ness, nor your Majesty, any more than myself, had been fairly dealt with, in not being fully informed upon this important fact; and your Majesty will forgive a weak, unprotected woman, like myself, who, under such circumstances, should apprehend that, however Sir John and Lady Douglas may appear my ostensible aceusers, I have other enemies, whose ill-will I may have occasion to fear, without feeling myself assured, that it will be strictly regulated, in its proceeding against me, by the principles of fairness and of justice.- I have now, Sire, gone through all the evidence which respects Captain Manby; whether at Montague House, Southend, or East Cliff, and I do trust, that your Majesty will see, upon the whole of it, how mistaken a view the Commissioners have taken of it. The pressure of other duties enmade them leave the important duties of this investigation, in many particulars, imperfectly discharged-a more thorough attention to it must have given them a better and truer insight into the characters of those witnesses, upon whose credit, as I am convinced, your Majesty will now see, they have without sufficient reason relied. There remains nothing for me, on this part of the charge to perform; but, adverting to the circumstance which is falsely sworn against me by Mr. Bidgood, of the salute, and the false inference and insinuation, from other facts, that Captain Manby slept in my house, either at Southend, or East Cliff, on my own part most solemnly to declare, that they are both utterly, false; that Bidgood's assertion as to the salute, is a malicious slanderous invention, without the slightest shadow of truth to support it; that his suspicions and insinuations, as to Captain Manby's having slept in my house, are also the false suggestions of his own malicious mind; and that Captain Manby never did, to my knowledge or belief, sleep in my House at Southend, East Cliff, or any other house of mine whatever; and, however often he may have been in my company, I solemnly protest to your Majesty, as I have done in the former cases, that nothing ever passed between him and me, that I should be ashamed, or unwilling that all the world should have seen. And I have also, with great pain, and with a deep sense of wounded delicacy, applied to Captain Manby to attest to the same truths, and I subjoin to this letter his deposition to that effect.

solicitor, who, according to Mr. Cole, accom | tified in saying, that neither His Royal Highpanied him to Cheltenham to procure some of these declarations. On the 13th of February, the next day after Fanny Lloyd's declaration, the Earl of Moira sends for Mr. Mills, upon pressing business. Mr. Mills attends him on the 14th; he is asked by his Lordship upon the subject of this conversation; he is told he may rely upon his Lordship's honour, that what passed should be in perfect confidence; (a confidence which Mr. Mills, feeling it to be on a subject too important to his character, at the moment disclaims;)—that it was his (the Earl of Moira's) duty to his Prince, as his counsellor, to inquire into the subject, which he had known for some time.-Fanny Lloyd's statement being then related to Mr. Mills, Mr. Mills, with great warmth, declared that it was an infamous falsehood.-Mr. Lowten, who appears also to have been there by ap-grossing their time and their attention, has pointment, was called into the room, and he furnished Mr. Mills with the date to which Fanny Lloyd's declaration applied. The meeting ends in Lord Moira's desiring to see Mr. Mills's partner, Mr. Edmeades, who, not being at home cannot attend him for a few days. He does, however, upon his return, attend him on the 20th of May: on his attendance, instead of Mr. Lowten, he finds Mr. Conant, the magistrate, with Lord Moira. He denies the conversation with Fanny Lloyd, as positively and peremptorily as Mr. Mills. Notwithstanding however all this, the Declaration of Fanny Lloyd is delivered to His Royal Highness, unaccompanied by these contradictions, and forwarded to your Majesty on the 29th. That Mr. Lowten was the Solicitor of Sir John Douglas in this business, cannot be doubted, that he took some of those declarations, which were laid before your Majesty, is clear; and that he took this declaration of Fanny Lloyd's, seems not to be questionable. That the inquiry by Earl Moira, two days after her declaration was taken, must have been in consequence of an early communication of it to him, seems necessarily to follow from what is above stated; that it was known, on the 14th of May, that Mr. Mills contradicted this assertion; and, on the 20th, that Mr. Edmeades did, is perfectly clear; and yet, notwithstanding all this, the fact, that Mr. Edmeades and Mr. Mills contradicted it, seems to have been not communicated to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, for he, as it appears from the Report, forwarded the declarations which had been delivered to His Royal Highness, through the Chancellor, to your Majesty: and the declaration of Fanny Lloyd, which had been so falsified, to the knowledge of the Earl Moira and of Mr. Lowten, the Solicitor for Sir John Douglas, is sent into your Majesty as one of the documents, on which you were to ground your inquiry, unaccompanied by its falsification by Mills and Edmeades; at least, no declarations by them are amongst those, which are transmitted to me, as copies of the original declarations which were laid before your Majesty. I know not whether it was Lord Moira, or Mr. Lowten, who should have communicated this circumstance to His Royal Highness, but that, in all fairness, it ought unquestionably to have been communicated by some one.I dare not trust myself with any inferences from this proceeding; I content myself with remarking, that it must now be felt, that I was jus

I stated to your Majesty, that I should be oblig ed to return to other parts of Fanny Lloyd's testimony;-At the end of it she says, "I never told Cole that M. Wilson, when she supposed the Princess to be in the library, had gone into the Princess's bed-room, and had found a man there at breakfast with the Princess; or that there was a great to do about it, and that M. Wilson was sworn to secrecy, and threatened to be turned away, if she divulged what she had seen." This part of her examination, your Majesty will perceive, must have been called from her, by some precise question, addressed to her, with respect to a supposed communication from her to Mr. Cole. In Mr. Cole's examination, there is not one word upon the subject of it. In his original declaration, however, there is; and there your Majesty will perceive, that he affirms the fact of her having reported to him Mary Wilson's declaration in the very same words in which Fanny Lloyd denies it, and it is therefore evi

dent that the Commissioners, in putting this | question to Fanny Lloyd, must have put it to her from Cole's declaration. She positively denies the fact; there is then a flat and precise contradiction, between the examination of Fanny Lloyd and the original statement of Mr. Cole. It is therefore impossible that they both can have spoken true. The Commissioners, for some reason, don't examine Cole to this point at all; don't endeavour to trace out this story; if they had, they must have discovered which of these witnesses spoke the truth, but they leave this contradiction not only unexplained, but uninquired after and in that state, report both these witnesses, Cole and Fanny Lloyd, who thus speak to the two sides of a contradiction, and who therefore cannot by possibility both speak truth, as witnesses who cannot be suspected of partiality, whose credit they see no reason to question, and whose story must be believed till contradicted. -But what is, if possible, still more extraordinary, this supposed communication from F. Lloyd to Cole, as your Majesty observes, relates to something which M. Wilson is supposed to have seen and to have said; yet though M. Wilson appears herself to have been examined by the Commissioners on the same day with Fanny Lloyd, in the copy of her examination, as delivered to me, there is no trace of any question relating to this declaration having been put to her.

had seen and related to Fanny Lloyd, they could not have been at a loss to have discovered which of these witnesses told the truth. They would have found, I am perfectly confident, that all that Mary Wilson ever could have told Fanny Lloyd, was that she had seen Sir Sidney and my. self in the blue room, and they would then have had to refer to the malicious, and confederated inventions of the Bidgoods and Mr. Cole, for the conversion of the blue-room into the bed-room; for the vile slander of what M. Wilson was supposed to have seen, and for the violent effect which this scene had upon her. I say their confederated inventions, as it is impossible to suppose that they could have been concerned in inventing the same additions to Fanny Lloyd's story, unless they had communicated together upon it. And when they had once found Mrs, Bidgood and Mr. Cole, thus conspiring together, they would have had no difficulty in connecting them both in the same conspiracy with Sir John Douglas, by shewing how connected Cole was with Sir John Douglas, and how acquainted with his proceedings, in collecting the evidence which was to support Lady Donglas's declaration.

For, by referring to Mr. Cole's declaration, made on the 23d of February, they would have seen that Mr. Cole, in explaining some observation about Sir Sidney's supposed possession of a key to the garden-door, says that it was what "Mr. Lampert, the servant of Sir John Douglas, And I have not less reason to lament than to "mentioned at Cheltenham to Sir John Douglas be surprised, that it did not occur to the Com-" and Mr. Lowten."-How should Mr. Cole missioners, to see the necessity of following this know that Sir John Douglas and Mr. Lowten inquiry still further; for, if properly pursued, it had been down to Cheltenham, to collect eviwould have demonstrated two things, both very dence from this old servant of Sir John Doug. important to be kept in mind in the whole of las? How should he have known what that this consideration. First, how hearsay represen- evidence was? unless he had either accompanied tations of this kind, arising out of little or no- them himself, or at least had had such a comthing, become magnified and exaggerated by munication either with Sir John Douglas, or the circulation of prejudiced or malicious Re- Mr. Lowten, as it never could have occurred to porters; and, secondly, it would have shewn the any of them to have made to Mr. Cole, unless, industry of Mr. and Mrs. Bidgood, as well as instead of being a mere witness, he were a party Mr. Cole, in collecting information in support of to this accusation? But whether they had conLady Douglas's statement, and in improving vinced themselves, that Fanny Lloyd spoke what they collected by their false colourings and true, and Cole and Mrs. Bidgood falsely; or malicious additions to it. They would have whether they had convinced themselves of the found a story in Mrs. Bidgood's declaration, as reverse, it could not have been possible, that well as in her husband's (who relates it as having they both could have spoken the truth; and, heard it from his wife), which is evidently the consequently, the Commissioners could never same as that which W. Cole's declaration con- have reported the veracity of both to be free tains; for the Bidgoods' declarations state, that from suspicion, and deserving of credit.—There Fanny Lloyd told Mrs. Bidgood, that Mary Wil-only remains that I should make a few observason had gone into the Princess's bed room, andtions on what appears in the examinations relahad found Her Royal Highness and Sir Sydney tive to Mr. Hood (now Lord Hood), Mr. Chester, in the most criminal situation; that she had left and Captain Moore: and I really should not the room, and was so shocked, that she fainted have thought a single observation necessary upon away at the door. Here, then, are Mrs. Bidgood either of them, except that what refers to them and Mr. Cole, both declaring what they had is stated in the examinations of Mrs. Lisle.— heard Fanny Lloyd say, and Fanny Lloyd deny. With respect to Lord Hood, it is as follows:ing it. How extraordinary is it that they were "I was at Catherington with the Princess; renot all confronted! and your Majesty will sce "member Mr. (now Lord Hood) there, and the presently how much it is to be lamented that they" Princess going out airing with him, alone in were not; for, from Fanny Lloyd's original declaration, it appears that the truth would have come out, as she there states, that, "to the best of her knowledge, Mary Wilson said, that she had seen the Princess and Sir Sydney in the Blue Room, but never heard Mary Wilson say she was so alarmed as to be in a fit." If then, on confronting Fanny Lloyd with Mrs. Bidgood and Mr. Cole, the Commissioners had found Fanny Lloyd's story to be what she related before, and had then put the question to Mary Wilson, and had heard from Irer what it really was which she

"Mr. Hood's little whiskey; and his servant was "with them; Mr. Hood drove, and staid out "two or three times; more than once; three or "four times. Mr. Hood dined with us several "times; once or twice he slept in a house in the "garden; she appeared to pay no attention to "him, but that of common civility to an inti"mate acquaintance." Now, Sire, it is undoubtedly true that I drove out several times with Lord Hood in his one-horse chaise, and some few times, twice, I believe, at most, without any of my servants attending us; and considering the

time of life, and the respectable character of mying to examine Mrs. Lisle upon my attention to Lord Hood, I never should have conceived that Mr. Chester, my walking out with him, and, I incurred the least danger to my reputation in so above all," as to his being a pretty young man," doing. If, indeed, it was the duty of the Com- I conceive it to be so intended), I am sure your missioners to inquire into instances of my con- Majesty will see, that it is the hardest thing imaduct, in which they may conceive it to have been ginable upon me, that, upon an occurrence less reserved and dignified than what would pro-which passed in Lady Sheffield's house, on a visit perly become the exalted station which I hold in to her, Lady Sheffield herself was never examinyour Majesty's Royal Family, it is possible that, ed; for, if she had been, I am convinced that in the opinions of some, these drives with my these noble Lords, the Commissioners, never could Lord Hood were not consistent with that station, have put me to the painful degradation of stating and that they were particularly improper in those any thing upon this subject.- The statement instances in which we were not attended by more begins by Mrs. Lisle's inquiring, what company servants, or any servants of my own. Upon this was there? and Lady Sheffield saying, "only I have only to observe, that these instances oc- Mr. John Chester, who was there by Her Royal curred after I had received the news of the la- Highness's orders; that she could get no other mented death of your Majesty's brother, the company, on account of the roads." Is not this, Duke of Gloucester, I was at that time down Sire, left open to the inference that Mr. John by the sea-side for my health. I did not like to Chester was the only person who had been inforego the advantage of air and exercise for the vited by my orders? If Lady Sheffield had been short remainder of the time which I had to stay examined, she would have been able to have prothere; and I purposely chose to go out, not in duced the very letter in which, in answer to her my own carriage, and unattended, that I might | Ladyship's request, that I would let her know not be seen, and known to be driving about (my- what company it would be agreeable for me to self and my attendants ont of mourning) while meet, I said, "every thing of the name of North, His Royal Highness was known to have been so all the Legges, and Chesters, William and John, recently dead. This statement, however, is all &c. &c. and Mr. Elliott." Instead of singling that I have to make upon my part of the case; out, therefore, Mr. John Chester, I included him and whatever indecornin or impropriety of beha- in the enumeration which I made of the near re viour the Commissioners have fixed upon me by lations of Lady Sheffield; and your Majesty, this circumstance, it must remain; for I cannot from this alone, cannot fail to see how false a codeny the truth of the fact, and have only the lour even a true fact can assume, if it be not suf above explanation to offer of it. As to what ficiently inquired into and explained.- -As to Mrs. Lisle's examination contains with respect to the circumstances of my having been taken ill in Mr. Chester and Captain Moore, it is so conthe night, being obliged to get up, and light my nected, that I must trouble your Majesty with candle; why this fact should be recorded, I am the statement of it altogether. wholly at a loss to conceive. All the circum. stances, however, respecting it, connected very much as they are with the particular disposition of Lady Sheffield's house, would have been fully explained, if thought material to have been inquired atter, by Lady Sheffield herself; and I should have been relieved from the painful degradation of alluding at all to a circumstance which I could not further detail, without a great degree of indelicacy; and as I cannot possibly suppose such a detail can be necessary for my defence, it would, especially in addressing your Majesty, be wholly inexcusable. With respect to the attention which I paid to Mr. Chester, and my walking out twice alone with him for a short time, I know not how to notice it. At this. distance of time I am not certain that I can, with perfect accuracy, account for the circumstance. It appears to have been a rainy morning; it was on the 27th or 28th of December; and whether, wishing to take a walk, I did not desire Lady Sheffield, or Mrs. Lisle, or any Lady to accompany me in doing what, in such a morning, I might think might be disagreeable to them, I really cannot precisely state to your Majesty.

"I was with Her Royal Highness at Lady Sheffield's, at Christmas, in Sussex. I inquired what company was there when I came; she said, only Mr. John Chester, who was there by Her Royal Highness's orders; that she could get no other company to meet her, on account of the roads and the season of the year. He dined and slept there that night. The next day other company came; Mr. Chester remained. I heard her Royal Highness say she had been ill in the night, and came ont for a light, and lighted her candle in her servant's room. I returned from Sheffieldplace to Blackheath with the Princess; Captain Moore dined there; I left him and the Princess twice alone, for a short time; he might be alone half an hour with her in the room below, in which we had been sitting. I went to look for a book to complete a set Her Royal Highness was lending Captain Moore. She made him a present of an inkstand, to the best of my recollection. He was there one morning in January last, on the Princess Charlotte's birth-day; he went away before the rest of the company. I might be about twenty minutes the second time I was away, the night Captain Moore was there. At Lady Sheffield's. Her Royal Highness paid more attention to Mr. Chester than to the rest of the Company. I know of Her Royal Highness walking out alone; twice, with Mr. Chester, in the morning alone; once, a short time, it rained; the other not an hour, not long. Mr. Chester is a pretty young man; her attentions to him were not uncommon; not the same as to Captain Manby."

-But here, again, perhaps, in the judgment of some persons, may be an instance of familiarity, which was not consistent with the dignity of the Princess of Wales; but, surely, prejudice against me and my character must exceed all natural bounds in those minds in which any inference of crime or moral depravity can be drawn from such a fact. As to Captain Moore, it seems he was left alone with me, and twice in one afternoon, by Mrs. Lisle; he was alone with me half At first, Sire, as to what relates to Mr. Chester. an hour. The first time Mrs. Lisle left us, her If there is any imputation to be cast upon my examination says, it was to look for a book which character by what passed at Sheffield-place with I wished to lend to Captain Moore. How long Mr. Chester (and by the Commissioners returu-she was absent on that occasion she is not asked,

the compass of their Inquiries-that they would not be warranted in expressing any doubt respecting the alleged pregnancy of the Princess, as stated in the original declarations, a fact so fully contradicted, and by so many witnesses, to whom, if true, it must in various ways have been known, that we cannot think it entitled to the smallest credit."- -There are, indeed, some other matters mentioned in the original declarations, which I might have found it necessary to observe upon; but as the Commissioners do not appear to have entered into any examination with respect to them, I content myself with fying themselves of the utter falsehood of those particulars, and, therefore, that they can require no contradiction or observation from me.On the declaration, therefore, and the evidence, I have nothing further to remark. And, conscious of the length at which I have trespassed on your Majesty's patience, I will forbear to waste your time by any endeavour to recapitulate what I have said. Some few observations, however, before I conclude, I must hope to be permitted to subjoin. In many of the observations which I have made, your Majesty will observe that I have noticed, what have appeared to me to be great omissions on the part of the Commissioners, in the manner of taking their examinations; in forbearing to put any questions to the witnesses, in the nature of a cross-examination of them; to confront them with each other; and to call other witnesses, whose testimony must either have confirmed or falsified, in important particulars, the examinations as they have taken them. It may perhaps occur, in consequence of such observations, that I am desirous that this Inquiry should be opened again; that the Commissioners should recommence their labours, and that they should proceed to supply the defects in their previous examinations, by a fuller execution of their duty.-I therefore think it necessary, most distinctly and emphatically to state, that I have no such meaning; and whatever may be the risk that I may incur of being charged with betraying a consciousness of guilt, by thus flying from an extension or repetition of this Inquiry, I must distinctly state, that so far from requesting the revival of it, I humbly request your Majesty would be graciously pleased to understand me as remonstrating and protesting against it, in the strongest and most solemn manner in my power.- -I am yet to learn the legality of such a Commission to inquire, even in the case of High Treason, or any other crime known to the laws of the country. If it is lawful in the case of High Treason, supposed to be committed by me, surely it must be lawful also in the case of High Treason, supposed to be committed by other subjects of your Majesty.

drawings were produced by the Commissioners to her; and that she was examined as to her knowledge of them, and as to the hand-writing upon them; that she was satisfied, and swore that they were not my hand-writing, and that she knew nothing of them, and did not believe they could possibly come from any lady in my house. She was shewn the seal also, which Lady Douglas, in her Declaration, says, was the "identical one with which I had summoned Sir "John Douglas to luncheon." To this seal, though it so much resembled one that belonged to herself, as to make her hesitate till she had particularly observed it, she was at last as posi-thinking that they had found the means of satistive as to the hand-writing; and having expressed herself with some feeling and indignation at the supposition, that either I, herself, or any of my ladies, could be guilty of so foul a transaction, the Commissioners tell her they were satisfied and believed her; and there is not one word of all this related in her examination.-Now, if their Lordships were satisfied from this, or any other circumstance, that these letters were not my writing, and did not come from me, I cannot account for their not preserving any trace of Mrs. Fitzgerald's evidence on this point, and leaving it out of their inquiry altogether; but, if they thought proper to preserve any evidence upon it, to make it the subject of any examination, surely they should not have left it on Lord Cholmondeley's alone; but I ought to have had the benefit of Mrs. Fitzgerald's evidence also; but, as I said before, they take no notice of her evidence; nay, they finish their Report, they execute it according to the date it bears upon the 14th of July, and it is not until two days afterwards, namely, on the 16th, that they examined Lord Cholmondeley to the hand-writing -with what view, and for what purpose, I cannot even surmise; but with whatever view, and for whatever purpose, if these letters are at all to be alluded to in their Report, or the examinations accompanying it, surely I ought to have had the benefit of the other evidence, which disproved my connexion with them.—I have now, Sire, gone through all the matters contained in the examination, on which I think it, in any degree, necessary to trouble your Majesty with any observations. For as to the examination of Mrs. Townley the washerwoman, if it applies at all, it must have been intended to have afforded evidence of my pregnancy and miscarriage.~ And whether the circumstances she speaks to was occasioned by my having been bled with leeches, or whether an actual miscarriage did take place in my family, and by some means linen belonging to me was procured and used upon the occasion, or to whatever other circumstance it is to be ascribed, after the manner in which the Commissioners have expressed their opinion, on the part of the case respecting my supposed pregnancy, and after the evidence on which they formed their opinion, I do not conceive myself called upon to say any thing upon it; or that any thing I could say could be more satisfactory than repeating the opinion of the Commissioners, as stated in their Report, viz. "That nothing had appeared to them which would warrant the belief that I was pregnant in that year (1802), or at any other period within

-That there is much objection to it, in rea son and principle, my understanding assures me. That such Inquiries, carried on upon ex parte examination, and a Report of the result by persons of high authority, may, nay must, have a tendency to prejudice the character of the parties who are exposed to them, and thereby influ ence the further proceedings in their case;that are calculated to keep back from notice, and in security, the person of a false accuser, R

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