The National Register.
London, England, 1813-04-04 00:00:00

I'HE NiTIONAL REGISTER.

In making that determination, however, it will not escape your
Majesty to consider, that the conduct which does Or does not be-
come a married woman, materiady depends upon what is, or is not
known by her to be agreeable to her husband. His pleasure and
happiness ought, unquestionably, to be her law : and his approba-
tion the most favourite object of her pursuit. Different characters
of men require different modes of conduct in their wives; but %viten
a ‘sife can no longer be capable of perceiving from time to time
ax hat is agreeable or oftincdve to her husband—when her conduct
eau no longer contribute to his happicess, no longer hope to be
rewarded by hi, appronation,—sure:y to examine that conduct 17
the standaid of what ought id general to be the conduct of a mar.
tied woman, is altogether unreasonable and unjust, _ _

What, then, is my case ? Your Majesty do lee the justice to
remark, that, in the above letter of the Prim's. of Wales, there is
not the most distant surmise, that crime, that vice, that indelicacy
of any description, gave occasion to his determination : and all the
tales of infamy and discredit, which the inventive malice of my cue-
inks has brought forward on these charges, have their date years
and years after the period to which I am lIJW What then,
let me repeat the question, is my ease? After the receipt of the
above letter, and in about two years from my arrival in this country,
I had the tnistiirtune entirely to lose the support, the countenance,
the protection of. my husbatid—l was banished, as it were, into a
sort of humble retirement, at a di-tance from him, And almost
estranged from the whole of the Royal Family. I had no of
having recourse, either fin. :tociety or advice, to those, from whom
my inexperience could have best received the advantages of the one,
and with whom I could, most becomingly, have enjoyed the com-
forts of the other; and if' in this retired, unassisted, mprotected
state, without the check of a husband's authority, without the henefit
of his advice, without the contfort and support of the society of
his family, a stranger to the habits and fashions of this country, I
should in any instawce, under the influence of foreign habits, and
foreign education, have observed a conduct, in any degree deviating
from the reserve and severity of British manners, and partaking or
a condescensi:m and familiary !cinch that reserve anti severity would
perhaps deem beneath the dignity of any exalted rank, I feel con-
fident, (since such deviation will be seen to have been ever con-
sistent with perfect innocence), that not only your Majesty's caw-
dour and indulgence, but the candour and indulgence which, not-
withstanding the reserve and severity of British manners, always
belong to the British public, will never visit it with severity or
eensore.

It remains for me now to make some remarks upon the further
contents of the paper, which was transmitted to me by the Lord
Chancellor on the t Bth ult. and I cannot in passing, omit to remark,
that tliat paper has neither title, date, signature, nor attestation :
and unless the Lord Chancellor hail accompanied it with a note
stating that it was copied in his own hand from .the
winch his Lordship had received from your Majesty, I should have
been at a loss to have perceived any single mark of authenticity
belonging to it ; and as it is, I am wholly unable to tlieiiver what
is the true character which does belong to it. It contaius, indeed,
the advice which your Majesty's servauts have offered to your Ma-
jesty, and the message which according to that advice, your
Majesty directed to be delivered to me.

Considering it, therefore, wholly as their act, your Majesty will
excuse and pardon me, if deeply injured as I feel myself to have
been by them, I express myself with t'reedom upon their conduct.
I may speak perhaps with warmth, because I am provoked by a
sense of gross injustice,—l shall speak certainly with firmness and
with eourtige, became I am emboldened by a sense or conscious

Your Majesty's confidential servants say, " they agSee in: the
opiniens of the four Lards;" and they say this, " after the fullest
consideration of my observations, and of the affidavits which were
annexed to them" Some of these opinions, your Majesty will re
collect, are, that " William Cole, Fanny'Lloyd, Hobert Bidgood,
and Mrs. Lisle, are witnesses %lho cannot," in the
.judgment of
the four Lords, " be suspected of any unfavourable bias ;" and
" whose veracity in this respect they had seen no ground to ques-
tion" and that the circumstances to which they speak, particularly
as relating to Captain Manby, must be credited until they are do-
ei'ively contradicted." Am I, then, to understand your M.ijcsty's con-
fidential servants to mean, that they agree with the four Noble Lords
in these opinions ?Am to understand, that, after having read with
the fullest consideration, the observations which I have offered to
• your Majesty ; after having seen William-Cole there prot•ed to have
811brnitted himself; five times, at least, toprivste.unanthorid vo-
luntary examination, by Sir John Douglas's Solicitor, for die ex-
.pess purpoe of confirming the statement of Lady Douglas, (of that

211

Lady Douglas, whose statement and deposition they are convince' 1
to be so malicious and false, that they propose to institute such
il prosecution against her, as your Majesty's
.Law Officers may advise,
1, upon a reference, now at length, alter six months from the detec-
tion ot that malice and falsehood, intended to 1w matie)--aftee
having seen this William Cole submitting to surn repeated voluntary
examinations fist such a purpose, and although he was all that time
a servant on my establishment, and eating my bread, yet never once
1I communicating to me that such examinations were going on--
I am I to understand, that your Majesty's confidential servants agree
: with the four Lords in thinking, that he cannot under such &cum,
stances, he suspected of weacourable bias 1 That after having
had pointed out to them ' the direct flat contradiction be-
; tweet' the same William Cole and Fanny Lloyd, they nevertheless
agree to -think them both (though in direct contradiction to each
other, yet built) witnesses whose veracity they see no round to qu(s-
lion / After having seen Fanny Loyd directly and positively con-
tradicted in an assertion most injurious to my honour' by Mr. Mills
and Mr. Edmeads, do they agree in opinion with the four Noble
Lords, that they see no ground to question their veracity? After
having read the observations on Mr. Bidgood's evidence,—after
'having seen that he had the hardihood to swear, that he believed
Captain Manhy slept in my house, at Soetliend, and to insinuates
that he slept in my bed-room,—after having seen that he founded
himsenf on this most false fact, mid most foul and wicked insinma.
ii. lion, upon the circumstance of observing a bison and some towel;
where he thonalit they ought not to be placed,—after haviiig seen
that tact, and this insinuation, were disproved before the four noble
Lords thninselves, by two maid-servants, who, at that time, lived
with the at Southend, and whose duties about my person and my
apartinents, must have made them acquainted with this fact, as as-
serted, or as insinuated, if it had happened,—after having oloA-ved, .
too, in confirmation of their testinrooy, that one of them meetioneti
the name of ;mother female servant (tto) was not examined), who
had, from her situation, equal means of knowledge with theniselves„
—I ask whether, titer all this decisive weight of contradiction to
Robert Bidguod's testimony, I am to understand your Majesty's
confidential servants to agree with the four Noble Lords he thinks
mg, tint Mr. Bidgood is a witness who cannot be suspected of un-
rayon, able bias, amid that there is no ground to question his veracity?
lf, Sire, I were to go through ail ttio remaiks ot this description
which occur to me to make, I should ne obliged-to repeat nearly alt
my fusilier observations, and to make this letter" as long as My
original answer : but that to answer 1 contidently appeal, and 1 will
venture to chalk:nee your Majesty's confidential savants to find 4,
single impartial and honourable man, unconnected. in Iteling and
interest with the parties, and unconnected in Council with those
who have already pledged themselves to an opinion upon this sub-
ject, who will lay his haul upon his heart, amid say, that these three
witnesses, On Whom that Report so mainly relies, ate not to be
suspected of the grossest partiality, and that their veracity is nut
most fundamentally impeached.,
Was it, then, noble, was it generous, was it maniy, wss it just, in
your Majesty's confidential se:vants, instead ot fairly admitting the
injustice, which had been, inadvertently, and ueintetiminalty, Ho uoube
done to me, by the tour Noble Lords. in their Repoli, upon the evi.
deuce of these witnessesoo slate to your Majesty that they agree with
these lords in their opinion, though they cannot, it seems, go the
length of aAreeing any longer to withhold the advice, which restores
me to your Majesty's presence ? And with respect to time particulars
to my prejudice, remarked upon in the Report as those " whiLli justly
deserve the most serious consideration, and which must be credited till
decisivi ly contradicted," instead of fatly avowing, either that there
was origina'ly nopretence for such a remark, ur that, it there had been
originally, yet that my answer had given that decisive contradiction
which was sufficient to discredit them ;—instead, I say, of at r ing this
just, honest. and open part, to take no notice whatsoever of those con-
tradictions, and content themselves with saying,'' that none V t the C.cts
of allegations stated in preliminary examinations, carried on in the ab-
sence of the parties interested, could he considered as k-,;aliy kor eon-
elusively estanlished ? "
They agree in the opinion that the facts or allegations, though stated
in preliminary examination, carried on in the absence in the part es in-
terested, must be credited till decisively cuntradiLted, a. d deserve to
most serious consideration. They read, with that fullest con4;essition,
the contradiction which I have tendered to thrill ; they must have
known, that no other sort of contradiction c uls, by to.sibiiity, irons
the nature of things, have been offered upon such subjects : tilt:y do
not question the titian they do not point out the insudisiency of the
contradiction, but, in loose, general, indefinite terms, reteitieg to my
answer, consisting, as it does, of above two huitised wr rtes, pages,
and coupling it with those examinations (which they admit eat-blisti
nothing against an absent party), they advise your Majesty, that,
" there appear many circumstances of conduct, which could not be
" regarded b' your Majesty, witlvaut serioue concern i" epd LW, •