that 1 ought to scorn to answer to any thing which her examination may contain, except so far as there may appear to be any additional and concurrent evidence to support it.

"This brings me to the remaining part of the Report, which I read, I do assure Your Majesty, with a degree of astonishment and surprize, that I know not how to express. How the Commissioners could, upon such evidence, from such witnesses, upon such information, and in such an ex parte proceeding, before I had had the possibility of being heard, not only suffer themselves to form such an opinion, but to report it to Your Majesty, with all the weight and authority of their great names, I am perfectly at a loss to conceive. Their great official and judicial occupations, no doubt, prevented that full attention to the subject which it required. But I am 1 not surely without just grounds of complaint, if they proceeded to pronounce an opinion upon my character, without all that consideration and attention, which the importance of it to the peace of Your Majesty's mind, to the honor of Your Royal Family, and the reputation of the Princess of Wales, seem, indispensably, to have demanded.

"In the part of the Report already referred to, the particulars of the charge, exclusive of those two important facts, which have been so satisfactorily disposed of, are, as I have already observed, variously described by the Commissioners; as, "matters of great impropriety and "indecency of behaviour;" as, "other particulars

"in themselves extremely suspicious, and still "more so, when connected with the assertions "already mentioned;" and as "points of the "same nature, though coming to a much less "extent." But they do not become the subject of particular attention in the Report, till after the Commissioners had concluded that part of it, in which they give so decisive an opinion, against the truth of the charge upon the two material facts. They then proceed to state

"That they cannot close their Report there," much as they could wish it; that besides the allegations of the pregnancy and delivery of the Princess, those declarations, on the whole of which Your Majesty had required their Inquiry and Report, contain other particulars respecting the conduct of Her Royal Highness, such as must, especially considering her exalted rank and station, necessarily give occasion to very unfavourable interpretations. That from various depositions and proofs annexed to their report, particularly from the examinations of Robert Bidgood, W. Cole, F. Lloyd, and Mrs. Lisle, several strong circumstances of this description, have been positively sworn to, by witnesses, who cannot, in the judg ment of the Commissioners, be suspected of any unfavorable bias, and whose veracity in THIS RESPECT, they had seen no ground to question." They then state that "on the precise bearing and effect of the facts, thus appearing, it is not for them to decide; these they submit to Your Majesty's wisdom. But they conceive it to be their duty to report on this part of the Inquiry,

as distinctly as on the former facts; that as, on the one hand, the facts of pregnancy and delivery are, in their minds, satisfactorily disproved, so on the other hand they think, that the circumstances to which they now refer, particularly those stated to have passed between Her Royal Highness and Captain Manby, must be credited, until they shall receive some decisive contradiction, and if true, are justly entitled to the most serious consideration."

"Your Majesty will not fail to observe that the Commissioners have entered into the examination of this part of the case, and have reported upon it, not merely as evidence in confirmation of the charges of pregnancy and delivery, which they have completely negatived and disposed of, but as containing substantive matters of charge, in itself. That they consider it, indeed, as relating to points" of the same nature, but going to a much less extent," not therefore, as constituting actual crime, but as amounting to "improprieties and indecencies of behaviour," aggravated by the exalted rank which I hold, as "occasioning unfavourable interpretations," and as "entitled to the most serious consideration." And when they also state that it is not for them to decide on their precise bearing and effect, I think I am justified in concluding, that they could not class them under any known head of crime; as in that case, upon their bearing and effect, they would not have been fully competent to have pronounced.

"I have, to a degree, already stated to Your

Majesty, the unprecedented hardship to which I conceive myself to have been exposed, by this ex parte Inquiry into the decorum of my private conduct. I have already stated the prejudice done to my character, by this recorded censure from which I have no appeal; and I press these considerations no further upon Your Majesty, at present, than to point out, in passing this part of the Report, the just foundations it affords me for making the complaint.

"Your Majesty will also, I am persuaded, not fail to remark the strange 'obscurity and reserve, the mysterious darkness with which the Report here expresses itself; and every one must feel, how this aggravates the severity and cruelty of the censure, by rendering it impossible distinctly and specifically to meet it. The Commissioners state indeed, that some things are proved against me, which must be credited till they shall receive a decisive contradiction, but what those things are, they do not state; they are "particulars and circumstances which, especially considering my exalted rank, must give occasion to the most unfavorable interpretations. There are several strong circumstances of this description;""they are, if true, justly deserving of most serious consideration;" and they "must be credited till decidedly contradicted." But what are these circumstances? What are these deeds without a name? Was there ever a charge so framed? Was ever any one put to answer any charge, and decidedly to contradict it, or submit to have it credited against him, which was conceived

in such terms, without the means of ascertaining what these things are, (except as conjecture may enable me to surmise, to what parts of the examinations of the four witnesses on whom they particularly rely, they attach the importance and the weight which seem to them,) to justify these dark and ambiguous censures on my conduct? But such as they are, and whatever they may be, they must, Your Majesty is told, be credited, unless they are decidedly contradicted.

Circumstances, respecting Captain Manby indeed, are particularized; but referring to the depositions which apply to him, they contain much matter of opinion, of hearsay, of suspicion. Are these hearsays, are these opinions, are these suspicions and conjectures of these witnesses, to be believed against me, unless decidedly contradicted? How can I decidedly contradict another person's opinion? I may reason against its justice, but how can I contradict it? Or how can I decidedly contradict any thing which is not precisely specified, nor distinctly known to me?

"Your Majesty will also observe, that the Report states it is not for the Commissioners to decide upon the bearing and effect of these facts; these are left for Your Majesty's decision. But they add, that if true, they are justly entitled to the most serious consideration. I cannot, Sire, but collect from these passages, an intimation that some further proceedings may be meditated. And, perhaps, if I acted with prudence, seeing how much I have to fear from the fabrications of falsehood, I ought to have waited till I knew what