The National Register. — London, England, 1820-10-08 00:00:00

of open day; white he had observed at the distance of four paces, and that a about even turtling his liend to observe it. His lips had from that moment been hermetically sealed, 'lever to be opened until he came before the Commissiun at Milan. Wos it to be believed, that a man leis.' hod seen the Princess riding, in open day, in the disgusting attitude which one witness had described, in a manlier so frightful, monstrous, and portentous, could have si,nceal•d it for a single day ? and yet he conceals it until he comes before the -mann Commission. Ile would now call the attentimi of I heir Lordships to the witness at the inn at Trieste. Did their Lordships. said the Learned Gentleman, forget—nu they could nut forget tile expression of that man's counteuance— those eyes that nose, that lecherous mouth, from which he detailed his foul importunities. This man, this perjured witness (said Mr. Brougham) shall not pass unpunished ; lie at least, Is yet here. I could drag others to punishment, but this fellow shall not escape me. I *sill prove by evidence —by the position of the doors (lithe rooms that this man has sworn falsely. I a ill skew that a bat he has !Morn cannot be true. I will prove that the Queen slept at Trieste but one night , and neither before nor since has she ever crossed the threshold of the door. The charge against the Queeu at Naples was such as required to be established by a crowd of witnesses. His Learned friend ought to have supported this part of the charge with peculiar care. The circumstance of the Queen being hissed out of the theatre, could DOS have been a thing to which only one witness could swear. The hissing of such a person for such a reason, must have been matter of knowledge somewhat nuke acacial. All 111114 have known it. What bad become of Ann Pryson ? He would tell their Lordships, she was here. Why had she not been called? He would tell their Lordships—because she was not an Italian. Who had been called to prove the marks on the bed? Ann Poson made the beds. Who washed •he linen ? Why was not the washer-woman called Because Close who got up the business acre experienced in washer. women ! lu the Douglas plot they culled a washer-women, and experience taught them that it was a dangerous reliauce. He had another remark to make s lie had heard it said, that he had proved the falsehood of witnesses in parti culars which were not important. This came from the lay part of the community; those who were acquainted with the law knew the absurdity of the position. If he bad to set up an informer. it would be necessary for Ilium to produce evidence to support hint in sonic of the most important particulars; but, in pulling down • perjured witness, it was quite enough to make him state a false hood, even alma the most unimportant particulars. If this were not the case, what security could there be for the safety of human kind? What chance of escape from the toil of the conspirator? What safeguard against time malignity of a spiteful witness. "Suppose," said Mr. Brougham, " that any one of your Lordship's had met with • misfortune, the greatest that could take place, at which your delicacy revolts. and irons which human nature is alien—that a villain charged you with the com mission of • crime, the very imputation of which could never he removed—against the main fact no evidence could be possibly adduced, and you would have to rely upon the cross examinaticn of that witness for ■ refuta tion of the odious charge. Au acquittal woul4 be given If that evidence should be found to contradict uimarlt' in the slightest particular. I call upon you to extend this sort ot justice to the Queen." He was told that the ii thation whirls Bergaini held originally, compared with his fortune in the Queen's service, was considered a mat ter of suspicion. God turbid that the time should arrive at which all stations except one, were not open to all men. He would remind their Lordships, that the rapi dity of Bergomi's promotion had been greatly over-stated —and the manner of his promotion was a proof that love was mot the cause of it. Dumont had stated, that three weeks after Beiganies introduction to the service of the Queen he had been admitted to those familiarities which formed the ground of the charge. How was it at the board?— lie dined with the to, and it is proved that even at Genoa he had dined with the same company. He con tinued for a length of time in the situation of Courier, and his promotion gradually rose with las services.— Where was the wretched insane woman (a character which Cie Queen must be, if the witnesses were to be believed), who would allow her paramour to sit amongst the menials? This was nut like the operation of love. Bergami was not a man of low origin. His father had been rtapectable, but had got into difficulties, aid the sun sold the estate to pay the father's debts. He was re duced, but lie was a reduced Gentleman. When in Gen. i'iuo's service, he was recognised as such. and lie diced sit the Geirerars table. Dining the Spanish campaign, lie was respected and esteemed. Lem red Counsel stated, that in answer to all the charges insinuated against her Majesty upon former oc casions, lie held in Isis hand a memorial utgreat authority: it was a letter trolls our late gracious Sovereign to tier Majesty, and was to time following effect : " Windsor Castle, Nov. 19, 1814. " My dearest Daughter-its-law and Niece, " Yesterday I and the rest of my family bad an inter view with the Prince of Wales, at Kew. Care was taken out all sides to avoid sill subjects of• altercation or expla nation, consequently time conversation was neither instiue. live nor entertaining; but it leaves the Prince of Wales ins a situation to slaew whether his desire to 10111111 to his family is only vesbal, or teal, which time alone can aliew. " I am not idle in my endeavour' to make inquiries that may enable lime to communicate some plan for the advantage of the deer child yuu and inc with so much reason must interest ourselves in affecting, and my having the happiness of living mine with you is no *mall incen tive to my ler g sonic idea WI the subject, but yuu may depend on their being not decided upon withuut your thorough and cordial concurrence, for your authority as mother it is my object to support. " Believe me at all times, any dearest daughter•-in-law and niece, your most affectionate father•in-low and uncle. (Signed) " 6E0116 I-: K." He should now read smother letter of a very different kind—that which had been written by his 'meson 314• jesty to her, upon the subject of the separation, in %%birch an assurance was given, that her conduct, after thick separation should not be pat liculmly attended to. He tln r. read the letter a hich bas ahead, appe.ii ed before the upon the question uf• the se pat 4I ei oil. Would it nut be singular that the conduct of het 31ajest , who had been twice proved i 111 l eceist, should alter as she advanced Ili years, and the mute that she wed watched? The Learned Gentleman enteeated their Lou dships nut to dismiss from their ucullecuuu the two gland points on sefielu li tested his deteuve. The Counsel for the pro ieLotivii had not produced good witnesses, wii.i acre \s'illms then mesco, ai.L , secondly, that those witnesses THE NATIONAL ntotsmn they had called, were injured in tl►eir characters, and tainted in their evidence. The Learned Gentleman then proceeded in a strain of impassioned eloquence, and begged their Lordships to pause before they gave judgment against her Majesty.— " lf," said lie, " your judgment goes forth against the Queen, it will he the only judgment you ever issued that will he without effect, and recoil on those who pronounce it. I intteat yonr Lordships to save your country, which is now so agitated—the Crown, which is now in danger— the Aristocracy. which is shaken—and the altar which can never more rest secure, and which will shake its kin. dred Throne.—The Queen may he witlimst the solemn services of the Church, but she possesses the hearts and prayers of the people. 1 now, my Lords, will conclude —and I most devoutly pour ferns my supplications to the Throne of Mercy, that mercy may be poured forth on the people, in a larger proportion than the merits of their Rulers have deserved ; and that the hearts of your Lord • ships may be guided by justice!" The Learned Gentleman then sat down, having evi dently made a powerful impression on the House. After a pause of ten minutes, Mr. Williams presented himself, and the Lord Chancellor inquiring his object t Mr. Denman said, his Learned ',bother wished to address their Lordship. The LORD CHARCRLLOR said, he understood that Mr. Williams wished to address a second speech to the House ; this was not customary; the usual course being for one Counsel to speak at the opening of a case or defelice, and for another to sum op. It certainly rested with their Lordships to grant the indulgence, and iu a case like this, which was of an extraordinary nature, and of such par amount importance, lie thought it would he desirable that Mr. Williams should be permitted to address their Lord ships. Mr. WILLIAMS then rose, apologizing for his inability to follow liis royal friend, or to do justice to Isis royal mistress, in a discussion which load nevertheless been, by his learned friend, torn to pieces, and laid quivering and trembling before their Lordships. He then proceeded to commeut on the difficulties tinder• which his illustrious client came to the defence—difficulties which, he con. tended, were never experienced in any other case— which were fraught with tionsixed evil, without the slightest apparent benefit. He wished their Lordships to consider who were the parties in this eases It was no immaterial question. It was his duty to speak dutifully and respectfully of the King—a name which, in itself, was said to be a tower of strength—and yet it was a name in front of the Bill of Pains and Penalties. It could, how ever, now ito longer be doubted, that on one side of this case there was the Government of the country, involving rank, power, wealth, and influence, not only in this coun try, but also in those States from whence the witnesses had been brought. On the other hand, was a Queen, by the tieatineut she had received, shorn of her beams—a Queen, by the vicissitudes of fate—by the circumstances of fortune--and by the death of individuals, who had been deprived of her most active and able defenders.—The learned gentleman then enumerated the difficulties under which the Queen laboured in having been denied a list of witnesses ; smacqeminted with time, except that it spread over a period of six years ; Ignorant of all the circum stances, except when they came to he detailed in evidence. He called upon their Lordships respectfully, but firmly and boldly, to pursue that secret and un bending rule observed in the administration of jnstice in the Courts below, which was to judge from the evideuce adduced in the cause, and slot to sutler any previous opinion, or any extraneous circumstances, to influence their judgment.— The learned gentleman insisted that the whole of the evi dence skewed that the Government were parties to the prosecution of her Majesty, and that undue influence and undue power had been exerted in procuring persons to swear away the character of the Queen. The inquiry had not, on the part of bee Majesty's advisers, been con ducted with forgetfulness ; of this fact there was not a single witness whom they had not asked whether he had received any thing, or promise of any thing for the evi• dence he was to give ? But after the answers given by the Captain and Mate on this point, the remaining wit- nesse., having dmiteless been properly tutored in the interim, had cautiously and obstinately withheld all infor mation on the subject. Why, if the Counsel for the Bill could have vindicated themselves from the suspicion of having employed improper means in the procuration of evidence did they not produce some of the agents of the Milan C:1111111:414/11, Mho could have told every thiug about it ? Why did they slut, for instance, produce Mr. Powell? Were they afraid that he would 'thew, if examined, what money had been nn: aringly and largely remittesi—(Mr. Powell, who was sitting beside the Attorney General, shook his head)—that the means, the opportunity, the funds of corruption, were all amply furnished I—The leashed Counsel now begged to ditect the attention of their Lordships to a point of great importance, which had not been adverted to by his lea, ned friend the Attorney General for the Queen. It appeared. (inns the evidence of Mademoiselle Dumont, that her Majesty thought and believed that the was enviruned and beset by spies, whir were sure to report all she did to her enemies, and to give the worst possible complexion to every thing that admitted of misconstructions And yet, with this euisvic __ (ion, was her Majesty so incautious, so open, so regardless of all appearances, as the case for the prosecution rpre seated ! This was another, in addition to the slimily rea sons stated by his learned friend, her Majesty's Attorney General, to thew the utter improbability of the story which the witnesses had attempted to hump up. The learned gentleman next proceeded to expose, at some length, the many gross contradictions in the evidence of Alajocchi and Saechi; and advertiug to the various im portant circumstances which were extracted iu the cross examination of these witnesses, but concealed on their examination in chief, lie observed, that the fact of that concealment, when the witnesses knew nut that they would afterwards have an opportunity of meet' them, sliewed of itself that they were rors*orit, alid had not intended to speak the whole truth as soh ly bound by their uaths.—The learned Counsel then proceeded to ,hew the contrast between the hleteslivnts that Caine wit evideoer, and those which had fallen flout the laps of the Attorney General; and partirulaily 'dwelt upon the testimony cat Mademuiselle who had, he said, Decal amity of the lionds--atiocions, because they weie dangerous to a iniyhty people. The 'memory oh' thin. witness resembled that of Alajocchi, who was renowned for lecolleeting all on one side—tor au extraordinary , 'normal, au impossible IlLe11101). He called upon their dships to examine the uuies before tl.ein with the most scrupulous cane. It was. in fact, make particular comments upon evidence, for the purpose of beating down that which had already commit ted fele de as; but he begged their Lordships' attention to the panegyric upon the Queen by Duanunt. That he looked upon as an effitsinn of the genuine sentiments of that witness, notwithstanding her own efforts to give the lie to her own declarations. When he looked to that enlogimit, he could not help thinking ofan ettloginin passed 11111111 her Majesty by another character of much higher audio' ity, who called her the pride and grace of life, and ho, %hen he did so, gave RII opinion the result of Ulmer. Viiiioll and of a relined and ace Wished mind.—Thu learned gentleman then CiIIIIIIICIittIi, in strong terms, oil the challenge which bad been thrown out by the Solicitor General, to bring forward certain witnesse , .. The chalk lenge, he said, should be met, and witnesses, good and sufficient witnesses, should be brought forward in de. fence of the Queen. Four o'clock having arrived, the Noose adjourned. THIRD DAY OF THE DEFENCE. THUMSDAY. OCT. 5. The LORD-CHANCELLOR wok his seat on the wool-sack at five minutes belies ten. Prayers were read by the Bishop of Bristol, and the roll called FOREIGN RELATION6.—The LORD CHANCELLOR was about to direct Counsel to be culled in, when, Lord HOLLAND rose.—Hie Lordship said, that before pms ceeding with the regular business of the day, be begged to pit wine questions to the Noble Lord opposite (Lord Liverpool) with respect to the present state of our Foreign Relation. From papers which had been laid before Parliament, there appeared reason to conclude that the five great powers of Europe had, by some compact among themselves, assumed not only the right of judging the internal affairs of oilier nations, but of punishing them for any infraction of certain principles, which thew powers were phased to lay down as the only ones fit for nations to ob. serve. The arrangements that were preparing in Austria, the menacing papers which had apparel in public journals, both from Austria and Russia, indicated that something of the kind had taken place, and was now going on. He wished therefore to know from the Noble Lord opposite, whether any communication had been made on the subject of these armaments by Austria ? The points on which he particularly wished to have information from the Noble Lords were, whether the House of Austria had communicated to his Majesty's Ministers the object of the arma ment now forming in that Empire? His Lordship would be obliged to the Noble Lord opposite, to state whether the events which bad lately taken place in the South of Italy, had altered. in any respect, the relations of amity between this country and his Sicilian Majesty? His Lordship concluded by again ex ' pressing a confident hope that the Noble Lord at the head of his Alajeste's Government would be able to state explicitly to the House that this country - was no Tarty to any engagement which I may have been formed, hostile to the liberties of other nations. Lord LIVERPOOL said. these were were some points referred to by the Noble Lord, on which he would not, consistently with his public duty, give all the explanation desired. When the noble Lord had on a former occasion put a . question nearly similar to the present. as to the state of our relations with Spain. Ise had answered explicitly that the change which had taken place in the internal affairs of that Government, had not caused any change in its relations with this country. But the events which had recently happened in the South of Italy, were of a different complexion from the revolution in Spain. There was u division between the two blanches of the Sicilian Monarchy ; Sicily had not asylesced in the Revolution whielb had been effieted at Naples. He would not now enquire wW-the motive foe the divides)** be. nor how it might effect the ultimate rook; it vtasioditieot to state that the tact of that division CA* intim. bad boo issued by his Majesty's Government a goad tense for delhisligfer eh@ present any reccognition of the new existing Gieemoseot at Naples. On the general question, he had no efilisalty in stating. that without giving up the right which be easseseed every . country, under certain circumstances. had to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries, it war no part of the policy of his Majesty's Government to interfere with the internal concerns of other countries, and that it was no party either directly or indirectly, to any engagement deny kind or description for such interference. Lord HOLLAND observed, that the Noble Earl had omitted to state whether the late events had altered the relations of amity between thiscountry and his Sicilian Majesty ? And, also whether the events widen had occurred in tile Neapolitan territories, came within the doyuipt t on of circumstances, which in the Noble Lords opinion. justified interference with the internal affairs of other countries Lord LIVERPOOL said, that it was well known that a gen tleman of great respectability, both fur character and talent. had been Ins Majesty's Minister at Naples (Sir Wm. A'Court). That Gentleman was still at Naples. His Lordship would not. however, conceal that no new letters of credence had been sent out to him to the existing Government. Lord HOLLAND vriehed to know, whether he might under stand, that it the two branches of the Sicilian alumni:4 had con curred in the Revolution, his Majesty's Government would have thought it incumbent on diem to send out new letters of credence ? Lord LI V FRPOOL had no difficulty in saying, that it such had been the case, new letters of credence would slave bean rent out. lie thought it right to add, that the existing Government of Naples was in the Same situation as toe British Governunin in this respect—it had not, as yet, sun any new letters of cre dence here. Earl GREY said, he had heard the explanation of the Noble Lord with concern and regret. He would admit that the unfor tunate division between Naples and Sicily dill constitute a material difference from the unanimous pnx:etlings in Spain. but he did nor conceive those differences such as to make it necessary to suspend that amicable intercourse which had subsisted between this country and the Government of Naples. He did not wish Ministers to be fettered as to their future con duct, when new events and circumstances might arise, but he now conceived the Noble Earl at the head 01' the Administration had pledged himself to this House and to Eutope, that we had no disposition, either now or hereafter, to interfere with the imunal affairs of other countries. He hoped this declination would be received be the Courts of Europe, that we not only disapproved of the conduct of Austria, but also that we were no parties to that unpriucil led alliance, which had been formed for the purpose of ✓eering the rising liberties of independent States. The Earl a LIVERPOOL begged that he might not be misunderstood; and he would spite repeat, that it was not the policy of this country at this time, or under the present cireton stances, to interfere with the &tails of the Two Sicilies; and that we were no party, direct or indirect, to the interference of any tuba Powers. COLONEL BROWN. The Marquis of I. tNSI)OWN begged to call the attention of their Lordship, to the Correspondence that had been laid bonne the house respecting the conduct of Colonel li own. He conic-red that the Correspondence never sati‘tieu limo. as he had, at the time he lead it, a letter fauns a doubt, tat sho,e veracity lie did not entertain the slightest doubt, *lnch threw much additional light on the subject.—The Noble Marquis then read from Al. Allatietti ' one dated the with, the other the Ann, of September. He said it. was it consider n t conduct of Brown as a mere act of trien6ship, to a permit] of whom he ha i l no knowledge, and who was residing is. artalier country, anti this done by an agent tor the opposite party. It was not potable fur a man like M. Mac i etii, ing under an ale-obre and despeue Goveinient, having a 4 4 auwite.icatioisous.0... , by a person in authority from another country in alliance wiui Mat in w.iielt / - j 1 (:4\. /.