declarations of the Douglases. Why, then, were these not laid before the king sooner? If they were worthy of serious attention in May, why not in the previous December? Oh! there was the chancellor, Thomas Lord Erskine, NOW

to lay them before the king! But, was there not the chancellor, John Lord Eldon, to lay them before the king in December? The prince's friends came into power in February; and they, it appears, soon discovered the necessity of making this matter known to the king, though there does not, from the documents, appear to have been any ground of accusation against the princess, which did not exist, and which had not been amply detailed, on the 3rd of the previous month of December.

73. The princess, conscious of her innocence, and indignant at the "foul conspiracy " against her, would, if she had been left to herself, or had had only some female friend of plain sense, able to write English, have blown the conspirators into the air in a short time; but, unhappily for her, and unhappily for the nation also, the faction out of place got her into their hands; and, as we are now about to see, sacrificed her to their own purposes of power and emolument. The warrant was issued, the commission held, and the report made, without her being at all informed of the matter. It was an exparte affair altogether; the first intimation that she received of

the matter was in the report (par. 66), which was sent to her by the lord chancellor. On the 17th of August, she wrote to the king a commentary on this report, and praying for documents and further information. At last, on the 8th December, she sent to the king her grand statement of complaints against her persecutors. All this time she had not been received at court. But, on the 28th of January, she received, through the lord chancellor, a message from the king, saying that he did not think it necessary for him "longer to decline receiving her into his presence; but, at the same time, giving her a gentle reprimand on the score of levity of conduct. The princess instantly answered, that she should attend the king with great joy; and the king, in reply, told her that, at some days distance, he would rather receive her in London than at Windsor. The queen and family were at Windsor! Before, however, the interview was to take place in London, he wrote to her to say, that it must be again deferred; for, "that "the Prince of Wales, upon receiving the seve"ral documents, which the king directed his "cabinet to transmit to him, made a formal "communication to him, of his intention to put "them into the hands of his lawyers; accom"panied by a request, that his majesty would suspend any further steps in the business, until "the Prince of Wales should be enabled to

"submit to him the statement which he pro6 posed to make. The king therefore considers "it incumbent upon him to defer naming a day "to the Princess of Wales, until the further re"sult of the prince's intention shall have been "made known to him."

74. This intimation, which was dated 10th February, 1807, was enough to inflame any one, and particularly a spirited woman; and now she threatened to do that which she ought to have done at first; namely, expose the whole affair to the public. The prince had had all the documents in his hands for seven months; and now, when he found that the princess was about to be received at court, he wanted further delay, and she was, though the charges against her were proved to be false, still to remain in a state of disgrace! In her answer, therefore, to this intimation, she declares that she will endure this treatment no longer; and she tells them that, if another week pass without her receiving information that the king is ready to receive her, she will cause all the documents to be published. In this letter, which was dated on the 16th of February, 1807, the princess rises in her demands; she says, that now, after all this delay, and all the suspicions against her, to which this long banishment from court must have given rise, a mere reception by the king, or at the court, will not be sufficient for the clearing of her character;

that now it will be necessary that she be received into the bosom of the royal family, and restored to her former respect and station amongst them ; and that, besides this, it will be necessary that she be "restored to the use of her apartments in Carlton House;" or, that she have assigned to her "some apartment in one of the royal palaces" in or near London. She then states, distinctly, that these are the conditions on which alone she can or will refrain from publishing all the documents: and she concludes her letter in these words:"I trust, therefore, sire, that I 66 may now close this long letter, in confidence "that many days will not elapse before I shall "receive from your majesty, that assurance that my just requests may be so completely granted, "as may render it possible for me (which nothing else can) to avoid the painful disclosure "to the world of all the circumstances of that "injustice, and of those unmerited sufferings "which these proceedings, in the manner in "which they have been conducted, have brought upon me.

66

66

66

75. No answer having been given to this letter, the princess, on the 5th of March, again wrote to the king on the subject, for the last time; and, after expressing her mortification at not having received an answer to her letter, said, in conclusion, "I am now reduced to the neces66 sity of abandoning all hope that your majesty

"will comply with my humble, my earnest, and "anxious requests. Your majesty, therefore, "will not be surprised to find that the publica"tion of the proceedings alluded to will not be "withheld beyond Monday next!"

76. The publication was delayed, however; it never appeared until 1813; and then, as will be shown in due time and place, it was brought forth by the acts of the writer of this history, had it not been for whom, the probability is, that it never would have appeared at all, or, at least, during the reign of George IV. And now I have to unfold an intrigue, the like of which has scarcely ever been heard of, and in the history of which we shall see how a whole nation was made to suffer for these whims (to give them the mildest terms) of one single man. The requests of the princess were granted; she was received at court, and into the royal family; she had apartments allotted her in Kensington Palace. But, as all the world saw, these outward signs did not clear her of all suspicion. The newspapers had, for seven months, been ringing with the criminations and recriminations; those on her side had repeatedly threatened publication; on the other side it was stated, that she had not been entirely acquitted; even the newspapers of the outfaction allowed that she had been guilty of some trifling levities," and that the king had given her a gentle reprimand. Therefore, to be re