The National Register. — London, England, 1820-07-17 00:00:00

4:~ DILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES. As the public mind appears to be exclusively occupied by it, we shall once more resume the sub- jcct of the Queen, and having pointed out still more particularly thae in our last the nature and tendency of " the Bill of Divorce" proposed by Ministers, we shall submit to the country at large our opinion as to that line of conduct which ought 710 W to be pursued, and which, if it be not pur sued, the Queen may be made a sacrifice to the convenience of Ministers and to the perjuries of foreigners, who may lend themselves to the secret enemies of the Queen. Although we have not the least doubt that the charges against her Majesty are charges at least as untbunded, as history declares those against Anna Boleyn to have been. The Bill of Divorce then, or, in other words, the Bill of Pains and Penalties, whereby the Qoeen, upon the passing thereof, is to forfeit her rank and subsistence, as well as lose all her honours, is intro duced as a measure recommended by a Committee nominated, in the House of Lords, by Ministers. The consequence of this Bill, considered as a process of a judicial kind, is, to deprive the defendant of every possible advantage which, by any other mode of trial, she would have had ; for had she been tried by impeachment of the Commons, for high treason, or prosecuted by his Majesty's Attorney-General, then would she have had lists of the witnesses brought against her, and full means of obtaining evidence as to their conduct and character; whereas the present pro ceeding, which the amiable and sincere man who was once her noble and learned advocate, pretends to be all out of tenderness to the Queen, deprives her Majesty of those advantages to which the lowest subject of the realm would, in case of high treason, be entitled, while that amiable man and his friends in power all acknowledge that it is not their fault that she is not tried for high treason, but in consequence of a defect in the statute with regard to the law in this case. In an open and con stitutional Court, before the Lords in their regular capacity as judges : in such a Court, as also in a common civil, or ecclesiastical Court, had the matter been tried as a case of adultery between man and wife, all those pleas, which are so powerful, of destitution and extreme provocation, might have been alleged in behalf of the defendant, which the Sender mercies of these kind-hearted gentlemen now exclude—these tender-hearted creatures, who could prejudge a woman and a stranger, being ut once a wife and widow—these good Christians, who learn from their Bible that true religion, and unde filed before God, is to visit the widow and the fatherless in affiiction—who could prejudge the cause of the fatherless and the widow by striking her out of the Liturgy, where, if she were really a sinner, her name would with so much the more propriety have been uttered in the prayer to the throne of mercy—who could then bring out of a jury chamber, selected by themselves, charges against this same person, without one of those means of judging, from peisdnal examination and perception of those inter nal evidences arising from the voice and mariner of evidence on the part of the prosecution—these men, against whom we raise a voice which, we trust, will be echoed through the nation and the whole civilized world, shaking the throne of that Monarch abroad, if such a base wretch there be, who would pander to the destruction of a kinswoman and female, to re pay the debt ofgratitude he titres to Britain ! These men, we say, have made the attempt to crush this Stranger by weight of political power; they have tried the House of Comaions, as well as the Lords, if they would institute also a Green Bag Committee to prejudge the question there, as they have suc ceeded elsewhere ; and though the Green Bag in the Commons has been rejected with contempt, yct the attempt remains to posterity to prove the inten tion ; and with what face the House of Commons can fur a to:ire:tot entertain the Bill of Divorce, THE NATIONAL REGISTER. when it comes down to. them, we are at a loss to imagine, when this extrajudicial proceeding is avowedly on the ground of public necessity, and when, they have already declared, by recommending adjustment upon professed principles of mutual respect at least, (how muellsoever we may disap prove the absurdity of asking the Queen to give up the point of the Liturgy), that the affair was not of public moment, but simply u domestic. difference. We cannot imagine with what face the House of Corn moms can for a moment entertain a Bill violating the ordinary principles of law so clearly, and breaking in upon the ordinary provisions of civil or criminal justice; yet we must own that we have serious apprehensions on behalf of the Queen's safety, when we see that the political influence of such an ad tninis,:ation is likely to be wielded against her in in a Parliament where Members, alas ! have shewn themselves in so many points utterly at variance with public opinion. Where the influence arising from place, from vanity of titles given or expected, and even from the natural disposition of man to acquiesce in the conclusions of authority, rather than to exercise laboriously his own understanding, must operate so sensibly, we see no adequate coun terpoise to this influence, except in the expression of public opinion throughout the nation distinctly and decidedly upon " the modes of proceeding" adopted. This will not be prejudging innocence or guilt, but putting the accused in a just and ba lanced attitude, and may at least operate consi derably with the House of Commons, who stand as yet not committed, to any extraordinary mode of pro ceeding, and may induce them to decline taking any part in a measure which tends to, and in fact must actually confound the legislative, judicial, and exe cutive parts of the Government. We therefore ear nestly recommend an Address to the QUEEN from every county, town, borough, corporate and incor porate body, whereby the general compassion for the Queen's situation may be expressed, and a coun try's Protest, at the same time, entered against a mode of proceeding which threatens the very sub version of the principles of the constitution, which, however badly administered, are theoretically good, and might, under a virtuous and manly administra tion, be expanded into the best arranged system of society ever contemplated in the imagination of man. TE E QUEEN. -.-- During her Majesty's long and wearisome travels in foreign eountnes, her conduct was such as to excite the respect and veneration of the nations which she visited, in some of which she left looting marks of her benevolent &pint. At Agootn, in Sicily, she distributed with her own Wad, sir•cxused to be distributed, large sums of money to the poor. At Tunis she obtained the liberty of several shiver among whom were two females, ons the daughter of the Governor of St. Pierre, the other a Genoese Lady. This was before the arrival of Lord Ex mouth. Several Roman slaves were also released on the application of her Royal Highness. She gave to the New Academy at Athens 500 pieces (colon nets), and authorised the Governors to draw annu ally on the banker Scaramanza, at Constantinople, for two hundred more. She also released all the prisoners for debt at Athens, and deposited in the hands of the Governor 700 pieces, to be applied to a similar purpose after her departure. To a poor Roman Catholic family, whom she found in the same place, she gave 200 pieces. At Constantino. plc her benefactions s%ere still more numerous. To the eonventical fathers at Jerusalem she gave 500 pieces ; in fact, at every place where she stopped, her benevolence was on the alert to seek and relieve the distresses of her fellow -creatures. Her Majesty, on her return to Europe, took up her residence at an agreeable villa, on the shore of Lake Como, at a small distance from that town. The situation of this house, which she purchased of the Countess Pim), was particularly beautiful, surrounded on all tides by the most enchanting and ro►nantic scenery . Her Majesty here sought amusement rather in the resources of her own mind and among a limited number of friends, than from an indiscriminate in tercourse with the inhabitants of Como; but still she was always hospitable as well as affiible to those by whom she was visited. Her hours were passed in a series of innocent pleasures; principally derived tivtu cuuversations with learned persons; private plays, in a small theatre bUilt under her own direction excursions on horseback, in her ear. riage, or in her gondola on the bosom of the lake. To these were added the repeated exercise of her charitable disposition, in supplying the wants and alleviating the misfortunes of the poor persons in her neighbourhood. One act of this sort will suf fice as a sample of the many of a similar kind which could be mentioned. A fire broke out at Como, by which several persons in an humble situation of life were greatly distressed. The moment the circum stance was mentioned to her Majesty, she sent 1200 livres for the relict' of the sufferers. When her Majesty returned to Milan, in 18 16, she received instructions that she was surrounded by spies in her own house. Endeavours had been made during her absence to corrupt her servants, and to engage them in plots destructive of the honour and reputation of their mistress. Several of her Italian domestics resisted the temp tations which was held out to estrange them from duty. One man, however, a German, of the name: of Maurice Crcdi, was not equally virtuous. He suffered himself to be seduced, and for weighty con siderations, agreed to introduce the Baron d'Omp. teda to the apartments of her Majesty by false keys. Fortunately this happy contrivance was frus trated. Credi was discharged, without suspicion of his fidelity, for some love intrigue with a country.. woman of his, named Annette, who was chamber• maid to her Majesty; and, in order to obtain re.. admittance to her Majesty's favour, he confessed the infamous scheme in which he had been engaged, and his confession was made in the form of a letter to the Chevalier Totnassia, an intimate friend of her Majesty, and Prefect of Como. Her Majesty, upon the communication of this declaration, of course felt extremely indignant, and her private secretary, Lieutenant Hannan, sent a. personal challenge to the Baron. The Baron, how ever, with a baseness, too much in accordance with the character he had assumed, declined the combat, and rendered himself still more contemptible by attempting to treat the serious call which had been. made upon him, as a man, of honour, with ridicule— sometimes proposing to meet his antagonist in Africa, at other times in Asia, and again in America. He was at length removed from the seat of his own de gradation by the Governor, Count Sauran, to whom her Majesty communicated the discovery she had made. Other persons equally well qualified with the Baron d'Ompteda, were found to succeed him, and it was pretty well understood that every motion of her Majesty was narrowly watched, and reported . with such colouring as best suited the interests of the persons who were employed. The agents of this system of espoinnage cared not from what class they selected their evidence, and thus they took the de positions of, and retained in their employment, the very dregs of society. Boatmen, lacqueys, mechanics and the humblest domestics, were all received with favour, and handsomely rewarded for every story they had impudence or ingenuity enough to invent. This groundwork for enquiry having been thus laid, and the reputation of her Majesty having been by such means assailed, the Milan commission, to which such frequent reference has been made, was determined upon, and Mr. Cook and Mr. Powell set out on their important investigation, which was not confined to occurrences in Milan alone, but was. extended to every place where her Majesty had resided, and in which subordinate instruments had previously been at work. Notwistanding all that has been said and done on this subject, a rumour was on Saturday preva lent that au accommodation may vet be expected to take place. It is said that the Duke of York has had an interview with his Majesty, and has made such representations as may lead to this most desi-. rable end. We arc informed that one of the principal wit nesses against the Queen, now in this country, died on Thursaay last. An allusion has been made to this person in some of the papers. She was welt. known twenty-five or thirty years ago under the name of Plomer, and appeared as a singer on the Opera stage. ISlie went abroad and performed in several theatres in Italy. About two months ago she returned under the name of the Marchioness de Salvini, or Solani, and stated that she had been in troduced to the Queen, and was prssent at some of her parties in Venice. She put forth the prospectus of a work to prove that the Duke of Wellington was the greatest Captain that ever appeared in the world, and solicited subscriptions to publish the book. She was by birth a Jewess. We do not think the cause of the prosecution will suffer by the want of this lady's testimony. By recent letters from Gibraltar we learn that on any future occasion of American vessels of war an choring there, a mutual intercourse of civility will take place : satisfactory explananationg having been (a Itiulod between the Higher Powers.