The Sun.
London, England, 1820-08-19 00:00:00

present, " this is very well to us, Frank—but it'
won't do for him to speak so to Norfolk or Arun-
del !"7—(Laughter.)—He did not like levity .on
so solemu ad:OCcasiou, but the Bill before their
Lordships reminded him of a theatrical represen-
tation, where each person was employed in throw-
ing in their little fact,stheir morsel of detraction
—one tells of the distinctions conferred upon a
menial, another adds something about improper
familiarities, and then some Ms:s. Candour steps
in, and only stops short gat the word-" adultery ;"
'and thus that solemn inquiry was made neither
more nor less than a solemn farce, and whether
Makotio had received favours from his lady, or
-Whether the servants had quarrelled with the
'steward, appeared to be the only question. What
he complained of was, the want of a definite ground,
and the introduction of so great a variety of cir-
cumstances quite irrelevant to the main fact; and
that was holding.out a motive to the passing of
the Bill by their Lordships, which never could have
had place were the proceeding really judicial.
Some of their Lordships might thus be induc-
ed to pass the Bill from one motive, and some
from. another ; and it was impossible that they
(the Cdunsel) could apply themselves to all that
variety of inducement which might weigh on their
Lordships' minds, when they considered this Bill
not on the ground of being a judicial proceeding,
but on the ground of State necessity and expe-
diency.—He noticed the language that had been
held by the public press. It had been declared,
that political expediency required that the Queen-
should be got rid of—if in no other way, as a
martyr. lie stated it to be his intention, in the
course of those proceedings, to claim for her Ma.
jesty the Queen, in its fullest extent, the tight
of recrimination. If ever a case existed, in
which the right of recrimination was most im-
portant, this was that case. He commented on
the situation in which her Majesty was placed by
having her case submitted to the two Houses of
Parliament; and finally and especially on that
in which she must find herself when it was re-
ferred to the 3d estate. Either the King had or
had not been a party to the present accusation.—
If he had notl surely their Lordships would not
violate one of the first principles of canon law,
namely, to dissolve a marriage without the com-
plaint of the husband. And if he had been a
party—if he had put all that machinery in mo-
tion which was now in such dreadful operation,
with what face would their Lordships ask the
third estate for its consent to a measure, which
was adopted at its own instigation, and of which
its opinion had been so manifestly expressed ?
This. was unquestionably a Bill of Divorce, and
the sole object of it was to dissolve the present
marriage that subsisted, in order that the
might form a new contract. Before, therefore,
their Lordships could sanction such a measure,
they would surely see that the accuser' came into
Court with clean hands. With regard to State
necessity, he denied the existence of such a mo-
tive on the present occasion, because the safety of
the country demanded that this measure should
be abandoned. With respect to the Bill of Pains
and Penalties, after the eloquent appeal made
yesterday by his Learned Friend, it would be
unnecessary to say much ; but he would oak their
Lordships to look at the situation in -which they
were about to place themselves. The other House
was about to be admitted to a share of their judi-
cial functions—a body who could not examine a
witness upon oath, and who, it had been declared
by a high.authority,had disgraced itself by every
inquiry•into which it had entered. How could
the consent of the King be called the consent of
the third estate of the realm_? lie pressed on the
consideration of the House, hypothetically the
case of a young and foreign Princess, who came
to this country to meet the affections of a husband
as she-expected, and with prospects and hopes of
grandeur and happiness without parallel. He
called upon the.liouse to reflect what her feelings
must be, if, shortly after her arrival, she had
found herself surrounded by mistresses, and sub-
sequently by spies and informers. Hp put it to
them sihat must be her situation, if the birth of
an only daughter, instead of proving the pledge
of renewed love, had only proved thec signal for
their final separation.. He• followed this up by
supposing tier actions to have been basely watched
from that, time forward, and at length an inquiry
set on foot before a tribunal formed on principles
most unfavourable to her; which inquiry, how-
ever, had terminated in her acquittal. He then
represented this persecuted. Princess to have
been by various proceedings in a manner com-
pelled to leave the country, and called upon their
Lordships to consider the hardship of her case, as
still pursued by spies and informers, bribed to
report or to fabricate tales to her prejudice,
and by means of perjury and. subornation, to .re-
peat- an experiment iu Italy 'which had failed
in England. He strongly urged this, and pressed
on the attention of their Lordships, the hard-
ship and injustice of which a person thus, si-
tuated might complain. In such a case as that
which he had supposed, the right of recrimina-
tion was absolutely necessary. If their Lord-
ships-denied her that right, they took from them-
selves the power of giving a divorce, and gave
it to the husband, whose
.incontinence, whose
brutality, and whose cruelty of every, description,
had driven her from her home, and placed her iu
circumstances in- which she might appear guilty
'of adultery, and, in which, if guilty of adultery,
it' might fairly -he imputed to his misconduct ;.
and, therefore, to. tdeev her the of recrimi-
., , _
natitn4 would 'be to authorise him to avail him-
self of the wrong-he had done her to triusnph over
the injured, party:-,1 Again ; the right of recrimi-
nation was' in .his jiitigenent the most important
right which the Consort • possessed. If any
doubt could- be -entertained on this
,subject, that
disubt • must' speedily. vanish Illness, tile House
should think' it right to put down the weak and
the -powerless,' and support the ppwerfol, and, the
strong—unless they should consider that ~Where
the highest ,•exatuple ought to. /be sot, the least
'*as to -.be expected,' aluLtAat where .t4,0,305t.
trtielty;had been peactisestistApintost„unlitstuitipd
encouragement and support were to be afforded.,
He then took a view of the proceedings in. the