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

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
uprirecht 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 to
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 Enelanil,—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."