The Sun. — London, England, 1820-08-19 00:00:00

ment-, he had been left by his Learned Friend who preceded him, to undertake one particular branch of the case, under the presumption (a very .. mistaken one, he feared, however kind the opi nion on' which it was founded) that it would be in safer hands. lie came before them ith the best advice the kindness of his profes sional friends could afford him ; he undertook, with a Atte - sense of hisimperfecgons, the arduous duty,which thus devolved on hits; as the legal oilier of her Majesty—an office Which he 'far prized, in this hour of trial' and difficulty, that,, arty appointment which the Crown had in its:,g . iff to bestow in the. SUnshine - of its pOWer, times of 'tranquil enjoyntent.. But if in the discharge of his duty,' 'as Counsel for her Majesty at the bar of their Lordships' House, he . I.houltl` fail to convince their of the impropriety principle of the he trusted that they would attribute that defect of argument, net to thi! W - eakness of the cause, but the imperfect ta . hqifs 'of the pleader. In arriving at this,stage of the proceeding, he came 'to the Secret Coin tnittee which had 'been appointed to investigate the incrits. of the case,.-- to whom a quantity of private papers, and documents had been\referred that purpose. -- The.Se had been compared to the proceedings of a Grand JurY finding a Bill. lee would not travel over the grounds of that ar gument, which had become beaten already by . repetition—l . -he would not contrast the finding of a particular and defined fact of crime by a Grand with thiS finding,Of no intelligible crime or accusation by a mere acCuMulatiOn of evidenCe —hitt he would' point out the Striking difference which appeared to him to exist between the Re port of the Secret Committee, .and a Bill of in- Oictment fOund by a 'Grand Jury on a 'charge of felony. The first, thing .which struck hint in the 4ratit of „resemblance between the Secret Com mittee and the Grand Jury finding a Bill, to which their . proceedings had been likened, Was that the Secret Coininittee was not the body by -wbicb thi s Bill was fOund.- 7 —[While Mr. Denman was proceeding with this argument the Queen entered the House.- .As she did - not make her appearance before the commencement . of the' proceedings, it was generally understood she would not think it neCessary'again to be present, • ifte Counsel in support of - the . Bill should pro •ceed to Make gOod 'the allegations it contains by the examination 'of the witnesses. The Queen done iii; preceded the Usher of the Black bowi;a , her Majesty as . . she advanced. :Slie was veiled as before, and she was acconapa iii:d by .Lady Ann _Hamilton.' On passing" the bar site courtsied to their Lordships. The Peers rose ; the most profound silence prevailed. Those nearest to the Royal •PerSOnage bowed; and her ptciieiity thin took a seat in front 'of the Bar, near kteT .COunsel, and Lady Ann Hainilton sat tioWn behind her.: On this occasion no shout's frpm the populace, When she 'Was about to enter, . were heard, as was the case on TitursditY. It minutes after'eleven when her Majesty took her seat. Mr. -- Denman paused for a 'fen' Tnernents till the Black I,ted retired; • and then proceeded.}—A Stieret 'Committee had already sat,:and their situation 441 been likenea to that of a Grand Jury.' lie- was not going over the objections that had been already urged to this si butalniost the first thins that struck kiln was that - this Secret Committee was not the Body liv heal the Bill'Then before' theirs Lordships • • was fonlid. It had originally' been recommended by the C e ommittee, but it had not been found by thrn,They recommended, it was 'suited frfirrk certain documents, that a solemn inquiry should take.plztee, On account of the 'great num ber of adulterous acts committed by ltei Majesty Ithese. ; #o appearing to . them so deeply to affect the moral feelin4i Of the nation ; and the necessity of i ,snch a legislative Measure they deeply deplore. That they,recOMmended was notl Bill of Pains and Penalties, but a solemn inqUitiy. Whether the documents on which 'they founded that Opi pkon,were true or, false, did not appear ; hitt the of Pains and ,Penalties was recommended, and, liemeant. not t 6 state it disreSpectfully, sim phri by one of•their LOrdsliiilS—a. Peer certainly Idgli in his Majesty's - Councils, but appealing there and offering that Bill to their 'Lordships, simply as a Peer of the House: the Bill'was`not, he supposed, 'drawn by . the NOble Lea who Shresented ,it; i'night, for aught he knew, have een the production of the Attorney-General, or tb i e Gentlemen of the Black' Itod, who required his Learned , Friend's ..attendance ; but proceed from Whatever quarter it did, he would still treat ,it:with the:Same ',freeaont as if it' were the lowestindictment that prOCeeded from the lowest Court .in:t he country. .And when lie looked through it; and found no State necessity to justify its.en actment—no reason giV l en, ;exopt - those recited n its preanible—nOthing ,more than an' ebtillition Ofmoral zeal, on the part 'OT the Person who' drew ~it up, it.was not necessary to offer any apology tok this emu's() ',of proceeding., , The 'Learned ~CQUBSPi then proceeded to 'read the/Preanible of the 13111. 2 „,atid . ..remarked upon the various parts of it, as insoilicientv to the proceeding before Jitei,r Lordships: Tie 'N{ , Otild defy airy one to tell 'him on wfrose,opinlOn her Majesty's 'condtict had dcsierveo epithets that were 'conferred onit' by • the present ill. Referring to a former, ii#est i tieln, he -'. ,would to the 'attention . of the llonse : the letter of •1806; where 4 ' flirting' ; ' was the severest phrase that tit* who most iniitnately watelied her' ItOyal Ilighness'ihe Princess .of 'Wales's conduct could 'adopt and Tet,,the ?tamer of the present Bill had thought fit, m.latout any evidence . before the . lionse„ to ,preseut to them,"that Biil, containing *the ohnoxi-' ,•,ou# .and the. extraordinary Otrases that hfta.been , read •Mrs.. Lisle also, lamented. Itel! Royal Ateps",s.tarniliarity; but surely in the conduct of nO; objection; 'and of ,i!lus:fric's •-4P0mag..,,w441he „ dared pot ''now name, but $44.9:; had .act4lty descended 'to 'such familiarity' • 44 .ye44ll that 041:p' e - r - son d dr . e s - hint in saya 'tiliVS,Oc4; :Nut `Coffee-house,' his compliments to itOyalllighness, an• d begs" sound so. With jocularity thatillus . - trious Person remarked to two Noble Personages present, " this is very well to us, Frank—but it' won't do for him to speak so to Norfolk or Arun del !" 7 —(Laughter.)—He did not like levity .on so solemu ad:OCcasiou, but the Bill before their Lordships reminded him of a theatrical represen tation, where each person was employed in throw ing in their little fact, s their morsel of detraction —one tells of the distinctions conferred upon a menial, another adds something about improper familiarities, and then some Ms:s. Candour steps in, and only stops short gat the word-" adultery ;" 'and thus that solemn inquiry was made neither more nor less than a solemn farce, and whether Makotio had received favours from his lady, or -Whether the servants had quarrelled with the 'steward, appeared to be the only question. What he complained of was, the want of a definite ground, and the introduction of so great a variety of cir cumstances quite irrelevant to the main fact; and that was holding.out a motive to the passing of the Bill by their Lordships, which never could have had place were the proceeding really judicial. Some of their Lordships might thus be induc ed to pass the Bill from one motive, and some from. another ; and it was impossible that they (the Cdunsel) could apply themselves to all that variety of inducement which might weigh on their Lordships' minds, when they considered this Bill not on the ground of being a judicial proceeding, but on the ground of State necessity and expe diency.—He noticed the language that had been held by the public press. It had been declared, that political expediency required that the Queen should be got rid of—if in no other way, as a martyr. lie stated it to be his intention, in the course of those proceedings, to claim for her Ma. jesty the Queen, in its fullest extent, the tight of recrimination. If ever a case existed, in which the right of recrimination was most im portant, this was that case. He commented on the situation in which her Majesty was placed by having her case submitted to the two Houses of Parliament; and finally and especially on that in which she must find herself when it was re ferred to the 3d estate. Either the King had or had not been a party to the present accusation. — If he had not l surely their Lordships would not violate one of the first principles of canon law, namely, to dissolve a marriage without the com plaint of the husband. And if he had been a party—if he had put all that machinery in mo tion which was now in such dreadful operation, with what face would their Lordships ask the third estate for its consent to a measure, which was adopted at its own instigation, and of which its opinion had been so manifestly expressed ? This. was unquestionably a Bill of Divorce, and the sole object of it was to dissolve the present marriage that subsisted, in order that the might form a new contract. Before, therefore, their Lordships could sanction such a measure, they would surely see that the accuser' came into Court with clean hands. With regard to State necessity, he denied the existence of such a mo tive on the present occasion, because the safety of the country demanded that this measure should be abandoned. With respect to the Bill of Pains and Penalties, after the eloquent appeal made yesterday by his Learned Friend, it would be unnecessary to say much ; but he would oak their Lordships to look at the situation in -which they were about to place themselves. The other House was about to be admitted to a share of their judi cial functions—a body who could not examine a witness upon oath, and who, it had been declared by a high.authority,had disgraced itself by every inquiry•into which it had entered. How could the consent of the King be called the consent of the third estate of the realm_? lie pressed on the consideration of the House, hypothetically the case of a young and foreign Princess, who came to this country to meet the affections of a husband as she-expected, and with prospects and hopes of grandeur and happiness without parallel. He called upon the.liouse to reflect what her feelings must be, if, shortly after her arrival, she had found herself surrounded by mistresses, and sub sequently by spies and informers. Hp put it to them sihat must be her situation, if the birth of an only daughter, instead of proving the pledge of renewed love, had only proved the c signal for their final separation.. He• followed this up by supposing tier actions to have been basely watched from that , time forward, and at length an inquiry set on foot before a tribunal formed on principles most unfavourable to her; which inquiry, how ever, had terminated in her acquittal. He then represented this persecuted. Princess to have been by various proceedings in a manner com pelled to leave the country, and called upon their Lordships to consider the hardship of her case, as still pursued by spies and informers, bribed to report or to fabricate tales to her prejudice, and by means of perjury and. subornation, to .re peat- an experiment iu Italy 'which had failed in England. He strongly urged this, and pressed on the attention of their Lordships, the hard ship and injustice of which a person thus, si tuated might complain. In such a case as that which he had supposed, the right of recrimina tion was absolutely necessary. If their Lord ships-denied her that right, they took from them selves the power of giving a divorce, and gave it to the husband, whose . incontinence, whose brutality, and whose cruelty of every, description, had driven her from her home, and placed her iu circumstances in- which she might appear guilty 'of adultery, and, in which, if guilty of adultery, it' might fairly -he imputed to his misconduct ;. and, therefore, to. tdeev her the of recrimi ., , _ natitn4 would 'be to authorise him to avail him self of the wrong - he had done her to triusnph over the injured, party: - ,1 Again ; the right of recrimi nation was' in .his jiitigenent the most important right which the Consort • possessed. If any doubt could- be -entertained on this ,subject, that disubt • must' speedily. vanish Illness, tile House should think' it right to put down the weak and the - powerless,' and support the ppwerfol, and, the strong—unless they should consider that ~Where the highest , •exatuple ought to . / be sot, the least '*as to - .be expected,' a l uLtAat where .t4,0,305t. trtielty;had been peactisestistAp i ntost„unlitstuitipd encouragement and support were to be afforded., He then took a view of the proceedings in . the case , of . Wright, Duncan, and Bruton, in 1700. He shewed that a Bill of Pains and Penalties had passed the House of Commons almost by accla mation, but when : it came to the House of Lords the numbers ere 'equal. The Duke of Leeds ha petted just Wen to afriveiand his vote given, ag t the Bill decider its lath. The parties ? , were terv i iirdS'• pr9secu as ike h ppearekte hin(on the Merits of tires; appeseld that their Lordships had been within one vote of carrying a Bill of Pains and Penalties against persons who on being prosecuted were found not guilty of the crimes imputed to them. He then reminded them of the case of a Noble Bari against whoM they .had refused to pass a Bill of Pains and Penalties, though a Bill of Attainder had subsequently been carried, by which his. life was sacrificed. The conduct pursued in these cases sheered that views of all descriptions had decided the fate of the measures alluded to. He next adverted to the case of Bishop Atterbury, described the circumstances connected with it, and remarked that till he read that case on the Journals of the House, he had not supposed that injustice could have been carried so far. .The proceedings he alluded to proved that the ques tion which had been entertained was not .whether, the party accused was guilty or not guilty, but whether the individual accused was to be got rid of or not. State necessity might sometimes jus tify recourse being had to Bills of Pains and Pe nalties, but the guiding precedents were such as he had described them to be, and these it did, not appear to him were very proper td be fol lowed in a case like the present, where the. most solemn inquiry had been recommended, and where the object in view was state.d to be sub stantial justice. Supposing State necessity to be urged as the plea for passing this Bill, he would ask if quite as much danger to the State might not he anticipated from carrying this Bill .as from dropping it ? When he spoke of the danger to the State which might be apprehended from the, passing of this Bill, he had no view to any thing that might take place out of doors. He knew that whatever might be apprehended, their Lord, ships would do their duty. Fiat Justitia runt (Attain, must prevail. But the danger he alluded to was that to which the English monarchy would be exposed, if the measures now contemplated were carried. He would suppose the Divorce to be effected, and the King natrried again, and a child to be the offspring of that marriage.. In that case he• would ask who would say that the lega lity of this divorce would never be called in question ? Would there be no doubt whether or not that child ought to succeed to the throne ? 'He knew that as a lawyer, he could not.argue figs. He knew that acts of Parliament were legally binding, but he spoke with a reference to public feeling, which could not always be restrained by such measures, and - which would sometimes in duce Parliament to revoke their decisions. This had been seen in the case of Henry IV., who had been recognized as the lawful King of England while Richard 11. was living. In the wars be tween the Ilouses of York and Lancaster, Henry VI. had been recognized as King : and in the very same year Edward IVth had also been re cognized by Parliament as the' Sovereign of these realms. Nine years afterwards Henry VI. was recalled, and then he was declared to be 'E. the lawfnl and undoubted Sovereign." He next noticed the proceedings which took. place in the time of Henry VIII. In 1534, the Princess Mary was excluded from the succession to. the Throne. He, however, shewed that Parliament changed its_ views as the King changed his wishes, and the issues of both the marriages which had been excluded from the succession were afterwards declared eligible to succeed, and actually did succeed to the, Throne. Having made some further remarks on the conduct Of Henry with respect to his,diverces and his parlia ments, which he had been described by the His torian " to call together, because he could not discover any means so efficacious for satiating his vengeance on those he considered to be cri minals, as Parliaments, 'the usual instruments of his tyranny," he contended, from the cases to which he had referred, that Acts of Parlia ment were not always snfficient to restrain the force of public opinion. But it might' be argued, that there was no. danger of a disputed sue-. cession. He did not know how to answer this, but . by reminding the House of a resolution which' had been brought before the House of Commons in 1809. This was a subject to which it was painful to 'revert, but it was become necessary, with a view to practical consequences. If her Majesty were degraded 'lbr scandalous, vicious, and immoral condtict, as charged in the present Bill, when another party should put in his claim to the crown,.might he not, by possibi lity, be told that his knell was rung on account of similar conduct that might be charged. Sup posing this to. be got over in some ,way or other, might - not some of the Royal. Dukes, who would stand next to the Crown, be accused of immoral avid licentious conduct within the last six years, and thus exposed to degradation as well as her This was not in principle a single present c a s lV e a j es t y. If the Queen were degraded, and forced to go forth an outcast on the world, or to put up with, a more contemptible residence at boue it was not c er tain that her's would be the only case of the kind. If the arguments now used were good against her, why not be good against others ? if that which was charged against her were a crime in the 'Queen Consort, he wished to knevi if it would be less a crime in the Queen Iteguant. Her 'present Majesty was not remote from the Throne in point of blood, nor_ very far removed from it in poiut, of probabi lity. The - number of Lives that at present inter vened between her_ and the Throne, were exactly the same as had intervened between King William and George the First. What was to be done in the event of her being likely to succeed to the Throne in her Own right ? Were new . proCeediugs to.,be,institutect? If. so, and the present Bill was : pasqed," k'feated 'the . country thust. look forward,- net to a regulai!stitcasitoii . to the -Crown, .but tp a regular succession of, green 'bigS".'ll4. how ever; was of opinion that the country had already I had enough of them, and that a check ought t c '„ be put on such attempts to .degrade individuals o f high birth and exalted rank. 'lf, neverthele sg f one Bill was to be brought in to degrade the Queen, to hire it appeare , sat justice would r , quire t t another should so 'etrelllffed.aga ins the H pparvak and If th wer' noildof `‘t , . e k k `th ' aftektlk dispose*, s c at an, leelffies wsluldt &If akstLyNlisc'bd . •me at tto paftial course of their proceedings. In any case, therefore, he contended the present measure inl ls t, operate fatally against the monarchical interest 01 the country.' Unity one had entered the palace of the Sovereign for the purpose of underminills the sacred fabric of British loyalty, he could not better have accomplished his object than by ad vising a course of proceeding like that which had beep entered upon. In all times it has been see', that such measures bad a tendency to roll hack on those from whom they emanated, and it we; not impossible, that the course now taken to de grade the Queen, might be regarded as furnish' leg an example for the dethronement and degra dation of her husband. He referred to the effect 4 produced by the libels issued at the commence' , ment of the French Revolution respecting the , Queen of France, recalled to their Lordships the , glowing language in which such conduct had bar' reprehended by Mr. Burke, and exhorted the House, in the - spirit Which dictated .that lan guage, to repel the present attack On the Queer' of England. He spoke of the necessity ,of al , lowing a Civilian to be heard, and expres,sed $ hope that their Lordships would re-consider their decision on that subject yesterday. if thin were not conceded, he trusted that those Peers who were connected with, the Ecclesiastical Es' tablishment of the country, .would espouse. the cause of her Majesty,_ and vindicate the sacred obligation of the marriage vow, by opposing the, present Bill. He hoped their Lordships, woul d consider the balance of evil on either hand, sect reflect, that however it night terminate, this if)' quiry could do no good, but would infallihli produce much evil.. He. complained of the treat' ment which her Majesty had received in bele° denied a list, of the witnesses to be prodeced against her, to establish facts said to have ef" cttrred in the course of the • long period of 5 1 1 years. He denied that the Secret Committee-hr any resemblance to a Grand Jury, as a persq'' whose cese went before a Grand Jury alway s knew exactly the crime with which he Ara' charged, and the parties by whom it Was I to lig supported: He - was of:opinion, that in the courses of these proceedings the Queen' had nothing t° be thankful 'jot, - but much to remonstrat e against, and in her- name :he ,pretested again st , Caving recourse to a Bill of Pains and Penal" ties where the House tnight have proceeded_ lif impeachment.' Acting thus,..theiegave up that duty which the Constitution imposed upon thee? and took upon themielves:, - a...taSk - which, tha i could never satisfactorily perform. - He protes t against the inference - that they Were reluctant t° meet the evidence, from their opposing the 1)0 1 ' ciple of the Bill-; on the part of her Majcitt they claimed the righl, of recrimination ; atm finally, he declared that whatever might be tV result of the present - proceeding;—whatece r might be the consequences, to her Majesty of th e 1 , • testimony - to be . 'given,- and "the perj Mies to Pv directed against -.her, he, fOr one, would never withdraw those dutiful sentiments of respect 0 11 :: admiration which were iinspired by her hie' rat*, her enlarged Mind, and . her warm heil 4 , but should still -regard her as entitled to all trig houours attached to that exalted rank which, I the laws of God and man, she mias entitled :1" fill. for (Mr. Denman having fi nished Speaking, ...- Majesty, accompanied by Lady A. Hastniiil rose from her seat, 'and quitted the House Or shorn interval:] , . , •-• The ATTORNEY-GENERAL being called on tie I f reply to the arguments of the Counsel for A r Queen, said he could not think that his Learneft Friends; who had addressed their Lordships w i L t ee r so much ability, had any reason to regre ., 19 election they had made, to oppose the princ i P, 1 of the Bill in the present stage of the proce e d ings, because it was undoubted that the Neel ' with which they had been indulged by the lief' afforded them all the advantage that could P c l,,, 1 sibly be attained by the course which they 110 beeu desirous of taking. They had had the o`h vantage of stating facts to their Lordships Whl• h? were not before them in evidence, and wh i-l ot 1 though he might contradict them, would 0 .4 wholly lose their e ff ect, in consequence of so contradiction, restricted as he was on the p res e t occasion. They had been allowed to a tteroP,' of ' create an impression by means of assuff l P t lb t for _ which they were not warranted in putting ll;and by uttering calumnies' (hp meant no offe" to his. Hon. and Learned Friends, when he ° to e this word), which,at present had no support_ r ,e, in their assertions. lie was driven, by the CO which her Majesty's legal advisers had taker' the enter into ' a consideration of the facts ah w, l , . case, and with this disadvantage 7 that ir. ";,l their, assertions would 'go forth to the wo :,..i., as founded , ou the- knowledge which theyll'e'sot "sassed, he• was not at liberty in th e P re ha d stage of the Bill to contravene what ha t a hel sl , at,eae d advanced. The facts which they • were not proved in evidence, - but they ha d ? t; ;' d reasoned on ,as.if they were, and an atteroP 0 a r been made to mislead 'their. Lordships h2 1 , 3 ,_. _ 0 peal to their feelings and their passions, n'll%jit'D.. he had understood, 'the - dry question to , , the mitted to their consideration- was, f ehetrie s i bar Bill, admitting ,the fads charged e-ga, o s es- Majesty to be proved, was one that coul d !J o _ be tamed in point - of principle. He now, bootivoeir came to that part of the argument, called the •i °l ' Lordships to dismiss from their minds ~,earfep ression made by the eloquence of his " I 0 I, j ary ed Friends, and especially by that of h," ( m ieose, ed Friend who had -spoken last: u_i )ie a v o! speeaes, with all respect for his Honolr u e _ t otb s Learned Friends,-he:would say that 1 3 ,_ 1 ', _ w ho'll,. a their statements 'would be:found to luu tore tilt: foreign •tO . the• question iMmediatelyb.e.i: la 00 , House and they could not, ought uoi,'l"l/ liZ ~~' 1 Ce