The National Register.
London, England, 1820-07-30 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER?

THE PRESENT CHARGES AGAINST
THE QUEEN.

The enormity of the present charges against the
Queen has made many converts to the opinion of
her guilt—to such we beg to say, that the precision,
time, place, and respectability of the parties bring-
ing thrward the charges against her fourteen years
ago were much more appalling ; and to convince
theta we are right in our assertion, we extract the
following from a biographical sketch of her, which
appeared in the last number of The London Alva-
zirie, premising that all the routine of. anonymous
letters, and every other infamous practice, had been
first resorted to, to injure this widowed wife:—
" These having entirety failed in producing may unpleasant
consequence.* to the Princess, sir John made a formal decla-
ratiuri on the third of the ensuing December against her, on
matters of still greater import, rind %hick was materially
conui•cted with her 1 and life. This wits submitted by
the Prince to the late Lord Thurlow, aho said, that us the
Royal succession might be affected by the alleged facts if
true. It was the duty of his Royal 1-lignites& to lay the a hole
ease before the King. This teas dune accordingly, after
some fresh depositions were obtained ; and on the Yfith 4if
May, ISM, the Whigs and Grenvilles tieing then in ad-
ministration, his late Majesty issued a commission, directing
Lord Enkine(t he then Chancellor), Earl Spencer, (one of
the Secretaries of State), Lord (Renville, (the first Commis-
sioner of the Treasury band Lord ChiefJ menet Ellsiborough,
to inquire Into the truth of all the written declarations
touching the conduct of the Princess of Wales. These Noble-
men proceeded immediately to execute their
commis nnn.—
The deposition of Charlotte, I.4dy Douglas, was taken by
them on the Ist of June, the third day sifter their appoint-
ment. The substance of her statement was—that, while
residing on Blackheath, she fist became acquainted with the
Princess in Nov. ISM ; her Royal Highness. attended by a
1.441 y, having walked through the snow, and passed by her
oiadow several times, for the purpose of being asked in:
that after this, she and Sir Julio were frequently invited to
dine at Montague House; that in May or June, 1801, the
Princess first told the deponent she was pregnant, and would
give the Prince of Wales the credit of being the father of
the child, as she bad slept two nights at Carlton Home
within the year. That the pregnancy of the Primes* ap-
peared to deponent to be very visible; but that her dress
was contrived to conceal it; this was in the end of October
: that in December follow ing depoueut went to Glow
tershire, and staid there a mouth; that when she returned
in Jan. ItOJ, and called in Montague-house, abeam a child
with the Princess which her Royal Highness described, as
deponent understood, to be the child of which the herself
had been delivered. The deponent positively swore the
Princess was pregnant its 1002; and that leer Royal High-
ness had frequently made gluts nod indelicate declarations
to her.

The deposition of Sir John Douglas was very short. The
only material allegation in it was, that he swore the Priocou
appeared to him to be pregnant iu 1802.
" The evidence of these two parties was attempted to be
sustained by that of several persons who had lived as ser-
vants with the Princess, from the time she had resided at
Carlton House : most of their statements, however, were
hostile to those of Sir Jobe and Lady Douglas. Charlotte
Sander, a German female, who attended on the Princess as
her dresser, swore that the child alluded to by Lad) Douglas,
was brought to the Primess by a woman mimed Austin,
whose husband worked io the dock-yard at Deptford.—
• The Princess,' said she, s was sot 111 or indisposed in the
Algoma *llBO2. She could not be ill or indisposed without
my Lapwing it. IGO sure she was ask confined to her room,
or to bee bed in that Autumn there was not to my know-
ledge any other child in the house; it was hardly possible
there could base been any other child there without my
knowing it. I have ao reenllectioa that the Prioress had
grown bigger In the year 1802, than usual. lam sere that
the Princess was not pregnant I being her dresser, I mast
have sees it if she was. 1 solemnly and positively swear, I
have no reason to know or believe that the Princess of Wales
has been at any time pregnant during the time that I have
lived with her at Montague Howe. I never beard any body
say any thing about the Princess being pregasut till I came
here to-day. I never bad any reasons to suppose that the
Princess received the visits of any gentleman at improper
boars.'

" Frances Lloyd, another servant, bore testimony to the
child having been brought to Mentagne-bonne by its
mother, whose name was Austin, and who cried at part-
ing with it, and said she could not talked to keep it. A
similar evidence was given by Mary Ann Wilson, who
declared she never noticed the shape of the Princess in
1802 to be different from what it had been before. Thos.
Stikeman, a page to the Princes., gave an account of the
child having been brought by its mother, Mrs. Austin,
and of the Princeu never having the appearance of preg-
nancy. The same thing was stated by Mr. Sieard. her
steward, and other witnesses; and, in short, a mass of
evidence west clearly to prove that all the statements of
Lady Douglas were gross fahehoods. The delivery of
Sophia Austin of her male child William, in Brownlow
Street Hospital. was proved by her own and other evidence,
as asll as the registry of its baptism; and also its being taken
under the protection of the Princes.. There remained
nothing then to be disproved except the statements made by
some of the witnesses, of the Princes. having been seen
taking improper familiarities with Capt. Mosby awl Sir
Sidney B.uith. Mrs. Fitzgerald, a companion of the Prin-
cess positively contradicted une ussertien made by Lady
Douglas,i and declared on oath, that Capt. Manby had never
been in company with the Princess at improper hours.—
Various exculpatory statements were also made by the
medical gentlemen who attended the Princes.. A most able
and satisfactory defence was written for the Princess; and
the Commissismen, in making their report to the King,
declared their decided conviction that her Royal Highness
was innocent of all the charges preferred against her.
" There wall no longer any obstacle to receiving the
Princessat Court; and accordingly on the 21st of April 1807,
minutes were laid before the King, as a prelude to that step,
in which the council declared as follows:

' After the most deliberate cuiroderation of the evidence
which bits been brought before the Commissioners, and of
Cie previous examinntium, as adl as the answer and obser-
vations which have heti, submitted to your Majesty upon
them, they, (the cabint 1) feel it necessary Ito declare their
decided concurrence in the clear and unanimous opinion of
the Commissioners, eonaimed by that of all your Majesty's
lute coutillential servants, that the two main claws alleged