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

322 1 when doors are open, at the height of the time, where hundreds of persons are uassiug, and where all the world might enter Witte) , phrase . W lien at Terrawina,l3el44llll was taking his departure on soinimission br his - Boyal , Mistress, the whole party on board the ship are arsew• bled on deck; the Princess and Brigand retire to a room Ist themselves to indulge their passion j but, strange to tell, they,must needs wait till the tamed Majocci cut rs, to bear testimony to all that passes! Nay, till far is the case carried, that the Queen cannot retire wi h Bergaini into an anti chamber to change her clothes, to strip herself naked from bead to toot in his presence, she can not commit this monstrous indecency without taking spe cial care to have the truly silent. honest, unintrigning Swiss casithermaid, Mademoiselle Dumont, placed at the door to bear evidence to the fact, that Bergaihi was with her the whole time? These deeds of shame were not done in a corner, not in such hidden haunts as lust has been often known to appropriate to itself, hot in places accessible to all intrusion—before observing witnesses, when the sun was in itrineridian. Was ever before vice so unwary, folly so extravagant, unthinking—passions so thoughtless, so reckless, so insane? But all this was no thing to what the case, as Stated in evidence went to prove. Least the precautions which the Princess had taken fur her own ruin should be thrown away, every person who could he of use as a witness against them is causelessly dismissed from her service, and refused to be taken back when every circumstance combined to make it of importance to attach them to her Innis ests ! Nor is even this all. Knowing what she had been guilty of, knowieg the elaborate coutrivances and device. she bad adopted for bar own undoing, having before her eyes the inevitable certainty of detection, and remembering the finishing stroke which she had gives' to this conspi racy against herself by the dismissal of the witnesses from her service, and putting them in the power of her enemy ; nay more—after being told that it' she dared to come here and face them, she would be undone—after being desired, counselled, and implored to bethiuk her well before she encountered so dreadful a task, the Queen does come to England, and is is here this day to confront those witnesses at their Lordship's bar ! She dues la too in spite of offers made to her, which would have secured to her a magnificent retreat, the tree indulgence of all propensities, uncoutrouled license of conduct, and even milegnard and vindication of her honour by the two Houses of Parliament ;—lf such were the conduct of 1 , guilt. the lineaments by which vice was to be traced in the ways of men, then all that he had ever read of the Inunan character was deception and falsehood. And yet such was the case which their Lordships were called upon to believe by the Counsel for the Bill. The Hon. and Learued Gentleman now proceeded at sonic length, and, in a very happy train of obset ration, to /Mew that it there was no conspiracy formed against her Majesty (which lie for one would not say) the course of proceeding adopted towards her happened to be exactly that which persons en gaged ins deep and foul conspiracy would have followed. He spoke in severe terms of the selection of witnesses from a country, notorious, above all others, for the perfidy of the lower order of its inhabitants; and to spew that he was not singular in his estimation of them, he read to their Lordships several quotations, which skewed that in ancient as well as modern times, the Italians had always borne the same character for want of moral rectitude.— He quoted in particular very largely from Rymer 's Fmdera —that part of the proceedings in the case of Henry the Eight's divorce from Queen Catharine, which related to the opinions procured front the Italian Jurists respecting the legality of that divorce. Nothing could be stronger than the analogy between that case and the present. The agent who was employed by Henry the Eighth to go up down, procuring these opinious, was also oae Coos; and, in a letter which lie wrote to England, giviug au account of the success of his mission, be says that— " albeit be had not been sufficiently furnished with mo ney, he had procured one hundred and ten opinions of Doctors in favour of the Divorce, but that that was no thing to the number he could have procured if he had only bad the means," There was a letter too, from the Bishop of Worcester to Cook, the agent, in which lie tells him " not to promise rewards but to those who ex pected and who lived by them i" and, alluding to the sums which had been paid, he adds, with honest simpli city, that " all this sheets what prostituted consciences these Italian fellews must have, to be bought so cheap!" —" Yea," lie continues, " if you bad money enough, I doubt not you might procure the subscriptions of all the Doctors in Italy." The Learned Gentleman laid also great *tress on a letter published by General Acton, who was a native of Italy, and who had himself, once nearly fallen a victim to a conspiracy, got up on suborned tes timony, in which lie says, that nothing can be more noto rious than the open and public sale of evidence among his countrymen. Mr. Brougham now commenced a detailed review of the evidence adduced for the prosecution. He would first request their Lordships' attention to the incident spade so muck of by the Attorney General. the dancing exhibition of Mahomer. There was no part of the case which the Attorney Game' had been so anxious to prove as this. He had returned to it again sod again, and it was not a little curious to ob e the progress which he made in establishing it. When Majocci, the principal witness was asked about it, lie could say nothing but he had seen the dance, and saw nothing improper in it.— This was on the 'Tuesday—and on the Friday, Perollo was produced. The dancing was witnessed by wives and daughters as pure as those of their Lordships. With respect to the expression Nun rat ricordo, so frequently used by Majocci, and which had been dropped alter the first day's cross-examination, and substituted by other phrases, lieollid say nothing—but lie should bi May al lude to the subject of the payment of money to those who were the props of this extraordinary case. The moment the subject of remuneration was alluded to, the witnesses acre all seised with a spirit of disinterestedness. Their expenses were merely paid ! They bad au motive fur coming here beyond their duty ! and they expected nothiug at the Ml* elusion of their labour, but the pleasure of going b.tck to their own country again ! One of them declared that he hadgot nothing hire but trouble! and wrapped up his dis interestedness in all epigram. All his reward was in be the piesnare of going hack to his family and friends! But what features had this disinterestedues assumed in the course of the iovestigutiou t One of the witnesses (Sacchi) had sud denly burst into the possession of proven), he declared that he had been always in a state of pi osperity—that he had been always well dressed. lie must have lived in this country at the rate of 40W. of 5001. a year, a SOW equal to 14 or 1500 d yc4ll; /gl bir ollos and yet Wort tit cow he►e THE NATIONAL REGISTER to give his disimerested evidence he n as atrected at losing his situation as courier, and had nettle every eftlirt bb regain it. This tea, the manivlio deutpAspii he heal received reds thip; —that he had any future expectations. The last of those general observations w Inch : should submit to their Lord ships was the great blanks amongst the witnesses—the exceeding fewness of the witnesses compared with what the public were led to expect from the titteinent of the Attorriey- General. lie conjured their Lordships to attend to this tact, for it was of leading impatience. It there were no other argument for throwing out the Bill, that was a capital one. Whatever might have been the case, whether it lied been proceeded in tee a matter of ordinary or extraordinary cha racter, he should still adhere confidently and steadily to that part of the case us furni,failig thiciptivocal proof of the weak ness of the prosecution. It was re consideration fatal to the Bill. Toe Attorney-General had told their Lincships that there existed rumours at Naples, to to the reasons the Queen's Ladies had fur leaviiig her Majesty. Rumours I if there had been rumours to that effect, aby had not the proper witnesses been called to prove their existence ? Where are those Ladies? They were all persons of rank and honour, respected and beloved, upon whose character there lay no imputation. They were the very persons who could he best of all introduced, as a contrast to those who had been already examined; why had out those been called, and the same course been adopted with regard to them which would have been followed if the case was in a course of investigation before one of the Judges at the Old Bailey ?—No. More elevated pursued had been in the service of the Queen, and might be supposed to be influenced? Was that a reason for nut calling evidence which would at once determine so im portant a part of the ease ? Could their Lordships act upon such a foundation? lie was not here contending upon the subject of a Bill of Exchange. or of any other case connected with the inferior Courts, in which the refusal to call evidence important to the case might be considered necessary ; but he was there upon a Bill of Pains and Penalties, which their Lordships might give the go-bye to if they pleased. Aud were they not to have been before them all that would tend to lead to ajust conclusiou, without being fettered by any of the ordinary restraints which were acted upou in other places? He would not call those witnesses. He would leave it to those who conducted the proucution to call them; but he would leave it to them iu vain, for the persons to whoa he alluded did not belong to the Cotton-garden troop. and of course did nut come under the denomination te which the enemies of the Queen looked with hope mid satisfaction. In this sacred temple it would be a shame to permit the cause of her Mikiesty to sustain injury, because those witnesses were not called; to allow ruin to come down upon her, because her adversaries bad refused to call those trutn whose testi mony she might receive the utmost benefit. The very ntsetopt made to prejudice the cause by making the assertion, without bringing forward the proof, wassudicient to destroy the charge. And if their Lordships meant to maintain the character of that august assembly, they would at ouce reject the Bill, and remove the necessity of any further address from him. [Here Mr. Brougham, evidently exhausted by the exertiou, requested to be permitted to retire fur a few moments.] At a quarter before two o'clock, Mr. Brougham returned, and began to comment on the contradictory nature of Majocci's evidence. He said, there were sayings which had been used by celebrated men in alleges and by the sages of antiquity, which were handed down to us and identified with their dim e+: Ma jocei had his phrase too, for so leag as thermals Now asi rimed° shall be remembered, and he buccal they would not soon be forgotten, the image of Mnitieti would Hoe to the recollection. The evidence of Awed esamidat almost ewer the whole period et this charges against the emus, and which were made when lie retina hem her Royal Highwine's service. The Lammed Gen doom then animadverted be straw tame, upon the mimosas of this man's mammy on some ea his total want of recollection on °duns it was a most instance of guilty forgetfulness, _en* no gnaw termer et perjury could be produced —a perjury whack be pledged to prove to their Lordships. The witness had on all occasions, in his examination in chief, ' sworn that the Prbms—'s bed-room, was very near that of Ber • wherever they were, era tha t there was a communication between them, and that the rest of the suite slept at a distance; but when erommanthsed on those points, he said he did not knew; be did net mesliect A witness might fabricate one ends* any likely to be credited, but by building falsehood on ?Po holes& wicked Mame might put the file of an honest man Medial the character of an illustrious Princess. The sedend Mejeed, es is shop, pikes, sod circumstance, was always wig -re. what examined by his employers. He had "eke le the dame she Primes was in Bnipmes bed-mom, as ono twenty aliatelle•-mnother, from fifteen to eighteen mi• nutest and he bed also mid, be fired a gun three minutes after some other circumstances be had mentioned. But when cross examined, he did not know whether he had travelled four hours or eight hours one night, because he said he had not a watch.— The witness did not know whether there were two or two-and twenty men on board the ship; nor where any of them slept. His memory in every thing that wan to make against the Queen, was astonishingly retentive; but, when he was asked any ques tion for which he was not so well prepared, he answered by a sow ssi ricordoi although that very answer was often in direct contra diction to his former statement. The Learned Gentleman con tinued to point out various iostainees of such contradictions, allot which were evidence of direct perjury on the part of the witness. He alluded to that part of the mu-examination where Ma. jocci in reply. to a question upon the subject of his application to be restored to his situation, said " It was a joke," anal com mented upon the conduct of this witness, upon being told that he could not have joked with Hieroninnui several tames. The reply M that was Non sal ricordo.—Now that was gross perjury, and was certainly equalled by his conduct in saying, that '• he would rather eat grass than go back to the service in which he had been engaged." Now as to those witnesses who had beta so well paid for their services; the House were aware that a great deal was to be drawn from the demeanour of witnesses. W hen witnesses were determined to swear to what was false, they were ex tremely apt to be impertinent and flippant. When the mate of the vessel. which was represented acs the scene of some disgrace ful familiarities, was examined, he answered, that •• To be sure they were, they were not in his pocket I" And other answers of the same character, marked the evidence of this creditable per son. Now a better paid witness was never seen than this Mate, for he was paid at the rate of two thousand pounds a year. The sum was tilled a compensation for his leases • but what would be said when it was known, that at Matins, w here this witness had made those great sacrifices, there was no land proprietor, no mercantile dealer who would not look upon himself as a person of unequalled affluence it' he was in possession of half the sum His name would resound through the world, and persons from the country would be rejoiced to get letters tat recommendation to hint. The Captain was paid still higher--at the rate of two thousand four hundred pounds. All his expenses, too, were paid, and his expectations were not limited to that sum, for he looked to the bounty of a Royal Husband, whose interests he was to serve. This man, too, had acknowledged, that he had a quarrel with part of the establishment of the Queen ; and his. evidence was built upon revenge. Now it was unquestion able that a Princess of Waled sitting on a gun with a menial ser v ant, wholearros were rotuid her neck, was an extraordinary occur :we, Witty to Luke a holing tinpreasipn, and yet the CiptAin . and the Mate differed materially. The one said, the Queen we sitting on a gun, and Bergami ; the other, that they were not sitting on a gun, but near the mast, and not Ourd was said aboa tabling. This contradiction would prow to the 'I louse that the imputation was built upon absolute tidsehotaL llhe two witnesses spoke of the same unto—tor the Captain said Me Mate saw them kissing as well as he. The House then knew what credit to give to this Captain, whose delicate feelings of honuur was such, that he sent the Mate to another part of the ship, in order that he might not witness a scene of impurity. It was strange that the Mate had not received the order to retire from the guilty pair I No, no, they were too intent upon pleasing each other. and derived an additional pleasure from publicity. Their Lordships lutist be convinced that this was the grossest of false.. hoods. It was the aim of a mind desperately bent upon obtain. ing an ample reward for its ingenuity in fabricating : laying a foundation tbr a claim upon Royalty, which, under such etc. cuinstances. could never be disappointed. Those witnesses were well drilled too—they were models of the art of drilling—crack men. They were paid and drilled to perfection ; but happily there were limits to that art, or God help the innocent I The Learned Counsel next directed the attention of their Lordships to the evidence of Mademoiselle De Mont. Taking her character from herself, she was the most perfect specimen, most compleie model of a waiting maid that the world had pet haps ever seen. He lied heard her praised for great ingenuous. ness, in confessing that some things she had said were true, and others not; that sometimes, she really meant what she said, and others only spoke in doable vitt:mares ; and. doubtless, if it was any merit in a witness to coifed that nobody could tell when to believe her, she was the most in ions liar be had ever known.—The Learned Counsel proceeded to expose, with great ability, the contradictions in Dumont . * evidence, which were rush, he contended, as rendered the whole of her evidence ut terly unworthy of credit. The next witness who claimed their attention was Sacchi. The estimation in which this man was held by the Patrons of the Bill was a pleasing proof of the im. proved spirit of the age. The time was, when the fact of being an Italian Hussar in the Preach service, who had been promoted by that Corsican Usurper and Tyrant, Bonaparte, from the ranks to the dignity of an Officer. would have been enough to make a man regarded in this country as a being of the very worst descrip tion. But now, because this man was to be a witness against the Queen nothing forsooth was heard of but his services and his respectability. The Learned Counsel was far from approving of the opinion formerly entertained as to adventurers of the French army; but this much he would say, that there was nothing in being raised to bean Officer from the ranks on the field of haute, which could give any man, and that man an Italian, any greater claim to be believed than lie might otherwise have. The contra. diction* and incredibilities in his evidence were innumerable. The Learned Counsel alluded particularly to the incident of the carriage, and intimated that he would prove, that though Sacchi had sworn he did not remember whether there was any other person in the carriage than the Princess and Bergami; there was another person in it. Mr. Brougham was next proceeding to the evidence of Barbara Kress, when the hour of four having arrived, Earl GH IiY moved, that the House do now adjourn.—Adjourned. SECOND DAY OF THE DEFENCE. W CON EWA Y, OCT. 6. At five minutes before ten o'clock this morning, the Lord Cis omen''r entered the House, and prayers were real. Lords Pointothy and Scarburongii were excused on ac count of illness. A person (Coin the Treasury presented copies of all the communications which had passed between his Majesty's Government and the Queen since the month of June lust, together with accounts of the sums of money advanced by Government to her hlajesty.—Ordered to lie ton the table. Counsel were then called hi, amid Mr. Brougham imme diately renamed his address. MR. 111/OUGIIAM IN CONTINUATION. How came it to said he, that with no Willa of care in the preparation of this case—that wait the greettset display of skill in the management—That with the boundless resinir. ces possessed and exercised by thews who bad to conduct prosecution, there yet was a deficiency so remarkable in one important respect, as to strike every hearer upon the production of the witnesses. He meaut the extra ordinary want of talent, as to the evidence sekcted to support the case. Itnfact, then, the Alps were crossed; but our witness was to be found; and all She charges were to be supported by a single nymph. Was it nut extraordi nary that from the Capital out one appeared—that nut a single delegate came from her Majesty's biding-place, and least of all, from the place of her nativity. All that appeared against her on this side the Alps, was but a chambermaid or cellar-maid—the German representative. Al. the witnesses were Italian, with the exception of this one and u Swiss maid. He begged pardon there were two exceptions of sit important kind, but they were his witnesses, and with them he should open his case. He should now go on with the German witness's evidence, upon which he bad teen so kindly interrupt, d by their Lordships, and here, as formerly, lie would have recourse to the aerimat given by the witness of herself; for indeed she had spoken as if she felt the utmost anxiety to establish an imputation against herself Barbara Kresge appeared, by her own account before their Lordships, in the respectable unexposed character of chain bermaid at a German inn. Fro n tile earliest age at which she was capable she had appeared in that situation at the age of thirteen years. In what situations she served after wards was nut easily discovered, but her own account of the matter removed the difficulty. She said herself that site became servant to a Mr. Madden, but she wished to sink the nature of the service, or the employment of her master; it however, afterwards came out, that all the places at which she had served, since the age of thirteen, except one, were ions.—Suun after she let their Lordships a title more into the nature of her fortuities, and first she related by wnat means she became induced to g.ve her evidence. Ile would call the attention of their Lordships to the contradictory accowits given by Kresge of her motives for coming over to give bee evidence. Twice had she sworn that site would not have come had she not been forced. She then ackoowledged h lying received a compensation for loss of time. Will any one of your Lordships believe this win tttttt when she thus attempts to deny what she had received; when the sum was so tar beyond her ordinary compel's:okm, as must have impressed the recollection of a upon her memory I—When the same witness, after stating that she had Seel' the Queen come out of her room, denies that she went into time room of Madame Oldi from motives of curiosity, she is as little eutilled to credit. The fart was, it was Madasne Oldi told not the Queen, that she had sera. She was not curtain; and she went into Nludaine Oldi's room to ascertain' who it tams and there sae found only Madame Old,. It was necessary to her purpose that she should deity going to Madame Oldi's room fur the purpose, because her going there proved she was not previously certain as to the person she bad seen. The mere cy which all these witnesses had observed with regard to the facts they pretended, eyrie swine to have seen, was remark able. The boatman met Milan on being asked if he had ever mentioned what he had seen, said yes, once at Milan, before the Commission. It was so with Itastelli, who swore to that , filthy practice which the (beta bad been guilty of is the fats