Star.
London, England, 1813-03-27 00:00:00

THE EARL OF MOJRA.

COPY OF A LETTER FROM THE EARL OF MOIRA, TO A
FRIEND, WHO IS A MEMBER OF TIIE GRAND
LODGE OF FREEMASONS.

.4' March 23, 1813.

" MY DEAR SlR—The difficulty of taking down with accu-
racy in the House of Lords what is said by any individual, as the
Reporters are not alhiwed to snake notes, has occasioned the ac-
count of what passed there yesterday to be incorrect In many
of the Papers. I am thence anxious to detail to you the sub-
stance of the explanation given by me, that you may communi-
cate it to our brethren of the Lodge, whom I had requested to
suspend their opinions on the subject, till I might feel at liberty
:o enter upon it. I thought it expedient to separate the matter
into distinct heads, that each of the misrepresentations I had to
combat may be answered the more precisely.
" Ist. I- never happened to be at Belvedere, or in Its vicinity,
in the whole course of my life. It follows, that I could not have
sought there any information respecting the Princess's conduct.
But the negative does not only apply to that place. In no one
instance 'have I ever spontaneously endeavoured to obtain parti-
culars respecting her Royal Highness's behaviour; and I should
certainly have declined such a function, had the Prince requested
it of me, which I am persuaded never entered the most distantly
into his 'Contemplation. It is not in his nature to prompt so vile
a practice. When any matter has been referred to me, or any
communication has been made to me, in an authentic and formal
manner, my oath, as one of the Prince's Council, bound me to
such examination of the point as I might think the honour and
interest of his Royal Highness required.
" 2. Two of Lord Eardley's servants were examined by me In
London, In a spirit very different from what is slanderously im-
puted by the Prineeses legal advisers Lord Yardley had given
to the Prince an account, absolutely uninvited and no less unwel-
come, of meetings between the Princess and Captain Manby at
Belvedere, which his Lordship had represented-(trom the report
of his servants) as having caused great scandal in the neighbour-
hood : his Lordship had asked an audience of the Prince who
had no suspicion of his object, for the purpose of stating the fact,
and exonerating himself from any supposition of connivance.—
When the Prince did ire the honour of relating to me this repre-
sentation of Lord Eardley s, expressing great uneasiness that the
melted notoriety of the hlterviews at Belvedere, and the com-
ments of the neighbours, should force him to tale any public
steps, I suggested the possibility that there might be misappre-
hension of the circumstances; and I entreated that, before any'
other procedure should be determined upon, I might send for the
steward (Kenny) and the porter (Jonathan Partridge) to exaMine
them. This was permitted. I sent for the servants, and ques-
tioned them. My report to the Prince was, that the matter had
occasioned very little observation in the house, none at all in the
neighbourhood, and that it was entirely unnecessary for hisßoyal
Highness to notice it in any shape. The servants had been de-
sired by me never to talk upon the subject ;—Lord Eardley was
informed that his conception of what had been stated by the ser-
vants was found to be inaccurate; no mention was ever made to
any one, not even to the Lords who conducted the enquiry three
years afterwards, of the particulars related by the servants; and
the circumstance never would have been known at all, had not
the legal advisers of the Princess, for the sake of putting a false
colour on that investigation, indiscreetly brought it forward.--
The death of Kenny, in the interval, tempted them to risk this
procedure. Jonathan Partridge having been known i at the time
when he was questioned to be devoted to the Princess, from his
own declaration to the steward, no one can doubt but that her
Royal Highness would the next day be informed by him of Ms
having been examined. The measure was most offensive, if not
justified by some uncommon peculiarity of circumstance. Yet
absolute silence is preserved upon it for so long a period by her
Royal Hisbuesen ehtelsen-F-a ferbearanse only to be *Ted b!

Ger behig tell endow to toed fon the 'ebb Male UM,
was AIM.
" b. The Interviews with Dr. Mills and Mr. Edmeades did not
take place dU between three and four years after the examination
of Lord Eardley's servants, and had no reference to it. Fanny
Lloyd, .maid servant in the Princess's faintly, had, in an exami-
nation to which I was not privy, asserted Dr. Mills to have men-
cloned to her, that the Princess was pregnant ;i deposition which
obviously made it necessary that Dr. Mills should be subjected
to examination. Thii happened to be discussed before me ; and
it was my suggestion that it would be more &lime to let me re-
quest the atten'dince of Dr. Mills at my house, and to have him
meet*the Magistrate there than that publicity and observation
should be entailed by his being summoned to the Office in Marl-
borough-street. Dr. Mills came early, and then it was imme-
diately discovered that it was his partner, Mr. Edmeades, who
bad bled Fanny Lloyd, though the latter (knowing the Princess's
apothecary to be Dr. Mills, and imagining it was that apotiliecary
who had bled-her) had Confounded the names. Dr. Mills was,
therefore, dismissed, without being examined by the Magis-
trate; and he was begged to send Mr. Edmeades on another
morning. Mr. Edmeades cameascordingly, and was examined
before the Magistrate; An attempt is made to pervert an obser-
vation of mine into an endeavour to make Mr. Edmeades alter
his testimony, injuriously for the Princess. So far from there being
any thing of conciliation in my tone, Mr. Conant must well re-
member my remark to have been made as a correction of wKat I
deemed a premeditated and improper pertness of manner in Mr.
Edmeades. It was an unmitigated prpfession of my belief that he
was using some subterfuge to justify his denial; a declaration
little calculated to win him to pliancy, bad I been desirous of
influencing his testimony. My conviction on the point remains
unchanged. One or other of the parties was wilfully incur•
rect in their statement—if Fanny Lloyd were so, it was down-
right perjury: Mr. Edmeades might have answered only elusively.
I have been told that some individual, pointing at the direct op-
position between the affidavits of Mr. Edmeades and Fanny
Lloyd, has indicated the preferable credit which ought to be
given to the oath of a well educated man, in a liberal walk of
life, over that of a person in the humble station of a maid-servant.-
I shall not discuss the justice of the principle which arbitrarily
assumes deficiency of moral rectitude to be the natural inference
from humility of condition. The inculcation in the present in-
stance would have been somewhat more rational, had it advised
that, In a case of such absolute contradiction upon a simple fact,
the comprehension of which could have nothing to do with edu-
cation, you should consider on which side an obvious temptation
to laxity appears. Fanny Lloyd was not merely a reluctant
witness, but had expressed the greatest indignation at being sub-
ject to examination. When she swore positively to a circumstance
admitting of no latitude, the only thing to be weighed was, what
probability of inducement existed for her swearing that which she
knew to be false. It will appear that her testimony on that point
was not consonaot to the partiality which she had proclaimed;
that by the other parts of her evidence she was barring the way to
reward, if any profligate hopes of remuneration led her to risk the
falsehood and that she could not be influenced by malice against
Mr. Edmeades, with whom it was clear she was unacquainted.
Nothing, therefore, presented itself to throw an honest doubt upon
her veracity. Mr. Edmeades was very differently circumstanced.
A character for dangerous chattering was absolute ruin to him in
his profession. He had the strongest of all motives to exonerate
himself from the charge if he could hit upon any equivocation by
which he might satisfy himself in the denial of it : and the bear-
ing of my remark must not be misunderstood. No man would
inter any thing against the Princess on tke ground of such a ran-
dom guess as that of Mr. Edmeades' must have been, unless Mr.
Edmeades should support his proposition by the adduction of
valid reasons and convincing circumstances ; but there was a con-
sequence ascribable to it iir its loosest state. His having been
sufficiently indiscreet to mention his speculation to others, as well
as to Fanny Lloyd, would we account for what was otherwise
incomprehensible; namely, the notion of the Princess's preg-
nancy so generally entertained at Greenwich and in that neigh-
bourlisiod. It was my conviction that such indiscretion had taken
place, not any belief of the fact to which it related, that.L endea-
voured to convey by remark.
" 4. This construction is not put upon the circumstances now,
for the first time. A paper of mine, submitted to his Majesty
at the period of the investigation, and lodged with the other do-
cuments relative to that enquiry, rebuts in the same terms the
base attempt of insinuating conspiracy against the Princess. Why
that paper has not seen the light with the other documents may ,
be surmised. I had thought it incumbent on me, from the na-
ture of the transaction, not to furnish any means tor its publica-
tion from the copy in my possession. he present explanation
unavoidably states all the material points contained in it. But it
will be felt by every one, that the detail has been extorted from
me.
" 5. The Editor of a Sunday Publication has asserted his hav-
ing been told, by a person known to him, that I had commis-
sioned that person to insert in an Evening Paper anonymous
paragraphs, injurious to the Princess. '1 he procedure is so little
consistent ith any custom of mine, that, so the best of my re-
collection and belief, I never sent an unauthenticated article of
any form or tenour, to a newspaper, but once in my life. That
was upon an erroneous statement, atfecting myself alone, which I
pointed out to a Gentleman who happened to call upon me, ex-
pressing my wish that he would contradict it. A matter so
trivial would not have been mentioned by me, did it not shew
that, even in cases which might be• considered indifferent,
I had habitual objection to sending any thing for insertion hr
a newspaper; therefore I could not have sliddeu inconsiderately
into the turpitude with which lam now charged. But if upon
insertions that might be uninteresting to other., I speak only as
to memory, it is not the same with regard to anonymous attacks
on the character of another. On that I make no reservation:
' deny, with the most solemn appeal to the Su rxeme Buns the
having ever levelled such a shalt against the feelings of any ittdivL
dull whatever. I know not the seduction on earth that could recon-
cile me to what I consider as equally mean and atrocious. No excuse
of wit, no plea of public good, could palliate to me the baseness of
wounding another covertly. 111 feel this generally, I must do so in a
peculiar degree towards the exalted Personage in contemplation,
whose sex, whose station, and whose circumstances,would make
such detraction execrable beyond what words can express. I know
not any person who would pass that sentence on the act more
decidedly or more Indignantly than the illustrious individual whose
favour might be supposed to he sought by the dirty procedure.
These were the points which I advanced to the House of Lords. ,
I there vouched them on the faith of a Gentleman, and I repeat
to you that assertion of their accuracy.---I bavetbe honour to be,
my dear Sir, most truly, yours, (Signed) MOIRA."

PiIIZLIAMEATiMr PROCEEDING&

HOUSE OF LORDS, MARCH 26.

The LORD CHANCELLOR this day gave judgment In the
Appeal of the Bank of Scotland v. Watson, reversing the judg-
ment of the Court of Session.

Several other causes were postponed for the ensuing week.
The consideration of Chamberlayne's Divorce Bill being! re-
sumed, Mr. Nolan appeared at the Bar as Counsel for the Bill,
and several witnesses were examined, chiefly with a view of
establishing the fact of the adulterous intercourse between Mrs.
Chamberlayne and her paramour (a Mr. Bromhead). This ap-
pearing to be adequately proved, and the necessary facts of the
marriage, &c. being given in evidence, their Lordships gave the
Bill a second reading, and ordered it to be committed.
Lord WALSINGHAM presented a Petition from a nume-
rous body of Dyers employed in the East India Company's ser-
vice, for a renewal of the Company's Charter, and that the trade
way be carried on as heretofore.—Ordered to lie on the table.
A Message declared that the Commons had agreed to the
Amenciluent in the Local Militia Bill.

Two Mutiny Bills and several others were brought up from
the Commons and read the first time.

After the Bills on the table had been forwarded in their re-
spective stages, the House Adjourned till Monday.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
General MAITLAND appeared at the Bar, with a Report
of the Committee appointed to consider the late Election for
Ayrshire. The Report stated, that the Sitting Member had
been duly elected, but that the Petition was not frivolous nor
vetatious.

'1 he Exchequer Bills' Bill went through Committee, and was
ordered to be read a third time to-morrow.

The Corn Exportation Bill was read a third time and passed.
The Toll Manure Bill was read a second time, and ordered
to be committed on Thursday next.
Mr. Alderman ATKINS moved, that the Speaker do not
issue his Warrant for the election of new Members for Wey-
mouth and Melcombe Regis till this day fortnight. Ordered ac-
cording to the Motion.
The Canada Rum Bill was read a third time and passed.
Mr. RODERT THQUITON treacate4 a ratitlan figs the

tail fa& &Mal, for tette tt btralowtof to eramtne irtn
neues before tke Committee appointed to Avon on their Claims.
The Irish Road was read a second time.

The Kilmainhim Hospital Bill was ordered to be read a third
time on Monday next.
Sir FRANCIS BURDETT gave notice, that he should, oa
Monday, move for Copies of the Miputes of the Court of In.
quiry appointed to enquire into the treatment suffered by Captain
Phillimore, on board his Mille y's ship Diomede.
Lord GEORGE BFP PSFORD stated, that he had waited on
his Royal Highness the Prince Regent with the Address of Con.
dolence upon the death of the Duchess of Brunswick, which his
Royal Highness had been pleased to receive, and had returned
the following gracious Answer :
" I thank you for your dutiful and loyal Address ; and I re-
" ceive the condolence of the House of Commons, on the recent
" loss which I have sustained, as an acceptable proof of attach-
" ment to myself and family."
APOTHECARIES' BILL.

Mr. CALCRAFT observed, that an unfounded prejudice of
so strong a nature had gone forth to the Public on the subject of
the Apothecaries' Bill, that it was deemed advisable by the friends
of the measure, although they were completely 'edified of the
general utility with which it was fraught, to withdraw it until
the next Session of Parliament, in the confident expectation that
the unfavourable impression which some interested penens had
so studiously endeavoured to give of the Bill might. by that time,
be removed. In order to facilitate this desirable even. it might
be expedient for him to stare, that one great object of the Dill
was to insure such an examination of persons practising the me-
dical profession, as Surgeons and Apothecaries, as wo. secure
to the Public the certainty that henceforward Diane but inteligent
and well-educated individuals would be found in that profession.
It was also the object of the Bill to put these Gentlemen on a
footing on which they had never before been placed by the Le-
gislature, by enabling them to charge a fee for their attendance.
This part of the Bill was more applicable to gentlemen practising
the medical profession in town than in the couutry. In the coun-
try, owing to the acknowledged distance at which his patient
might reside, a Surgeon or Apothecary always charged a fee fur
his attendance. In London, akbough every one knew that the
residence of a patient might be very distant indeed from that of
his Surgeon or Apothecary, no such fee had hitherto been charged.
With respect to the first object of the Bill, those by whom the
Bill had been framed had been under great diflicul-y as to the
constitution of the authority before which the future examina-
tion of individuals wishing to practise as Surgeons and Apothe-
caries was to take place. The College of Physicians and the So-
ciety of Surgeons had, unadvisedly in his opinion, declined to
take on themselves this iMpoitant they. The framers of the
Bill were therefore obliged under those c:rcurnstancei to get the
best authority in their power, and he ktd no doubt that the au-
thority which the Bill described would have very satisfactorily
discharged the trust reposed in it. One additional inducement,
however, for the postponement of the Bill to the next Session of
Parliament was, the hope that the chartered and constituted
bodies to which he had already alluded, would be induced by that
period to come forward and offer their assistance in carrying Into
effect the great publk advantage which the Bill had in contem-
plation. He confessed his regret that Chymista and Druggists had
been included in the purview of the measure. it had always
been his opinion, that those gentlemen ought to be struck out of
it ; and if he presented the Bill again in the next Session of Par-
liament, it should contain no reference to them whatever, but
each respective profession and occupation should stand untrams
fuelled, and on its own merits alone.
On the motion of the Hon. Gentleman the Bill was then ordered
to be read a second time on that day six months.
FINANCE.

On the Order of the Day being read for receiving
the Report of the Committee of last night,
Mr. A. BARING repeated his arguments gene.
rally against the plan, and trusted Ministers would
at least postpone it till next Session.
Mr. ROSE also repeated his chief arguments in
favour of the plan, and again most positively denied
that it would in the least affect the original design
of the Sinking Fund. To postpone the measure for
a year, would be subjecting the country to too great
a pressure, while by its immediate adoption, we
should, on more favourable circumstances arising be.
fore the next Session of Parliament, reap a double
advantage.
Mr. HUSKISSON said a few words in explana.
tion of his speech of last night.
Mr. GRENFELL spoke is favour of the measure,
Mr. JOHN SMITH said, he had always been of
opinion that the capital of the Sinking Fund was so
tempting an object, that neither Ministers nor the
Country could long resist its allurements. For his
own part, when he knew the. privations to which
every class was at present subject from taxes of every
description, he had no objection to the measure.
Sir R. PEELE warmly supported the measure.
He expressed his satisfaction at the present state of
Continental Europe, the spirit infused into our Al.
lies, and the re-opening of our foreign trade to the
British Merchants. He could not help considering.
at the same time, the diminution which the late tin.
favourable state of affairs had effected hi the capitals
of our Manufacturers, and therefore he hoped every
measure would be adopted which could operate to
their relief.

Mr. HAMMERSLEY objected to the measure
proposed, on the ground that it was founded on a
principle adverse to one laid down by the most emi-
nent writers on political economy—that the collec-
tion of War 'Nxes within the year of their expendi-
ture was the best security a .nation could have of
war not 'being unnecessarily begun, nor wantonly
prosecuted. The Ministers of the present day bad
unfortunately overlooked that sound principle and
attacked the Sinking Fund, which all bad been taught
to hold sficred.

The Report was then ordered to be brought up,
and leave given to Messengers from the House of
Lords, who had been some time in attend ace, to
enter. They announced the concurrence of their
Lordships to three Local Bills, without any amend•
ments.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
moved, " That the Report of the Committee of Fi.
nance be read."

Mr. BARHAM then rose, and with considerable
energy said, that should the House agree to have the
Report read, and the measure be finally adopted,
there would not be much cause to censure the acts
of Bonaparte, who extinguished two-thirds of his na-
tional debt by one decree ; and the people of this
country would now be taught that they had no better
security for the production of our own Sinking Fund,
even when under the controul of the House of Com-
mons.—(Hear, hear, hear.) He should therefore
move, as an Amendment to the Question now before
the House, That the Report be read early next
Session of Parliament."
Lord CASTLEREAGH rose with some warmth,
and said, although be was unaccustomed to express
himself upon questions like that before the House,
he could not, in justice to himself and the House of
Commons, sit quiet and hear such language as the
Honourable Gentleman had just used. Every Mem-
ber must feel indignant on hearing such a compari-
son, and such an imputation. On his own part, he
was satisfied that the people of this country were too
wise, and possessed more good sense than to over-
look the real object of the measure, or suffer them-
selves to be misled by language so tutwarra.oteble,