The National Register.
London, England, 1820-08-20 00:00:00

THE QUEEN.

The following excellent letter has been addressed
by Sir Gerard Noel to the Earl of Liverpool:—
.6 EXTON-PARK, August I l•
" MT LORD.—The present moment seems to me to claim the
best exertions of every one to preserve the empire in prosperoui
tranquillity, and I therefore have no scruple, a; an old Member
of the House, who have in general given my support to Minis-
ters, though always without fixed devotedness to party, in
addressing your Lordship previously to the meeting of Parlia•
went . .

" I lament extremely to be obliged to complain that his Ma-
iesty's Ministers, instead of adhering to an undeviating plan of
healing measures in order to justify the cautionary regulations of
the two last years, and unequivocally to mark the wish of Admi-
nistration more generally to attain the confidence of the people,
have ventured to adopt with pertinacity the monstrous measure
of the Bill of Pains and Penalties against the Queen, which
unhappily forms the most important undertaking of the new
reign, and by which they are exasperating the pablic discontents,
and almost culling forth and sanctioning, by their conduct in this
mad affair, that impatience against which those cautionary moths-
tions have been directed,and hereby creating such wide-spreading
dissensions as will put in jeopardy every class of society, and
nay eventually tend to weaken our national respectability in the
Courts of Europe.
" My Lord, it is to me a great proof of the inattention of the
Cabinet that the return of the Queen to England was not fore-
seen, as the obvious consequence of its proceedings with regard
to her Msjesty; for, when the storm began to threaten against
her, immediately on the demise of the late King, with strong
symptoms of its having been gathering in hi, life-time; and
when, upon her last arrival at Rome, where she was personally
known, and had been formerly acknowledged as Princess of
Wales, the Court there treated her Majesty as a disowned indi-
vidual; being thus a discarded heretic in a Roman Catholic
country, must it not have been apparent to her Majesty that her
best course was rapidly to escape, and to throw herself on the
protection of the British nation ? I assert, therefore, without the
fear of successful contradiction, that it is the conduct of his Ma-
jc-ty's advisers which has forced the Queen into England. The
attempt to persuade her Majesty to remain on the Continent,
which happened at St. Omer's, could only excite her greater
alarm:. and her good sense and knowledge of ilie world, and of
the principles of the British constitution—considering besides
the harassings by which her steps had been visited in Italy, and
upon the line of her return home—clearly and immediately
pointed out to her Majesty that to accept its conditions was
wholly inconsistent with her dignity and her repose; that with-
out the protection of the English Church, which was withheld,
and without British sanction, which the communication could
not assure to her Majesty, there was neithcrsafety nor permanency
to life o fortune aseertainesl to her; and most fitly therethre she
steadily and promptly proceeded qn her journey. Can it then be
'barged again-t her Majesty that she has intro led offensively on
the shores of England ?
" If, indeed, my Lord, instead of instituting that Milan
Commission (for the cost of which I know not upon a hat prin-
ciple the Chancellor of the Exchequer can ask from the Commons
to provide), the Cabinet, by a generous and prudent anticipation,
had intimated to her Majesty, that, after the demise of the late
King, the protection of the Church of England, and an increased
allowance as Queen of England, should be afforded to her, to
soften the misfortunes of the Royal separation, which had so
solemnly and irrevocably been agreed upon long ago, her Majesty
might possibly have been induced to remain abroad; and, in
consideration of the relict which her niarriage with the present
King, when Prince of Wales, gave to the nation from the appre•
hension, strangely and strongly excited at that time by various
circumstances, that the influence of l'opery might revive in these
realms: feeling also grateful acknowledgment to both their
Majesties for their meeting the wishes of the people, then so
impressively declared; Parliament no doubt would have agreed
to pass an act enabling his Majesty to make such provision, which
would, in that case, have been mutually desirable; tenon), Lord,
adverting to the actual posture of affairs, I pronounce that the
Queen had no alternative in the overture at sit. Omer's for staying
abroad, nor is the Bill of Pains and Penalties a fair alternative or
just consequence of the failure of the negotiations with her
Majesty in London; and I cannot contemplate that Bill, so
illegitimately commenced, without disgust, or without astonish-
ment as to its policy in a ministerial point of view regnnl being
had to the enormous growing expenses of the nil', and to the
disadvantage which must result from the unwarrantably terming
it a cause between the country and the Queen, whereas the re-
pugnance of the country against the trial is so notorious as
probably to render the question of defraying the charges of so
unjustifiable and perWeious an extravagance, if your Lordship
and those who act with you urge this portentous Bill relentlessly
forward in spite of every warning voice, most embativising to
his Majesty's Administration, at a time perhaps even more dis-
tressangly afflicting than the present, and in a predicament
entirely originating with themselves. With sentiments, then, of
parting friendship, and somewhat of painful anxiety for the
future—and to obey the call to public duty, so well made by
Lord John Russell upon Mr. Wilberbirce, and all those Members
who have hitherto supported the present Administration, I ven•
ture to address this letter of remonstrance to your Lordship as
Prime Minister; for not all the bias of attachment and of
private gratitude which I owe to his Majesty, and which it
inflicts upon my heart a 'nest severe pang to resist, can otherwise
operate than to make me regret with deeper sorrow that his
Majesty is aviseil to assent to the carrying on this Bill—a measure
which demand tint me a conduct in contrast with those feelings.
and in opposition to that bias ; because, according to the best of
my judgment, I should swerve from the paramount duty of my
station did I not declare frankly that I will endeavour to interrupt
and thwart the enactment of this Bill in every stage; and did I
not, with the full impression on my mind of the unpropitious
consequences of it generally, and especially to the present Admi-
nistration, if passed into a law, must earnestly recommend that
your Lordship should be disposed to consider it kinder and wiser
to withdraw the Bill, rather than to press the second reading of
it when the Peers shall re-assemble.
" I have the honour to he, my Lord,
" Your Lordship's most obedient and very humble ervant,
" GER ABU NOEL."

On Wednesday morning three small gun-boats
Were moored in front of Cotton-yard, where the
Italian witnesses are lodged. Men front the Dock-
yard at Woolwich, were employed in them, fitting
up the frame-work, or stcm-platthrm, on which the
guns are placed. A strong guard of artillery, escort-
ing five waggons with ammunition, arrived in
town the same evening, from %Voulwich, and depo-
sited a part of their load in the Mews, and the
remainder in the barracks at Knightsbridge•
The chief division of the Surrey Horse Night
Police, SO in number, have taken up their quarters
in the livery stables opposite Astley's Amphitheatre,
(they arc to do duty by day during the Queen's trial.
The men were dressed in long blue coats and pan-
taloons, red waistcoats, with large sabres suspended
from their belts, and had quite an unmilitary ap-
pearance.

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