The Sun.
London, England, 1820-09-27 00:00:00

PRICE SEVENPENCE.

MEETING TO ADDRESS TIDE qUEEN.

[FARTHER PARTICULA,RS.] A INleeting of
" the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Metropolis"

was held yesterday at the Freemasons' Tavern,
for the purpose of moving an Address to her
Majesty. Mr. Hobhouse,My: Hume, IVlr. Peter
Moore, and sever4l other persons in the habit of
attending public meetings, were present.-4 little
after one o'clock Mr. Pearson ascended tike. ta.

ble, and observed, that as no one had yet,appeared
to take the Chair, and as several distinguished
persons were in attendance on the Committee,
lie thought it desirable that an intimation should
be sent from the Meeting to the Committee-
room, stating that the persons assembled were
desirous of seeing those who were to take a part
in the. proceedings of the, day. W ith their leave
he would therefore move, that a deputation be

sent from the room with an intimation to that

effect.

This motion was unanimously acceded.

to, and Mr. Bowie was nominated to attend the
Committee. At this period Mr. Hobhouse en-
tered the room, and the cries of Chair, chair
grew every instant more loud and impatient.—
Mr. Pitman proposed that 'Mr. HonnousE be
called to the Chair. This was unanimously

agreed to.
Mr. Ilontiousu immediately opened the pro-
ceedings. lie remarked, that the present Meet-
ing was the first that had taken place since it
had been known what the enemies of the Queen
and of the Country would bring against the
first subject of the realm. He considered the
Court before which she was tried, to be an un-
constitutional tribunal; and, therefore, whatever
the witnesses brought forward might be taught
to say, would with him weigh no more than
" the idle wind which he regarded not." They
were not to suppose that in former times pro-
ceedings had not been witnessed as bad .as•those
which were now the subject of their cons: de ration;
but he believed that those were bad times, and
thatsince the reign of Henry VIII. nothing at all
si►nilar to what was now in progress had been seen.

The proceedings now going on were hardly so fair
as those which were witnessed in the time of
that Monarch ; for then when he sent a message
to the Judges to inquire if judgment would- pass
in the House of Llrds against any individual who
had not been cited or tried ,in tl.e ordinary
Courts of Justice, the JUdges replied, " that God
forbid they should impugn his Majesty's power,
but they must needs say that it would be a dan-
gerous precedent," and they .added a recommen-
dation, that it would be better that the High
Court of Parliament- should have a leaning to
mercy rather than to rigorous justice. In the
present case the Queen had not been cited by the
House of Lords, and it was only in, consequence
of a petition from her Counsel that she had been
heard at all. When the. Queen went to Parlia-
ment, according to all the scribes of the Trea-
sury, she was guilty of a most monstrous act of
impudence. This was because she would not
submit to be trampled upon without appealing to
the generous people over whom she was entitled
to reign. Her crime was, that she, had 'come
here when she was wanted to keep away.. That
was her first crime ; and her nest was, that she
would not go away when Ministers would have her
to go. .From what he had read of the law of this
country, it was as much treason to conspire against
the life,honour,and dignity of the Queen, as against
those of the King. It was true that lawyers drew
a difference between Queen Consort and Queen
Regnant ; but
.so far as he could make out the
law, it related to the Queen on the Throne. • He
described the Attorney-General to have repre-
sented himself to be there " for the Lords."
The Lords were thus not only the, Jurors, but
the Judges, and not .only the Judges, but• the
Prosecutors. He complained of their conduct in
not allowing her a list of witnesses—a specifica-
tion of the times and places in which the offences
charged had been committed, and of the con-
summation of what he must call their injustice,
in. refusing to let the Attorney-General enter
into. .her defence without undertaking to go
through with his witnesses. He thence con-
tended that a fair verdict was not to be expected.
He commented on the conduct of the Bench of
Bishops, -and on their readiness,,as described by
an historian of former times, to lend their sup-
port to bad actions, and from what had been .said
of them, he inferred that it was not uncandid to
anticipate an unfair decision. Impartial justice
was not to be looked for, notwithstanding the
Earl of Liverpool- had condescended to give their
Lordships liberty to act according to their con-
sciences, by saying that he would not feel hurt
at. the conduct of any Peer, on whtttever side of
the question he might vote. To hire it appeared
that- the charges had not been made good against
the Queen, in any instance that materially
affected her character. , He blushed for his
species when he saw the witnesses' produced
against .her. He noticed the manner in .which,
.:the witnesses were kept, in sets, and de-
clared that the acquittal or conviction of her
Majesty by such a tribunal . would not in-
fluence his opinion a single jot., Constituted as
.theilouse of Lords• was, it might have been good
advice to her Majesty had she been counsel-
led not to plead at all. King -Charles the
.First, though in his opinion one of the weakest
• and wickedest Princes that ever sat on ..the
Throne, had redeemed his' character in -a great
measure by one, act—by refusing to plead before
a Court which. bad no right to try-him. The
whole course of the proceedings in. the present
case .proved that it was not intended to grant:her

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