The National Register. — London, England, 1820-07-03 00:00:00

- 777 1 " -- etr No. 1,252—V0L. XIII.] THE QUEEN. Flews the first agitation of the important question regarding her Majesty, we determined, and w•e ad. tiered closely to our determination, not to go fully into the subject, so long as a possibility of avoiding it existed. The opening of the GRPFN BAR before 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 arc persuaded, and there is every reason to believe,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 as 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 alau—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 necessary influence of political power in such a case, wielded in a judicial matter; and above all, the usual mode in Secret Committees, of only examining papers, and not personal evidence, upon which to found a charge against a stranger, a wo man, and a Queen— " Mark, the progress of these men 1" Tbeyare desired to institute proceedings against the Queen; they have the papers and information be fore them; they declare that they cannot, upon legal grounds, institute a criminal prosecution; they arc threatened with dismissal ; they agree if theQuetti should come over to England, to try what may be done in Parliament ; and they use their influence there, to supply, as they pretend, the de fect of law. Not having, as it appears, any formed plan upon which to proceed, they consent, for the sake of keeping their places, to do what the - King (who, 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, reedy 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 extra-judicial shape, upon the charac ter and honour of a woman, with respect to charges upon which they have not the honesty or the deci sion to give an opinion, and to act: not caring what impression is made upon the nation, not only as to their own character, of which they scent heroically regardless, but also as to their royal master, in per mitting a Secret Committee to supply the place of a 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 have wanted a Secret Committee? It cannot re .11y be to supply the de fect of law. If the crime be not a statutably trea sonable adultery, still they ought to apply surely in some cpen way fora divorce. If adultery be the crime, committed where or how it may, divorce is suiiicient, we presume, for them. It ia nut neces sary, became they have insulted the object of their resentment, that they should also have her blood ; or, surely if they were greedy of her biood, they might Live prosecuted her under the statute, and the exception to time applicability of the statute might have been made either he lirni"e, or in arrest of „judgment if conviction should take place. If al ;owed in lanine, then an ordinary proceeding for simple divorce might take place; or, if in arrest of judgment, still upon u ge.. al verdict, or even spe cial verdict, there would be sonic ground Mr demanding the aid of the legislature; or, if a difii eulty occurred upon legal points in commenciog a judicial proceeding, • Cleo on inquiry, open and un disguised by Grcen Bags. t have limn instituted before the Commons, as in the case of the late Lord l~lelville; and impeachment tr trial, with a view to divorce, might have ken demanded of the I louse of Lords by the Commons, and then at least there would be an open, clear, and wanifebt judicial I alio flat itittr4 ter, Our Bing, Condtitution anb 11 MONDAY, JULY 3, 1820. inquiry upon established and known principles. But it would not suit the Cabinet to be accusers, or come in that shape before the public, or Parliament; it would have split the Administration it WAS feared, and a principal debater and talker, Mr. Canning, "so help him God ! would not be an accuser," (perhaps the conviction of that advice, by which, in opposition to all her true friends, he had persuaded her ever to leave the country, stung his recollection as the cause of all this hubbub.) Mr. Canning. would resign sooner than become accuser ; and the Cabinet was in danger of a break up, a circuitous way, therefore, was to be hit upon, and the straight honest road was to be untravelled. What must be the result of a Green Bag Com mittee? One of these—either, I. No!Report but a sort of ignoramus, or no true bill ; that is, a Report recommending no measure, and containing no re flection; or, 2. A Report recommending a further measure, but conveying *enure for indiscretion, or accusation ofcrime not cognizable by law ; or, 5. A Report not only conveying this censure or accusa tion, but recommending some particular proceeding to remedy the defect of law ; Or, lastly, referring the case as high treason to the ordinary tribunal of the country where a Queen way be tried. Now, first, " if no Report -be made," still a hubbub will have been made, and it will be neces sary for the Queen to publish a statement of her conduct, which must necessarily be aspersed by the imputation of so formal a proceeding as a Parlia mentary Committee, or Ministers would be obliged to lay before Parliament those grounds which proved insufficieat to promote a charge, and yet which hail caused so much sensation ; and all the .evils "derogatory to the dignity of the Crown, and injurious to the best interests of the country," arising from public discussions, must ensue, sod, .wc will say, ought in justice to the Queen to ensue, cost what it might. Secondly, if a Report, " recommending no further -measure, but conveying censure for indiscretion, or accusation of crimes not cognisable by law," should follow, then you would ham an extra judicial pro ceeding, not against actions * but against character, without affording the accused a means of vindicating herelf, which would be manifestly unjust, and establish a precedent most detqprons. Thirdly, if it should be a deport not only convey ing this censure or accusation, but recommending some particular proceeding to rensedf the defect of law, then would the Queen a England either be tried by an ex post facto law, or punished without trial by bill of divorce, or otherwise withotit any previously statutable offence upon which to found the punish. ment, which would be manifestly unjust. Fourthly, if the can should, lastly, be referred to the ordinary tribunal where a Queen is to be tried, then you would not have a bill of indictment found simply by a Cl:billet, but the Queen would be sent to trial with the prejudice arising from a Re pott of a Committee of both Houses against her, wiiich could not but operate somewhat on the minds of the Lords who would be her judges, while the peo ple at large would be more disgusted than ever with those who could Lind u Rill in such is way against a woman, not only without examining viva race evi dence, and being content with mere paper charges, but lima by Committees nominated at the inst.sice, and at least partly through the influence of those Ministers who, without one visible public object except the keeping of their own places, have brought timvard a discussion which, by their own admission, must be derogatory from the dignity of the Crown, and injurious to the nation. It may, indeed, be injurious to the Crown, and the nation too, if Nlinistera have only grounds such as those which Edwards, Castles, Oliver, and the Baron Ompteda can afthril, and, we trust, may ulti mately justify that alarm which they base tilt evidently all along for themselves. Spies, hired ugaistors, and picklocks, arc not con genial to the temper of the British people, and an indignation which, when they themselves alone %sere concerned, might be smothered, barst out in behalf of a stranger, a woanin, and their Queen ; and they might have to answer w ith their lives for hating the einificlsaice of their Sovereign, machinate , ' ai.;%iiiist their (143, and aftliracil an exalaille of public to public the severest But it may be asked, what taeti‘es could [PRICE 91d • 411...., tees have to do unfairly by the Queen, and if they were disposed to persecute the Queen, why did n , t they beldly at once become public accusers them selves? The aeswer is plain—lt might be :111%n:tilde, fur the sake of keeping their pieces, to humour and not to check the irritated feelings of their royel master; and above all, a large part of them having been the defenders and advisers of the Queen, while the last King lived (for the late King kept them in their places for acting that part for 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 peculiai friends and servants they had been, and the exposers of that sort ofevidenee upon which they had declared ber to he 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 fiat 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 judged her by excluding her from her place in the Liturgy, they want her to consent to an aeknow ledgment of' the wisdom and justice of their own unwise and unjust proceeding, and then to take her self off, by .her own consent, to the Continent, to afford more materials for Green Bags, 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 front 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 Ministers proposed, in the first instance, an open public proceeding, they would have acted fairly by the Queen, and saved themselves from disgrace; or , had they suppressed the whole matter, which, mode; all circumstances, would have been tar the beat, by resolutely telling the King that it was for his ems dignity and the public good that they should leave his service rather than proceed at all in the affair; they would then, if dismissed from office as Minis ters, have retained unimpaired their character as uprir e cht men and as gentlemen, which, most certainly, they cannot now retain. But they have first eolleeted (as it appears too probable) charges from doubtful sources, with secrecy and mervellotts diligence; they have stigmatized without trial their Queen as guilty, by striking her out of the Liturgy before they had afforded the means of proving herself innocent ; they have heaped every insult et' neglect upon her, by withholding every contihrt and respect due to her rank—foreign Courts, and even the ungrateful Biurbons,in return for the hospitality shewn them by the Duke of Brunswieh, the Queen's father, and the Iltitisit nation, have treated her, net of respect for the British ministry, with insolente and cruel tiaglect. Ministers, Englishmen, aed passing for Christians, have then offered a bribe t o her whrnn they have insulted,if she would spare there the pain of her presence , then threatened her with Green Bags, then cajoled her again, then threatemed her again—and what has been the conduct of the Queen ? she has devised bribes ; she has Fanned threats; she has, irons the dictates of her own leiod. and the conviction of the justice of her cause, end, ‘1 , 4! &nest presume, of her innocence, totally thrown liar - self upon the affections of the British people; and ,ii tinided by an honest Englishman, to whom tme;ll:M.i fur his services, ace everlastingly indebted, in the • , courageous energy of her soul she appears amn the . blessings and aeclamations of Englishmen, with tip: •• fortitude and spirit °fa Heroine, and with the *leo eeel presumption at least of unsullied homer, hesitaßel, she had eeen lost. NVltat steitrite • Celt had she paused a moment ' .it. °mew' she 'night ant have been detained in naive; or, 'het. s!.e would not have le en broeght a prieolve - i foe • • trial to En e lanil,—lier liesitatinn i t:4s,. sense of guilt—so tit: from letviee aeted rash--; - the Queen has taken the only line that couhl ie • to security or Lonoar. She has hetet thieuelee.t &height-tin - ward, and *swim:deed resolutely at les •t that maxim which Ettglislini•n &ewe all ns es ought to hold dear—" I will be weand ae hoe,- Cent, anal I ant proved - ---e het we act. posed freely to believe, she canna ba provost—. • " Guilty."