The National Register.
London, England, 1820-09-25 00:00:00

[PRICE 9;d•

her, she ought not to assume her station; and that
this assertion of Lord Grey is a sort of coofir•
motion of the original position, that the neces-
sity of the prosecution consists in the necessity " of
the performance of (a very awkward expres.
sion by the by) justice to whom? to the King? It
is not pretended I To the state Thmtkasust. for
the sake of doing justice to the state, aim tom,.
turn the state, to violate all the known forms and
principles of justice, and to subvert the constitution!
Lord Grey never said nor thought this after he het
fully weighed the subject, and we believe if the Bill
of Pains and Penalties pass, it is more than probabld
that Lord Grey will chew his thorough disgust at
the proceeding, by wholly retiring from the House
of Lords, while constituted as at present it is con.
stituted ; and he will be followed by some, if not
by all the far most estimable part of the house.
In the next place, the Ministerialiiits in all the
importance of dictators, declare, that Lord John
Russell's proposition is dishonourable and unjust,
via. that nothing should be done in the business--
forsooth, dishonourable because he merely would
have left the King to have exercised all the rights
which were fairly in his power respecting his con-
sort, rather than subject her to an extea-judicial and
oppressive process!
As to the conduct of Ministers in offering the
Queen 'fifty thousand pounds a year to stay away.
the Queen was quite right and praiseworthy to
refuse what, if conscious of innocence, she must
consider as a bribe, and betra of honour;
but if the ministers were deterall‘ed hat,
some strange perversion of ittellect, m' piAlt
right to them, to briug the question of t e conduct
of (he Queen forward if she should return, they
certainly may be considered in charity to have mad.
the offer alluded to as a concession to the tranquil.
lity of the country; justifiable upon the general
principle of state-necessity which they profess to act
upon, however absurd such plea may be, and it must
be admitted that miuisters acted in this instance
uuder the direction of the House of Commons, who
were guilty of the principal inconsisteuey 'in nut
compelling ministers to offer the Queen such terms
as might have been fairly accepted, thr Lord Hut.
chinson's proposition seems not to have been autho-
rised by ministers.
As to the accusations against ministers (al.
leged to be made by violent partisans) of a conapi.
racy against the Queen, we must observe, that the
Milan commission beans all the characters of a con.
spiracy, it' the character of a conspiracy.bc." not so
obtain fair evidence, but to seek and sift privately
for chat„...2s, and give witnesses undue and improper
means of communicating and comparing their ac.
counts with east other,.and holding out advantages,
of :eying them or oney, which must operate
at least in an extraordinary remuncrution tiir them
services ;" and though ministers c Mimi be strictly
called conspirators in this case, yet they appear to
have countenanced a duck and unfair proceeding,
and the brother of Lord Castlereagh, Lord Stewart,
appears to have beendeoply responsible for transit.
tions connected with tat: Milan commission.
The precedent which degradation of Queen may
establish respecting a King is-4Se most certainly
true, for a plea of state-necesay 'WM' much more
.justify a proceeding against nn immoral sing, if
such there be, than an immoral Queen Consort,
because the consequence of hie conduct must more
materially injure his people.
As to the probable mopes which may tend to
frustrate the full operation of party feeling, it is
obvious front the divisions which have already taken
place, that in main points political friends-have stuck
together in ; and the question' is, " Is it
likely that minister, .amt %ncir known adherents ran
approach a Bill %\ itn impartiality, wlitai the charac-
ter and petliap; lives of the mini:aers are implicated
in tli.miceel-s of tile 13t11. It is nonsense to &Iv that
they can ; and if they cannot, both lusticc and the
constitution an:: subvaled by this ino.ic or proceed-
ing by bile against tha Qu en.

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