The Sun.
London, England, 1820-08-15 00:00:00

report,this 11: e Princess was 'subjected to the fatherly Teproof
of his Majesty. Many persons, and the late lamented and
virtuous Mr. Whitbread anlngst the number, believed her to
be perfectly innocent, whilst a Considerable part of the com-
munity were equally convinced that the accusations., particu-
larly as regarded captain tdanby, were nod, without some
(emulation. The Princess, however, finding herself debarred
from the prescoree,ol her late .Majesty, and shunned
,by a
great part of•the female nobility of England, determined,
shortly after the commencement of the Regency, to retire to
the Continent ; and here we come to the main question. Th.e
Princess had not been long upon the Continent, before she
aas •left by most of ber attendants, both male and female,
who had accompanied her' from'ke''glancl, and reports highly
injurious to her reputation were conveyed home through.va-
rions channels, so as. to become subjects of common conver-
sation amongst the higher circles. It also became generally
known, that 4 man of the name of Bergaluil who had heel' a
common courier, wearing a livery, had been very suddenly
rajsed to the rank of 'Chamberlain, covered with orders, and
admitted to .her table, Such an elevation, the familiarity
with which thli 'favourite was treated, the assumption of the
name of his sister the Countess Oldi, as the .ierregnito title
of the PrincesS, the introduction of are said sister:and other
relatives of the favourite, as perlonal attendants. upon the
Pt ineess; gave,rise to so general a Telma and so strong a be-
lief, that an adulterer-as intercourse subsisted between her
Royal Highness and this Itergami, that. the Prince Regent
thought it right tossend confidential agents abroad, to inquire
into the
.truth of these reports. The documents received
from these agerits,•and contained in the. Green-llag, hare not
been sects either by your Lordship or-myself; but neither of
ns Call aloul-A that they were of •such a nature, as firmly to
convince both his Majesty and his Ministers that the reports
relative to the adulterous intercourse with this Eergami were
but too well founded.

And what was the personal conduct of his Majesty upon so
painful a toovietiun ? Was it not noble, generous, conside-
rate, sacrificing his private feelings as 'an injured husband to
the peace and quiet of his country ? His Majesty sought not '
redress for his private wrongs—No! hisinstructions to his
Ministers were, let the Queen only remain abroad, let the
impurity of her conduct be only bidden from the personal ob-
servation of my people, and I am satisfied. But when her
-Majesty, conscious in her innocence, or hardened in her
guilt (time only van show which was the case), determined to
return to Englandeto iseave the accusations against her, and
to claim and insist upon all the rights, privileges, and immu-
nities of a Qoecti Consort of these Realms—does your
Lordship really think, that it would have been consistent
with that enlightened duty, which his Majesty, as the father
of his people, the high constitutional guardian of public
morals, was bound to exercise, to have suffered a woman
whom he and his Ministers firmly believed to be guilty of the
disgraceful and 'degrading crime of adultery With a menial.
to preside over the female rank and dignity of the Empire ?
'lt was not a husband trying to relieve himself from the
burthen of an abandoned wife, but a father striving to rescue
his innocent children from the pollution of an infamous mo-
ther; and his Majesty must have been dead to every feeling
which can do honour to humao nature, if, with the comiction in his own mind of the Queen's guilt, he had hesitated
to order her to be put upon her trial, the moment she see her
foot upon British ground. It-has been ingeniously asserted
by those it'll° compose the answers of her Majesty to the mis-
taken addresses ~presented to her, that her:only crime was
braving her accusers by coming to England. It is quite true
that this is the only crime of which the generous feelings of
his Majesty wished to take •cognizance. He was willing .that
the moral turpitude, or spotless purity, the low depravity, or
. elevated sentiment of the Queen, should eemain to be settled
between her and her God, so long as the prevalence of her
example could not prove injurious to his people. He, like
his own beneficent Master, was unwilling to throw a stone
against the woman accused of adaltery, although that woman
was his own wife; and yet, such has been the conduct of Mi-
nisters, bringing doeli a Greesi Bag one day, and voting ano-
ther thattheirfquil'y (in order to institute which that very
Bag was brought down) would be derogatory. to the dignity of
the 'Clown, coil injurious to the Vest interests of the Empire,
that I agree with your Lordship, that a feeling has been gene-
rated amongst the People that the Queen is to be oppressed,
not tried; and it is in order. to counteract that feeling that I
am now writing; and by stating the case fairly, using' my
humble endeavours to quiet the public 'mind. l'he guilt or
innocence of the Queen ought not to rest upon the propriety
•or impropriety lit the conduct of Minliters, who seem to have
sh runle from the pt in, straight-forward path before them---
to hate been frightened at the,verymeasure which they must
constitutionally have ,advised, and to have eiideaeoured to shift
the odium free) `their Own shoulders. even at the hazard of
compromising th tiun arid character of their Royal Master,
I Ted the Whigs been in putver „how different wonlifhave been
their colonies. They would either have recommended to
Parliament, as was Suggested by Lord I-Jolland, the propriety
of relieving the illustrious parties from an union imposed
open them by a law, which is in opposition to every principle
of divine institution, and of natural sigh ; er they would have
weighed 'well en accusation before they had made it, but
haying once press:Wed, it, there would have been no slue
• no Green Bags—no Secret Conanittees,and they wourd sooner
liaysthilfeited their heads Upon a scaffold, titan have voted
the.very eaSilrt. proposed by themselves, derogatory to the
dienity of the crown, and nijorioes to the best interests of the
yeopisse Every thine would hate been as open as day-light.
"Try would-hare &elated 1111011 their responsibility, that they
Were prepared to prove noun the testionooy•of undoubted wit-
nesses, that the Queen had been guilty of this lowest possible
adultery. The charge 'would have been well defined aad
cleanly drawn mit ; the list of witnesses granted, ;Ind her
Majesty (verily called upon to disprove the charges against
her,' before the highest treboual of the country. And when
the charge had been satisfactorily proved, and not before,
they would hate introduced. a Bill into Parliament to annul
her marriage with hit ltenje.st y, sand to reduce her to the si-
tuation of an u moan led Princess:of the House of Brunswick.
The only difference bet Ween this and the ordinary process in
All bills of divorce between private parties, woula bare been, •
that, instead id anplying to inferior counts, which the high
dignity of his Majesty could not allowe-the preliminary
'proofs would have been sehmitted to Parliament, and a
Bill 'of Divorce' passed afterwards in the usual torm.• It
may he eel& that even this mode of proceeding would hare
been' liable to objection. Ilut it is the very essence of
our Constitution,' that 7 there- Can exist Ito sac it without a
remedy. ioslr Lordship will, I am sure, lie ready to ad-
here to the good old Whig principle, that all power isgranted
for the good -of the people, not for the advantage of the
individual, and that the dignity, the honour, the paiver and
peculiay whichsattaeh to the Queen Consort, be-
yond those of ;toy other/ernes. courerte, are granted not fur
her benefit, buli-or the purpose of upholding flue high dignity.
of the Crown,' limb of prnarofing the peaceu happiness, and
`homier of her tessejjeed, arid in their joint persons the general
welfare and etbaeacter of the country, so that their high rank
mey shed the infituence of eserinple, find the virtues and parity
of the Crown extend to the meanest cottage in the- Empire.
For such purposes, and fur such purposes only, were any
pe-
culiar privileges granted to a Qiiein Consort. Bet when it
can be openly shown, in the feee -of the country, by evidence
et the liar of he:House of Lords, that 'the Queen-has so tar
dise-saced her high st to len as to condi seend to admit a menial
to her embraces will vour Lordshfiecontend that she (-ought
not to be deereSed ? • the fact is, that immorality of this
nature in ei Queen, has beets copsidered bygone forefathers a
crime of such tarp:utile, that they have placed it in the highest
Glass of crime Inman to mar penal code ; and although this
is probably founded on the geonntl that a spurious offspring
• should not he palmed upon the British Throne, yet adultery
in a Queen of sixty-five years of age, tidally past all possibi-
lity oirNilii- bearink;wonld be equally treasme by law, as in
a queen of twenty. I :ippc7d,. therefore, to your Lordship
and to the plain good sense of the British people, whether it he
consistent with that Inflate principle of justice on which the
common law of the land is founded', thetwhat wool,' he high
treason it ceimmitted in this country, should become perfectly
innocent if committedebreed? 'file question, therefore. re•
solves itself into this; whether, let the condiret of her MejeletY
have fleet) ever so Infamous aturoad,no melee should be token
of it in this eminfey, or whether itbe not nlore congenial-with
the common haw else' practice of the country, to deprive tt
woman se acting, Of her rank'and station, by annulling her
marriage ? What would be the caw' in private life etroteld
Slot proof of adultery Committed abroadese sufficient to e' Oeble
any heehand in theeonotry to obtain a di risree ? I may wit 'less
the recent ea,e 'of my; Lard Glerawly. In this letter, I have
equally abstained with your Lordship Item giyingany opinions
either .direetly or iudirectlyeas to the guilt or innocence of her
Majesty. I have only endeavoured to show, that his Majesty,
believing her to be guilty, would not have acted at the father
of hie people,- had, he. hesitated .to put her upon her trial ;
and the only just cause of complaint on the part of the
Queen, seems to me to be founded upon the mode in which the
Bill was introduced into the House of Lords, namely, upon
the fteport of a Secret Committee, instead of upon an open,
solemn charge presented by his Majesty's Ministers upon
their constitutional responsibility. 'ld the present state of
proceedings, however, law persuaded,.and I believe the
ereat
body of the enlightened people of England are persuaded like-
wise, that it is better for all partiee, that a solemn inquiry into
the' charges Presented against her Majesty, should go on at
the Bar of thee I louse of Lords: Let the Whigs stand firmly
at their posts; let them watch nerrowly all the proceedings,
And use their utmostelforts that the inquireshould be yen-,
ducted With Mu ifinded justice. Let thew do this, and the