ascertained what Mrs. Lisle may have left in doubt? The Commissioners, I give them the fullest credit, were satisfied that Mrs. Lisle thought correctly upon this fact, and that Mrs. Fitzgerald, if she had been sent for again, would so have proved it, and therefore that it would bave been troubling her to no purpose. But this it is, of which I conceive myself to have most reason to complain;-that the examinations in several instances have not been followed up, so as to remove unfavourable impressions.

"I cannot but feel satisfied that the Commissioners would have been glad to have been warranted in negativing all criminality, and all suspicion on this part of the charge, as completely and honorably as they have done on the principal charges of pregnancy and delivery. They traced that part of the charge with ability, sagacity, diligence, and perseverance; and the result was the complete satisfaction of my innocence; complete detection of the falsehood of my accusers. Encouraged by their success in that part of their Inquiry, I lament that they did not, (as they thought proper to enter into the other part of it at all,) with similar industry pursue it. If they had, I am confident they would have pursued it with the same success; but though they had convicted Sir John and Lady Douglas of falsehood, they seem to have thought it impossible to suspect of the same falsehood, any other of the witnesses, though produced by Sir John and Lady Douglas. The most obvious means, therefore, of trying their credit, by comparing their

evidence with what they had said before, seems to me to have been omitted. Many facts are left upon surmise only, and insinuation; obvious means of getting further information ou doubtful and suspicious circumstances, are not resorted to; and, as if the important matter of the Inquiry (on which a satisfactory conclusion had been formed) was all that required any very attentive or accurate consideration, the remainder of it was pursued in a manner, which, as it seems to me, can only be accounted for by the pressure of what may have been deemed more important duties and of this I should have made but little complaint, if this Inquiry, where it is imperfect, had not been followed by a Report, which the most accurate only could have justified, and which such an accurate Inquiry, I am confident, never could have produced.

"If any credit was given to Mr. Cole's story of the locked door, and the whispering; and to Mr. Lawrence having been left with me so frequently of a night when my ladies had left us; why were not all my ladies examined? Why were not all my servants examined as to their knowledge of that fact? And if they had been so examined, and had contradicted the fact sworn to by Mr. Cole, as they must have done, had they been examined to it; that alone would have been sufficient to have removed his name from the list of unsuspected and unquestionable witnesses, and relieved me from much of the suspicion which his evidence, till it was examined, was calculated to have raised in Your Majesty's

mind. And to close this statement, and these observations, and in addition to them, I most solemnly assert to Your Majesty, that Mr. Lawrence, neither at his own house nor at mine, nor any where else, ever was for one moment, by night or by day, in the same room with me when the door of it was locked; that he never was in my company of an evening alone, except the momentary conversation which Mr. Lawrence speaks to, may be thought an exception; and that nothing ever passed between him and me, which all the world might not have witnessed. And, Sire, I have subjoined a deposition to the same effect from Mr. Lawrence.

"To satisfy myself therefore, and Your Majesty, I have shewn, I trust, by unanswerable observations and arguments, that there is no color for crediting Mr. Cole, or consequently, any part of this charge which rests solely on his evidence. But to satisfy the requisition of the Commissioners, I have brought my pride to submit (though not without great pain, I can assure Your Majesty,) to add the only contradictions which I conceive can be given, those of Mr. Lawrence and myself.

"The next person with whom these examinations charge my improper familiarity, and with regard to which the Report represents the evidence as particularly strong, is Captain Manby. With respect to him, Mr. Cole's examination is silent. But the evidence on which the Commissioners rely on this part of the case, is Mr. Bidgood's, Miss Fanny Lloyd's, and Mrs. Lisle's.

It respects my conduct at three different places; at Montague House, Southend, and Ramsgate. I shall preserve the facts and my observations more distinct, if I consider the evidence as applicable to these three places, separately and in its order; and I prefer this mode of treating it, as it will enable me to consider the evidence of Mrs. Lisle in the first place, and consequently put it out of the reach of the harsher observations, which 1 may be under the necessity of making, upon the testimony of the other two. For though Mrs. Lisle indeed, speaks to having seen Captain Manby at East Cliff, in August, 1803, to the best of her remembrance it was only once; she speaks to his meeting her at Deal in the same season; that he landed there with some boys whom I took on charity, and who were under his care; yet she speaks of nothing there, which can require a single observation from me. The material parts of her evidence respect her seeing him at Blackheath, the Christmas before she had seen him at East Cliff. She says it was the Christmas after Mr. Austen's child came, consequently the Christmas 1802-3. He used to come to dine there, she says; he always went away in her presence, and she had no reason to think he staid after the ladies retired. He lodged on the heath at that time; his ship was fitting up at Deptford; he came to dinner three or four times a week, or more. She supposes he might be alone with the Princess, but that she was in the habit of seeing gentlemen and tradesmen, without her being present. She (Mrs. Lisle) has seen him at

luncheon and dinner both. The boys (two boys) came with him two or three times, but not to dinner. Captain Manby always sat next the Princess at dinner. The constant company were Mrs. Fitzgerald and herself, all retired with the Princess, and sat in the same room. Captain Manby generally retired about eleven; and sat with us all till then. Captain Manby and the Princess used, when we were together, to be speaking together separately, conversing separately, but not in a room alone. He was a person with whom the Princess appeared to have greater pleasure in talking, than with her ladies. Her Royal Highness behaved to him ONLY, as any woman would, who likes flirting. She, (Mrs. Lisle) would not have thought any married woman would have behaved properly, who behaved as her Royal Highness did to Captain Manby. She can't say whether the Princess was attached to Captain Manby, only that it was a flirting conduct. She never saw any gallantries, as kissing her hand, or the like."

"I have cautiously stated the whole of Mrs. Lisle's evidence upon this part of the case; and I am sure Your Majesty, in reading it, will not fail to keep the facts which Mrs. Lisle speaks to, separate from the opinion, or judgment, which she forms upon them. I mean not to speak disrespectfully, or slightingly of Mrs. Lisle's opinion, or to express myself as in any degree indifferent to it. But whatever there was which she observed in my conduct, that did not become a married woman, "that was ONLY like