Star.
London, England, 1813-03-17 00:00:00

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS OF WALES TO

TIIK KING.

" Sine—l received yesterday, and with inexpres-
sible pain, your Majesty's last verbal communication.
The duty of stating, in a representation to your Ma-
jesty, the various grounds upon which I feel the
hardships of rrty case, and upon which, I confidently
think, that upon a review of it, your Majesty will be
disposed to recall your last determination, is one I
owe to myself ; and 1 cannot forbear, at the moment
when I acknowledge the receipt of your Majesty's
letter, to announce to your Majesty that I propose to
execute that duty without delay.
46 After having suffered the punishment of banish-
ment from your Majesty's presence for seven months,
pending an inquiry which your Majesty had directed
to be made into my conduct, affecting both my life
and my honour. After that inquiry had at length
terminated in the advice of your Majesty's confiden-
tial and sworn servants, that there was no longer any
reason for your Majesty's declining to receive me.—
After your Majesty's gracious communication, which
led me to rest assured that your Majesty would ap-
point an early day to receive me. If after all this,
by a renewed application on the part of the Prince of
Wales (upon whose communications the first inquiry
had been directed), 1 now find, that that punishment
to which I had been condemned during that same
seven months inquiry, previous to the determination
in my favour, should, contrary to the opinion of your
Majesty's servants, be continued after that determi-
nation, to await the result of some new proceeding,
to be suggested by the Lawyers of the Prince of
Wales, it is impossible that I can fail to assert to your
Majesty, with the effort due to truth, that I am, in
the consciousness of my own innocence, and with a
strong sense of my unmerited sufferings,
44 Sire, your Majesty's most dutiful and affectionate,
but much-injured subject and daughter-in-law,
(Signed) 44 CAROLINE."
Montague-house, Blackheath, Feb. 12, 1807."
• The statement here referred to is that which follows :
THE PRINCESS OF WALES'S DEFENCE.

The Report and Examinations having been trans--
mitted to her ROYAL HIGHNESS, she took the advice
of the late Mr. PERCEVAL, Lord avow, and Sir
THOMAS PLOMER, who drew up her Defence, the first
part of which was occupied in severe animadversion
on the nature of the proceeding—the formality of
the King's warrant—the legality of the Commission
—the ex-parte nature of the Examination, &c. &c.
After stating that the Report of the Commissioners
most fully cleared her Royal Highness of the charge
of high treason, by the foul crime of adultery, there
remained imputations, strongly sanctioned by the
Report, stating that the circumstances detailed
against her must be credited till they were decisively
contradicted. These were entertained on testimony so
little worthy of belief, betraying the malice in which

re% •Or

it originated, that it was with no little astonishment
that she perceived the Commissioners had acted up-
on-it. It was extraordinary that they should entertain
ciiarges amounting to no legal offence, even if clearly
proved ; and still more so, that they did not employ
the attention that was necessary to detect the villainy
of the foul conspiracy, which was evidently formed
against her life and honour. Above all, that they
should have thought themselves justified in reporting
on such evidence, without hearing one word on her
behalf, to his Majesty, from whom there could be no
appeal to the laws, because the charges could not be
made the ground of judicial enquiry. She trusted
that his Majesty would not attribute her warmth, in
speaking of the manner of this prosecution, to any
want of duty or respect to the throne, but to her own
sensz of dignity, and to the just feelings which she
entertained for the honour of the Royal Family, of
which she was a Member. _

For more than two years she had been told of insi-
nuations against het honour—that her neighbour's
servants had been under secret examinations—and
dark intimations were given to her of some mischief
hatching for the destruction of her peace, if not aim-
ing at her life. On the 7th of June, 1806, the Duke
of Kent communicated to her, that a formal investi-
gation was actually commenced into her conduct ;
and she instantly heard that two Attornies. (one the
Solicitor of Sir John Douglas) were arrived at her
house, to execute warrants to take half of her house-
hold servants away, for the purpose of examination.
It now appeared that the design was a charge of the
crime of high treason, in the infamous crime of adul-
tery, by which an attack was made directly on her
life. The first feeling of her heart prompted her to
request his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent to re:
main with- her till her servants were gone, that he
might bear witness that she held no conversation with
any of them previous to their departure, which he
accordingly did. This at least might serve to shew
that there was no alarm on her part, arising from any
consciousness of guilt, or that she had any need of
putting her servants on their guard, much less of
giving them instructions. The Inquiry went on for
two months from this time, without her receiving
the least communication on the subject, or knowing
what dark and fatal machinations might be going on.
At length, the Report, though dated the 14th of
July, did not reach her till the 11th of August. She
could not, in a situation of such peril to her life and
honour, trust to her own judgment, and therefore she
consulted legal men in forming her defence. They
advised her that the body of the charges was not com-
plete, as the Declarations upon which the King's
Warrant originated had not accompanied the Exa-
minations and Report, and that the whole had not
been officially authenticated. By a representation to
his Majesty these omissions were rectified. On the
29th August she received the Declarations (including
the Duke of Kent's) and on the 3d September the
papers were authenticated.
She was ready to acknowledge that her honour
was of more importance to the State than that of any
o her worean ; that her conduct, therefore, might be
fitly subjected, when necessary, to a severer scrutiny
than that of others; but it conld not follow, because
her character might be of. more importance, that
• it might be attacked with more impunity. For two
years she had been slandered in the most ignominious
way—insinuations thrown out against her in her
neighbourhood—spies placed upon her conduct—the
' servants in the neighbouring families tampered with,
and that by the Earl of Moira, as would appear by
the deposition of Jonathan Partridge, porter to Lord
Eardley. She humbly trusted, that before any other
proceeding should be gone into, it would be conside
'red as fit that it should be done by another and more
' known and regular tribunal, and in a manner more
consonant with the forms of British judicature.
' She now proceeded to observe on the evidence ad-
duced; and, first, of the testimony, of Lady Douglas.
The first observation that must strike every one, was
the folly of gratuitously and uselessly confessing to a
person, almost a stranger, a secret of such vital im-
portance as that of pregnancy, if it had been really
so. Lady Douglas had, in fact, courted her acquaint-
ance, by the most humble attentions, and she was not
a person who, either by her manners or acquirements,
' could engage any part of her confidence. The Prin-
cess proceeds to examine her Declaration, made on
the 3d of December, 1805, :hough it was not com-
municated to his Majesty till the month of May, and,
though she did not feel herself called upon to enter
into any refutation of an evidence that was totally
discredited, yet, in justice to her own feelings, she
must shew how inconsistent, vague, and futile it was
in every part, and accordingly the Princess goes
through it passage by passage. The other declara-
tions were made by persons of a character and de-
scription, as one would have thought would of itself
have deprived them of all credit. Such informations,
such ex:parte examinations, were of themselves suffi-
cient to make the Commissioners hesitate—but to re-
port upon them to his Majesty, with all the weight
and authority of their high names, she was perfectly
at a loss to account for. The evidence was described
as containing matters of ,6 great impropriety and in-
decency of behaviour, and as other particulars in
themselves extremely suspicious, and still more so,
when connected with the assertions already mention-
ed." And they go on to say, "that particularly what
passed between her Royal Highness and Captain
Manby must be credited, until they receive some de-
cisive contradiction; and, if true, are justly entitled
to the most serious consideration." Now, what did
the whole rest upon Nearsays--rumours—sespi-
cions, and reports of very doubtful persons. All the
witnesses except Mrs. Lisle, were witnesses of the in-
formers. For Mrs. Lisle she had great respect; but
all the rest were placed by the Prince about her; and
what is it that they say ? They speak only to such
generalities, as makes it difficult, at such a distance
of time, to recollect facts with sufficient accuracy to
contradict them. •
Cole, for instance, talks of her eating sandwiches
with Sir Sidney Smith : that he sometimes came to
dinner, and to supper, and staid till twelve or one, or
later. These were assertions which she could not
contradict, because they were true. His conversa-
tion, and the history of his achievements, amused her.
She was fitting up a Turkish tent, and he assisted her.
He gave her the plan of Murat Bey's. He taught her
how to draw Egyptian Arabesques, &c. and this oc-
casioned his frequent visits, and some, probably, as
early in the morning as Bidgood mentions. Bidgeod
might also have met them walking in the ?ark alone;

for the Ladies miet have gone up to take off their
cloaks, and dress for dinner, while they remained
alone. At some of these times Cole and Bidgood
might have seen Sir Sidney, when he had not entered
through the waiting-room ; but she never knew that
he had a hey to -the park ; and as to being alone
with him? it must have happened with many others
as well as him ; and she did n‘t conceive it to be in.

consistent with the manners of society. It was only
In the drawing-room—in no other room did she ever
see Gentlemen ; andas to eating sandwiches, she had
herself ordered them to be brought in, according to
daily custom, and he undoubtedly might have bee*
sitting on the same sofa. She might have often been
seen sitting on the same sofa with other GentlemeN
as well as Sir Sidney Smith; but it was impossible fot
her to say what corner 0 a sofa he might have occu-
pied four years ago. Her conscience perfectly ac-
quitted her of any improper freedom ' • and, unless it
should be considered, that a Princess of Wales could
never descend to the familiarities and intercourse of
private life, it must be under any circumstances ex-
tremely hard ; but under her's, it could hardly be ex-
pected from her.
There were four different declarations fromCole—
all different from the deposition which he afterwards
made, and materially differing from one another. It
was her misfortune that Cole and Bidgood had not
been sifted and questioned as they ought to be. The
Law Lords were not always, nor even often present,
and the examinations were left to Earl Spencer and
Lord Grenville. Cole was not punishable, because
the two Lords could not administer an oath ;—and
yet, mark the conduct of this man. He had observed
a man in a great coat, at midnight, without feeling
or giving any alarm ; and yet this man had his nerves
so shocked as to start at seeing a gentleman sitting on
a sofa at mid-day. He could stiffer the approach of a
man at midnight to his master's bed, because he did
not believe him to be a thief—and yet could have his
suspicions aroused at seeing a friend with his mistress
in an open room ! It was, no doubt, the watchman
whom he saw at midnight, whose duty it was to go
his rounds, both without and within the house—and
it was his duty to have ascertained who it was, if he
had doubts on the subject. He ascribes his removal
to his starting. It was not so—Cole was a disagree-
able man : he had been educated above his station ;
he spoke French, played on the violin, &c. He would
frequently play on her harpsichord and read her
books. He shewed a forwardness and impertinence
which were disgusting. He had lived at Dtvonshire-
house, and was recommended from thence to the
Prince. He carried thither all the observations which
he made on the Princess's family, which determined
her to remove him ; and for this purpose she desired
the Duke of Kent to acquaint him that she wished
him to wait on her at Cariton-house, and the arrange..
ment would have been made desirable to him, it he
had conducted himself with propriety.
The Lamperts, seryauts of Lady Douglas, the
Commissioners had not thought proper to examine,
no doubt from their sense of the ignominy into which
Lady Douglas had plunged herself ; but it was un-
fortunate, that, by the absence of Sir Sydney Smith,
she was unable to call upon him to refute the decla-
ration of the Lamperts.
The next person imputed to the Princess was Mr.
Lawrence, the painter. Mrs. Lisle said, that she sat
to him in London and at Blackheath; and Cole said he
44 slept two or three nights at Montague-house; that
one night she was with him alone in the blue-mom,
after the ladies had retired ; and that afterwards, when
he supposed that Mr. Lawrence had gone to bed, ha
went to see whether all was safe, and he found thet
blue-room locked, and heard a whispering. in it, upon
which he went away." In his first declaration he said,
that much suspicion was entertaiaed of Mr. Lawrence,
but he does not mention the whispering nor the loch
ed door. This contradiction is worthy of remark...
It is perfectly true, that in 1800 or 1801, Mr. Law.
rence painted a large picture of her and her daughter,
and he asked to be permitted to sleep a few nights at
Montague-house, that he might get up and work on
the picture in the morning. Sir William Beecher
had done the same. Accordingly an apartment was
assigned to him at the other end of the house.
did not dine with the Princess, but he came down
sometimes to music in the evening. "He sometimes
read, as he reads Shakspeare with great elegance, and
he sometimes played at chess with the Princess. It
frequently might have happened that he stayed till one
or two o'clock. The Ladies and he went together ; but
it might have happened that once he was lett with
her, as he himself recollects that it did happen for a
minute or two after the Ladies had retired. He lived
in the greatest intimacy with Mr. Lock and Mr. An-
gerstein, and the Princess had asked him to dine with
her with them. No doubt she often sat alone to him,
and often continued in conversation with him after
the sitting for the day was over ; but it never occurred
to her that it was necessary to her honour to have a
witness upon all such occasions. Mrs. Lisle says, that
she left the Princess at Mr. Lawrence's, but thinks
Mrs. Fitzgerald was with her.
As to Captain Hanby, the evidence of Bidgood.
Frances Lloyd, and Mrs. Lisle are to be considered;
and first as to Mrs. Lisle's evidence : she had placed
two boys under his care, and Mrs. Lisle says " that
he was the person with whom the Princess took greater
pleasure in speaking to than any other; that she be-
hayed to him only as any woman would do who likes
flirting, but she would not have thought that any mar-
ried woman would have behaved properly who be-
haved as she did to him. She would not say she
was attached to him, but it was a flirting conduct.—
She never saw any gallantry, as kissing her hand or
the like."
This was the sum of her evidence. The Princess was
introduced to Captain Manby at Lady Townshend's.
She put two boys under his care. While the Afri.
caine, his ship, was fitting out, he took apartments
at Blackheath, and she sometimes saw him. Having
placed these boys under him, she made him a pre-
sent of a little plate, as it was constantly her prac-
tice to make a present of some sort, where she im-
posed trouble. In like manner Sir Samuel Hood
had two of her boys, and she gave him an epergne.--
-She admits that she frequently conversed with Cap-
tain Manby, but Mrs. Lisle's evidence was not suffi-
ciently sifted ; she ought to have explained more dis-
tinctly what she observed, and not to he left to speak
in generalities. The Princess's conscience acquitted
her of every improper freedom. Mrs. Lisle had at
this time lost a favourite daughter, which no doubt
gave to her mind 3 serious wed even severe turn is