The National Register. — London, England, 1820-07-02 00:00:00

;111•• 4;.:7T 2e ,. ,71 - 71" .••••••••,. ~~ ?be I.atiow rgititt y‘, . • i f 1, ; I 11. r fr ( - 1 ~l.! Our Ding, CottOtttuttott anZ Idyl. No. 1,252—V0L. XIII.] SUNDAY, JULY 2, 1820. • (PAIGE THE •QUEEN. Faow the first agitation of the important question regarding her Majesty, we determined, and we ad tiered closely to our determination, not to go Cully into the subject, so long as a possibility of avoiding it existed. The opening of the &SEWN BAG betiwe the Secret Committee of the House of Lords " shuts the door of accommodation in our face," and now, though obliged to do so, it is with pain, grief, and shame for human nature, that we at last take up our pen to review the conduct of his Majesty's advisers upon the late occasion respecting the Queen. We say " his Majesty's advisers," for we are persuaded, and there is every reason to bclieve,that the King.whether right or wrong in his views of his Consort's conduct, had he followed his own judgment, would have in stituted proceedings in an open, manly, and straight forward manner, and not have convulsed the country by attempting a mode of proceeding inconsistent with the common forms of justice; making the Parliament at once judge and jury, and, we may say, (if a Bill of attainder, or divorce, or any other sentence upon a proceeding of an extraordinary na ture takes place), in some 'degree, executioners also—for this is the direct consequence of a pro ceeding by a Secret Parliamentary Green Bag Committee. Besides, the strong suspicion which must attach to a Committee nominated by Ministers, and the neceseary influence of political power in such a case, wielded in a judicial matter; and above the usual nude in Secret Committees, of only examining papers, and not perianth evidence, upon which to found a charge against a stranger, a wo man, and a Queen— . . , : • 16 Ptak, the provess of these men I" They are desired to institute procoediugs against the Queen; they have the papers stall information• be.. fare them ; they declare - that they iieubot, upon kind grounds, institute a criminal prosecution ; they are threatened with dismissal; they wee if the Queen should come over to England, to try whet may be done in Parliament; and they use theiit.. influence there, to supply, as they pretend, the de. feet of law. Not having, as it appears, any formed plea upou which to proceed, they consent, for the .. sake of keeping their places, to do what the Kink . (*bo, with his impressions, must naturally be somewhat under the influence of human passions,) wishes, if possible, and if not, to make a merit with the King of having done all they can to serve his views, They put to sea, ready to drive before any wind—but put to sea they must. Not caring what the public may think of a Secret Committee, of men sitting, in an oxtra.jittlicial shape, upon the charac ter and honour of a woman, with respect to charges . .apon which they have not the honesty or the deci. 'ion to give lin opinion, and to act : not caring whet impression Is made upon the nation, not only ns to their own character, of which they seem heroically regardless, hut also us to their royal master, in per mitting a Secret Committee to supply the place de regular and responsible prosecution. They ask the Parliament to do what they themselves skulk as long as they can, and keep their places, from doing. For what purpose can they !lava wanted a Swat Cotumittee? It cannot redly bo to supply the de fect of law. if the crime be not a etatutably tree s 'sable adultery, atill they ought to apply surely in anise open way for % divorce. If adultery be the inns, committed where- or how it may, divorce is. sufficient, we presume, fur them. It is not neces sary, because they have insulted the object of their - they should alto have her blood ; were greedy of her blood, they tied her under the statute, and appliobility of the statute might either in linsiae, or in arrest of should take place. If al , an ordinsfy proceeding for take place; or, if in arrest of paces' verdict, or even spe fould be seine ground for the legislature; or, if a dial legal points in commencing a then an inquiry, open and im ago+' might hove been instituted as in the cuse of the late Lord -invent or trial, with u view to been &minuted of the House of Commons, and then at le.Ast there clear, and initailest reeetttoseat, that they a or Purely if they were alight have prosecuted toe fizsirtion to the appl blimie been made tithes Jutirment if conviction 101111 in amine, then limpie divert%) might to ,11 . 0pmegt, upon g i vettliot, there wl demantling the aid of tl culty warned upon lei provuediag, tht "d ibi Itatliel U eat i ni v : l n i l a!! aki impeach! 41 ,,‘YOrte, might.hsvo bee Lords by the Comma would bo an mat, c - _ inquiry upon established and known principles. But it would not suit the Cabinet to be accusers, or come in that shape before Ohs public, or Parliament; it would have split the Administration it was feared, and a principal debater and bilker, Mr. Canning, "so help him Gad I would not be an accuser," (perhaps the conviction of , advice, by which, in opposition to all her true be bad persuaded her ever to leave the counts,' his recollection as the cause of all this. ) Mr. Canning would resign sooner than be ice accuser ; and the Cabinet was in danger of* break up, a circuitous way, therefore, was to be I t:xi, and the straight honest road was to be unt What must be the result of a Green Bag Corn- , mittee? One of these—either, 1, Neffteport but a sort of ignoramus, or no true UR ; that is, a Report recommending no measure, smil containing no re flection; or, 2. A Report ressaustending a further measure, but conveying censure for indiscretion, or accusation ofcrime not cognisable by law ; or, 3. A ' Report not only conveying this @lnsure or accusa tion, but recommending same particular proceeding to remedy the defect of law; Or, lastly, referring the ease as high treason to the ordinary tribunal of the country where a Queen may be tried. Now, first "if no Report be made," still a hubbub will Live been made, sad it will be neces sary for the Queen .to publish a statement of her conduct, which must neemseeily be aspersed by the imputation of .so formal a p •tag as a Perlis mentary Cominittee, or Minis mould be obliged to lay before Parliament these grounds which proved insufficient to promote' a elmige, and yet which had caused so much sensation ; and all the evils "derogatory to the dignity of the Crown, and injurious to •the beet interests of the cauntry," a 1 frogs public dismissals, most ensue, and, we my, aught in justice to the Queen foment,' [coat what it might. Secondly, if a Report, " recounnertaig no further measure, but conveying censure ibr indiscretion, or accusation of crimes nut cognisable by law," sh ould follow, then you would have an extra-Jadidal pro fceeding, not against actions, but against chanicter, without affording the accused-a means of vindicating herelf, which would be manifestly - unjust, and „ t esta blish a precedent Most dangerous. Thirdly, if it should be a Report not orb convey ing Ibis censure or accusation, but recommending some particular proceeding to remedy the'llefect of law, then weak! the Queen of Etr,, , land either be tried , by an ex pose facto lisw, or punished without trial by bill of divorce, or otherwise without any previously ',statutable offence -upon which to found the punish. ment, which would be manifestly unjust. Fourthly, if the Mid should, lastly, be referred 1 to the ordinary tribunel where a Queen is. to be tried, then you would not bave a bill of indictment found simple by a Cabinet, but the Queen would he ' sent to trial with the prejudice arising from a Re- pott of a ComMittee of both Houses against her., which could not but operate somewhat ou eheminds I of the Lords who would be )ter judges ' while the pee. pie at large would be more disgusted than ever with those who could find a Bill in such It way vgaiust a woman, not only without examining viva once evi dome, and being cement with mere paper charges, but found by Couusitteeet nominated at the insures, and ni least patty through the influence of those 1 Ministers who, without one visible public object except the keeping of their own places, have hvnufht forward a discussant whicit, by their owe adMissien, must lie derogatory foal the dignity of tl.e Crown, and injurious-to the setioa, It web indeed, be Istjurious to the Crown, and the nation tee, if Mieieters have only grounds such as these which Adwards t Castle% Oliver, and the baron Omitted& can allbrd i and, we treat, may ulti mately justify that alann, which they have felt evidently all along for thetnrolves. Spies, hired agitators, and picklocks, sre not con genial to the temper of the British mules and an' indignation which, when they themselves alone were concerned, might bo smothered, might burst out in b e h a lf of a stranger, a woman, and their Queen ; and they might have to sower with their lives 1 ter having abused the ounfidenoe of their Sovereign, machinated against their Qeeee, and afForded an u xamplo of public oppression meriting the severest punishment. But it may be Woad; what 'motives could llipi,. . S, • ~~, _,_ 1 ters have to do unfairly by the Queen, and if the y were disposed to persecute the Queen, why did net they boldly at once become public accusers them selves? The answer is plain—lt might be advisable, for the sake of keeping their places, to humour ant not to cheek the irritated feelings of their royal master; and above all, a large part of them having, been the defenders and advisers of the Queen, whit' the last King lived (for the hue King kept them in their places for acting that part far which the pre sent King would necessarily dismiss them), they felt it would be too barefaced a proceeding to stand for ward as the eager accusers of her, whose peculiar friends and servants they had been, and the exposers of that sort ofevidence upon which they had declared her to be traduced before—and yet, under• existing circumstances, it might be inconvenient to those gentlemen to have the presence of the Queen in England, so that first they compound what they contend at least to be virtual high treason, and then because she ventures to set her toot in England, they' first try to frighten her with a Green Bag, and then to cajole her into terms which she has justly declared to be inconsistent with her honour. Having pre- • her by excluding her from her place in the t d tt r i e r:y, they want her to consent to an acknow ledgment of the wisdom and justice of their own nnwise'and unjust roceeding, and then to take her self off, by her own influent, to the Continent, to afford more materials for Green Bugs, with 50,0001. a year out of the pockets of an exhausted people, to maintain her in that state which they declared to be so sinful ; to banish herself voluntarily, that she might save Ministers from such a rallying point, as they termed it for Opposition, and to obviate that which to these fellows might prove a great embar rassment. Had %anion proyeeed, is the ant instance, an , Open public twoceeding, they would hate acted fairly by die Queen, and saved themselves from di race; or, had they suppress,. the whole matter, which, under: all circumstances, would have been far the best, by resolutely telling the King that it was for his own dignity and the public good that they should leave his service rather that( proceed at all in the affair; . they would then, if dismissed from office as Minis ters, have retained unimpaired their character as upri4'at men and as gentlemen, which, most ' .aertainly, they cannot now retain. But they have flat collected (as it appears too probable) charges 'from doubtful sources, with secrecy and marvellous diligence; they have stigmatized without trial their ' i• Queen as guilty, by striking her out of the Liturgy before they had afforded tho means of proving herself innocent ; they have heaped every insult of neglect upon her, by withholding every comfort and wiped due to her rank—foreign Courts, and even the ungrateful Bourbons, in return for the hospitality `shewn therm by the Duke of Brunswick, the Queen's ' father, and the British nation, have treated her, out . of respect for the British ministry, with insoleuce stud cruel eeglect. Ministers, Engliennen, and pawing fur Christians, have then offered a bribe to - her whom they have Maul ted,if she would spare them %Shoptalk of her presence , than threatened her with lbreen Bags, then cajoled her again, then threatteed her again—and what has been the conduct of the Rueen? she has despised briber; she has scorned threats; she ha.s, from the dictatesof hoe own mind and the conviction of the justice of her cause, and, we Lust presume, of her innocence, totally thrown her self upon the Actions of the British people ; and ate tended by an honest Englishman, to whom mankind, for his services, are everlastingly indebted, in the 'courageous energy of bee soul she appears amid the blessings and acclamations of Englishmen, with the fortitude and spirit of t& Heroine, and with the fairest . CrMption at least of unsullied honour. 161 she t l itted,she had been lest. What security is there. , that had she paused a moment at St. Omers, she might not have been detained in Frence; or, that she would not have been brought a prisoner for trial to England,—her hesitation construed into - sense of guilt—so far from having acted rashly, • . e., the Queen has taken the only line that could lead *.• 1.. 41 ..... to security or honour. She has been throughout ,;•-• , S Weight-forward, and maintained resolutely e t lean v.: : , ekb e , - A that maxim which Englishmen above all wen , ' f '''', ..,.. , ~,,4 cal,,..ht to hold dear --•• 1 will b- treatei as iron.. ' ''- •,.. .'1 cent, until I am provetr—wh.a eye are dise ' '•;,. " . e ez''',. ' mint freely to believe, she cannot be probed— '' l; b i \,.... • "Guilty," . ~,► .altr .vzerA 1_ .f' 4o