protection of. my husbatid—l was banished, as it were, into a sort of humble retirement, at a di-tance from him, And almost estranged from the whole of the Royal Family. I had no of having recourse, either fin. :tociety or advice, to those, from whom my inexperience could have best received the advantages of the one, and with whom I could, most becomingly, have enjoyed the com forts of the other; and if' in this retired, unassisted, mprotected state, without the check of a husband's authority, without the henefit of his advice, without the contfort and support of the society of his family, a stranger to the habits and fashions of this country, I should in any instawce, under the influence of foreign habits, and foreign education, have observed a conduct, in any degree deviating from the reserve and severity of British manners, and partaking or a condescensi:m and familiary !cinch that reserve anti severity would perhaps deem beneath the dignity of any exalted rank, I feel con fident, (since such deviation will be seen to have been ever con sistent with perfect innocence), that not only your Majesty's caw dour and indulgence, but the candour and indulgence which, not withstanding the reserve and severity of British manners, always belong to the British public, will never visit it with severity or eensore. It remains for me now to make some remarks upon the further contents of the paper, which was transmitted to me by the Lord Chancellor on the t Bth ult. and I cannot in passing, omit to remark, that tliat paper has neither title, date, signature, nor attestation : and unless the Lord Chancellor hail accompanied it with a note stating that it was copied in his own hand from .the winch his Lordship had received from your Majesty, I should have been at a loss to have perceived any single mark of authenticity belonging to it ; and as it is, I am wholly unable to tlieiiver what is the true character which does belong to it. It contaius, indeed, the advice which your Majesty's servauts have offered to your Ma jesty, and the message which according to that advice, your Majesty directed to be delivered to me. Considering it, therefore, wholly as their act, your Majesty will excuse and pardon me, if deeply injured as I feel myself to have been by them, I express myself with t'reedom upon their conduct. I may speak perhaps with warmth, because I am provoked by a sense of gross injustice,—l shall speak certainly with firmness and with eourtige, became I am emboldened by a sense or conscious Your Majesty's confidential servants say, " they agSee in: the opiniens of the four Lards;" and they say this, " after the fullest consideration of my observations, and of the affidavits which were annexed to them" Some of these opinions, your Majesty will re collect, are, that " William Cole, Fanny'Lloyd, Hobert Bidgood, and Mrs. Lisle, are witnesses %lho cannot," in the .judgment of the four Lords, " be suspected of any unfavourable bias ;" and " whose veracity in this respect they had seen no ground to ques tion" and that the circumstances to which they speak, particularly as relating to Captain Manby, must be credited until they are do ei'ively contradicted." Am I, then, to understand your M.ijcsty's con fidential servants to mean, that they agree with the four Noble Lords in these opinions ?Am to understand, that, after having read with the fullest consideration, the observations which I have offered to • your Majesty ; after having seen William - Cole there prot•ed to have 811brnitted himself; five times, at least, toprivste.unanthorid vo luntary examination, by Sir John Douglas's Solicitor, for die ex .pess purpoe of confirming the statement of Lady Douglas, (of that 211 Lady Douglas, whose statement and deposition they are convince' 1 to be so malicious and false, that they propose to institute such i l prosecution against her, as your Majesty's . Law Officers may advise, 1 , upon a reference, now at length, alter six months from the detec tion ot that malice and falsehood, intended to 1w matie)--aftee having seen this William Cole submitting to surn repeated voluntary examinations fist such a purpose, and although he was all that time a servant on my establishment, and eating my bread, yet never once 1I communicating to me that such examinations were going on-- I am I to understand, that your Majesty's confidential servants agree : with the four Lords in thinking, that he cannot under such &cum, stances, he suspected of weacourable bias 1 That after having had pointed out to them ' the direct flat contradiction be ; tweet' the same William Cole and Fanny Lloyd, they nevertheless agree to -think them both (though in direct contradiction to each other, yet built) witnesses whose veracity they see no round to qu(s lion / After having seen Fanny Loyd directly and positively con tradicted in an assertion most injurious to my honour ' by Mr. Mills and Mr. Edmeads, do they agree in opinion with the four Noble Lords, that they see no ground to question their veracity? After having read the observations on Mr. Bidgood's evidence,—after 'having seen that he had the hardihood to swear, that he believed Captain Manhy slept in my house, at Soetliend, and to insinuates that he slept in my bed-room,—after having seen that he founded himsenf on this most false fact, mid most foul and wicked insinma. i i. lion, upon the circumstance of observing a bison and some towel; where he thonalit they ought not to be placed,—after haviiig seen that tact, and this insinuation, were disproved before the four noble Lords thninselves, by two maid-servants, who, at that time, lived with the at Southend, and whose duties about my person and my apartinents, must have made them acquainted with this fact, as as serted, or as insinuated, if it had happened,—after having oloA - ved, . too, in confirmation of their testinrooy, that one of them meetioneti the name of ;mother female servant (tto) was not examined), who had, from her situation, equal means of knowledge with theniselves„ —I ask whether, titer all this decisive weight of contradiction to Robert Bidguod's testimony, I am to understand your Majesty's confidential servants to agree with the four Noble Lords he thinks mg, tint Mr. Bidgood is a witness who cannot be suspected of un rayon, able bias, amid that there is no ground to question his veracity? lf, Sire, I were to g o through ail ttio remaiks ot this description which occur to me t o make, I should ne obliged-to repeat nearly alt my fusilier observations, and to make this letter" as long as My original answer : but that to answer 1 contidently appeal, and 1 will venture to chalk:nee your Majesty's confidential savants to find 4, single impartial and honourable man, unconnected . in Iteling and interest with the parties, and unconnected in Council with those who have already pledged themselves to an opinion upon this sub ject, who will lay his haul upon his heart, amid say, that these three witnesses, On Whom that Report so mainly relies, ate not to be suspected of the grossest partiality, and that their veracity is nut most fundamentally impeached., Was it, then, noble, was it generous, was it maniy, wss it just, in your Majesty's confidential se:vants, instead ot fairly admitting the injustice, which had been, inadvertently, and ueintetiminalty, Ho uoube done to me, by the tour Noble Lords. in their Repoli, upon the evi. deuce of these witnessesoo slate to your Majesty that they agree with these lords in their opinion, though they cannot, it seems, go the length of aAreeing any longer to withhold the advice, which restores me to your Majesty's presence ? And with respect to time particulars to my prejudice, remarked upon in the Report as those " whiLli justly deserve the most serious consideration, and which must be credited till decisivi ly contradicted," instead of fatly avowing, either that there was origina'ly nopretence for such a remark, ur that, it there had been originally, yet that my answer had given that decisive contradiction which was sufficient to discredit them ;—instead, I say, of at r ing this just, honest. and open part, to take no notice whatsoever of those con tradictions, and content themselves with saying,'' that none V t the C.cts of allegations stated in preliminary examinations, carried on in the ab sence of the parties interested, could he considered as k-,;aliy kor eon elusively estanlished ? " They agree in the opinion that the facts or alle g ations, though stated in preliminary examination, carried on in the absence in the part es in terested, must be credited till decisively cuntradiLted, a. d deserve to most serious consideration. They read, with that fullest con4;essition, the contradiction which I have tendered to thrill ; they must have known, that no other sort of contradiction c uls, by to.sibiiity, irons the nature of things, have been offered upon such subjects : tilt:y do not question the titian they do not point out the insudisiency of the contradiction, but, in loose, general, indefinite terms, reteitieg to my answer, consisting, as it does, of above two huitised wr rtes, pages, and coupling it with those examinations (which they admit eat-blisti nothing against an absent party), they advise your Majesty, that, " there appear many circumstances of conduct, which could not be " regarded b' your Majesty, witlvaut serioue concern i" epd LW, • APRIL 4. v • Y. 4 -',l s i ' t 4 -