The National Register.
London, England, 1813-02-14 00:00:00

TIIE NATIONAL REGISTER.

s' To this an aiiso er was received, aodressed to the Pritii.es., but
thatin consequence of her Royal Highness's demand, her letter
had been read to the PRINCE REGENT on the 20th, but that he had not
been pleased to express his pleasure thereon.
" Here the correspondence was closed—and some days after this
copies of the letter were in circulation.
After this publication a farther disclosure of the circum-
stances which have divided the Royal Family, may certainly
vow be reasonably expected. The minutes of " The delicate
Investigation," instituted in 1808-7, before the Lords Eits
- IKINE, GRENVILLE, SPENCER, and ELLENBOROUGH, by
command of his MAJESTY, will, now it is said, be published.
The following curious statement bas already appeared in
the Morning Chronicle.
46 We have been long in possession of the whole particulars of the
Investigation, but have abstained from publishing them in the hope
that feelings of a parental, if not of a connubial tenderness, would have
made the disclosure for ever unnecessary. We lament that that hope
is disappointed. The rejection of the letter of her Royal Highness
the Princess of WALLS (the prudence of which we do not attempt
to justify, has led to an exasperation that is not now likely to subside
until the whole case shall be brought betbre the public tribunal—and
from certain passages in a *respectable morning paper of yesterday
(Thursday). copied into The Courier of last night (the same evening),
we see that the resolution is taken to print it entire.
•6 We are prevented on this day from going further into the matter.
We could, undoubtedly, give a correct sketch of the proceedings uncle,
the Commission issued by his
MAJESTY to Lord ERSK I NE, then Lord
Chancellor, Lord GRENVILLE, Lord SPENCER, and Lord ELLEN-
SOROUCH—but we fear that nothing short of the examinations verba-
tim will enable the public to form a true judgment on the case, since
so much depends on the circumstantial rather than the positive evi-
dence. Of the main charge brought against the illustrious Personage,
the acquittal was complete ; but the above noble Commissioners
stated, that other strong circumstances had been positively sworn to,
by witnesses who could not in their judgment be suspected of any
bias, and whose veracity in other respects they had seen no grounds to
question, which necessarily gave occasion to very unfavourable im-
putations : that they must be credited until they should receive some
decisive contradict on, and that they were justly entitled to the most
serious consideration of his MAJESTY. After a long defence prepared,
as it is said, by Mr. PERCEVAL, Lord ELDON, and Sir TIIOM AS PLO-
MER, the above Report was confirmed by his MAJESTY'S then con-
fidential Servants, and it was upon this body of evidence that the book,
with most curious animadversions, was prepared for publication. A
elange of Ministers, however, took place on the 25th March, 1807,
• and then her Royal Highness's legal advisers being at the head of the
Government, they revised the proceedings, and on the 21st April, by
a minute of Cabinet, declared not only that the two main charges were
completely disproved ; but were also of opinion, that all the othe'
particulars of conduct brought in accusation against the illustrious
person, to which the character of criminality could be ascribed, were
either satisfactorily contradicted, or rested upon evidence of such a
nature, and which was given under such circumstances, as rendered
it in the judgment of his M A J Esr Y'S confidential servants, undeserving

of credit.
Thus by one Cabinet her Royal Highness did not receive the ample
and complete acquittal which is stated in the Letter ; but by the
KING'S l'iMilisters, now in the confidence of the PRINCE REGENT, she
'as most fully acquitted. Upon these two verdicts the public and
posterity will have to decide ; and with the reserve which we have
uniformly held on the subject, we set forbear to state the impression
which a careful perusal of the immense volume made on our mind at
the tine, and which impression continues unchanged.
One word only more at this time.— By an error of the press it was
said, that the arrangements, which amounted to a perfect separation,
made by his MAJESTY, tool• pl.ice in MO --It should have been
printed 1809; and this will be iound to be a most
_important docu-
ment in the case."

On the letter of the Princess our remarks must, for the
present. be y recommended to
every heart, '
,no which pervades

*
t.:

FEB. 14

, .
it throughout. That a mother should complain of being
separated from her child is very natural, and that she should
wish to enjoy the society of her daughter more than once a
fortnight, ought not to excite surprise. While on these
points, her letter commands, if not approbation. sympathy
and compassion ; but when she complains of the imp,,ssibi-
lity of obtaining proper teachers at Windsor, we hardly know
how to believe her serious. We know not what teacher.
her Royal Highness may think proper for her daughter,
whom it is impossible to procure at Windsor, or any other
place, the seat of royalty. The time lost, in journies to
town, does not to us appear a circumstance so calculated to
wound the sensibility of a mother, as it is represented to be
in this letter, nor does that which is described to be so
distressing both to her parental and religious feelings, that
her Daughter has never yet enjoyed the benefit of confir-
mation, although above a year older than the age at which
all the other branches of the ROYAL FA MILV have partaken
of that solemnity, strike us as that which ought to be made
a source of so much uneasiness. However desirable it may be,
that that solemnity should not be unnecessarily deferred, we
see no reason for thinking the PRINC E less competent properly
to determine when it shall take place, than any other person.
The assertion that her Royal Highness has been treated as if
she were still more culpable than the perjuries of her sub-
orned traducers represented her, and held up to the world as
a Mother who might not enjoy the society of her only Child,
is certainly not less afflicting than strong. That she should
think so is a subject of lamentation, but when she resolved to
speak of her suborned traducers, she ought to have made up
her mind to go somewhat further. She ought to have stated
by whom her traducers were suborned, that the guiltless might
not be suspected. Either she ought not to have said so much
or she ought to have said more. Justice required that she
should be, on this subject, silent, or distinct.
The confidence with which her Royal Highness refers to
the investigation is entitled to the respect due to conscious •
innocence; but, while we state this, we feel it our duty to
give the language held by " The Courier" on this part of
her letter, and with an extract from that journal, containing
an extract from another, we take leave of this subject for the
present.
" fler Royal Irghness alludes to the result of the enquiry before
the Noble Lords, and she appeals to the " Evidence of her innocence's
and " the complete acquittal which it produced. There were seve.
ral wittrsses examined—among others, Mrs. LISLE, RoßEar BID
GOOD, WILLIAM COLE, FRANCES LLOYD, and others. Without
alluding to the evidence more particularly now (for we suppose the
letter is meant as a kind of preface to the publication of the enquiry)
we state the words and opinions of a Morning Paper, and we preter
stating those words and opinions to our own. " Upon the point of
ample vindication" and " complete acquittal," the report does " in
the clear and unanimous judgment of the Commissioners," acquit her
Royal Highness of actual criminality ; but we think it extremely un-
advised in her Royal Highness to call for a farther investigation :" net
that there exists a shadow of reason for apprehending that a second
enquiry would be likely to attach any greater stain to her Royal
Highness's character, than has been occasioned by the first ; but be-
cause there are other subordinate circumstances, the detail of which
should, upon every principle of femaledelicacy, be withheld from the
world : and " til ,ugh the facts of pregnancy and delivery are satisfac-
torily disproved ;" yet cannot a sensible mind, we should conceive, do
other than shrink from the adoption of any course, which must give
universal publicity to the evidence of R. lituooon, W. Cot r, F
p I.LQYD, arid MM. 1.141. E.

very bri, . It comb strorlo:
b ~•mt ' -'!.., feeli
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