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a woman who liked flirting," and,

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"ONLY a

flirting conduct," I am convinced Your Majesty must be satisfied that it must have been far distant from affording any evidence of crime, of vice, or of indecency, as it passed openly in the company of my ladies, of whom Mrs. Lisle herself was one.

66

"The facts she states are, that Captain Manby came very frequently to my house; that he dined there three or four times a week, in the latter end of the year 1802; that he sat next to me at dinner; and that my conversation after dinner, in the evening, used to be with Captain Manby, separate from my ladies. These are the facts; and is it upon them, that my character, I will not say, is to be taken away, but is to be affected? Captain Manby had, in the autumn of the same year, been introduced to me by Lady Townshend, when I was upon a visit to her at Rainham. I think he came there only the day before I left it. He was a naval officer as I understood, and as I still believe, of great merit. What little expence in the way of charity, I am able to afford, I am best pleased to dedicate to the education of the children of poor, but honest persons; and I most generally bring them up to the service of the navy. I had at that time two boys at school, whom I thought of an age to be put to sea. I desired Lady Townshend to prevail upon Captain Manby to take them. He consented to it, and of course I was

obliged to him.

"About this time, or shortly afterwards, he

was appointed to the Africaine, a ship which was fitting up at Deptford. To be near his ship, as I understood and believe, he took lodgings at Blackheath; and as to the mere fact of his being so frequently at my house,-his intimacy and friendship with Lord and Lady Townshend, which of itself was assurance to me of his respectability and character,-my pleasure in shewing respect to them, by notice and attention to a friend of theirs,-his undertaking the care of my charity boys-and his accidental residence at Blackheath, will, I should trust, not unreasonably account for it. I have a similar account likewise to give, of paying for the linen furniture with which which his cabin was furnished. Wishing to make him some return for his trouble with the boys, I desired that I might choose the pattern of his furniture. I not only chose it, but had it sent to him, and paid the bill; finding, however, that it did not come to more than about twenty -pounds, I thought it a shabby present, and therefore added some trifling present of plate. So I have frequently done, and I hope without offence may be permitted to do again, to any Captain on whom I impose such trouble. Sir Samuel Hood has now two of my charity boys with him; and I have presented him with a silver epergne. I should be ashamed to notice such things, but Your Majesty perceives that they are made the subject of Inquiry from Mrs. Fitzgerald, and Mr. Stikeman, and I was desirous that they should not appear to be particular in the case of Captain Manby.

"But to return to Mrs. Lisle's examinations. Mrs. Lisle says, that Captain Manby, when he dined with me, sat next to me at dinner. Before any inference is drawn from that fact, I am sure Your Majesty will observe, that in the next line of Mrs. Lisle's examination, she says, "that the constant company was Mrs. and Miss Fitzgerald, and herself, Mrs. Lisle." The only gentleman, the only person of the whole party who was not of my own family, was Captain Manby; aud his sitting next me, under such circumstances, I should apprehend could not possibly afford an inference of any kind. In the evening we were never alone. The whole company sat together; nay, as to his being alone with me of a morning, Mrs. Lisle seems to know nothing of the fact, but from a conjecture founded upon her knowledge of my known usual habit, with respect to seeing gentlemen who might call upon me. the very foundation of her conjecture, demonstrates that this circumstance can be no evidence of any thing particular with regard to Captain Manby.

And

"As to my conversing with Captain Manby separately, I do not understand Mrs. Lisle as meaning to speak to the state of the conversation uninterruptedly, during the whole of any of the several evenings when Captain Manby was with me; if I did so understand her, I should certainly most confidently assert that she was not correct; that in the course of the evening, as the ladies were working, reading, or otherwise amusing themselves, the conversation was sometimes more

and sometimes less general; and that they sometimes took more sometimes less part in it ;-that frequently it was between Captain Manby and myself alone; and that when we were altogether, we two might frequently be the only persons not otherwise engaged, and therefore be justly said to be speaking together separately. Besides, Captain Manby has been round the world with Captain Vancouvre. I have looked over prints in books of voyages with him; he has explained them to me; the ladies may or may not have been looking over them at the same time; they may have been engaged with their own amusements. Here again, we may be said to have been conversing separately, and consequently, that Mrs. Lisle in this sense, is perfectly justified in saying that "I used to converse separately with Captain Manby," I have not the least difficulty in admitting. But have I not again reason to complain that this expression of Mrs. Lisle's was not more sifted, but left in a manner calculated to raise an impression, that this separate conversation was studiously sought for, was constant, uniform, and uninterrupted, though it by no means asserts any such thing? But whether I used ALWAYS so to converse with him, or generally, or only sometimes; or for what proportion of the evening I used to be so engaged, is left unasked and unexplained. Have I not likewise just reason to complain, that though Mrs. Lisle states, that Mrs. Fitzgerald, and Miss Fitzgerald were always of the party, they are not both examined to these

circumstances? But Miss Fitzgerald is not examined at all; and Mrs. Fitzgerald, though examined, and examined too with respect to Captain Manby, does not appear to have had a single question put to her, with respect to any thing which passed concerning him at Montague House. May I not therefore complain that the examination, leaving the generality of Mrs. Lisle's expressions unexplained by herself; and the scenes to which it relates unexamined into, by calling the other persons who were present, is leaving it precisely in that state, which is better calculated to raise a suspicion, than to ascertain the truth?

"I

"But I am persuaded that the unfavorable impression which is most likely to be made by Mrs. Lisle's examination, is not by her evidence to the facts, but by her opinion upon them. appeared," she says "to like the conversation of Captain Manby better than that of my ladies. 1 behaved to him only as a woman who likes flirting; my conduct was unbecoming a married woman; she cannot say whether I was attached to Captain Manby or not; "it was only a flirting conduct,"-Now, Sire, I must here again most seriously complain that the Commissioners should have called for, or received, and much more reported in this manner, the opinion and judgment of Mrs. Lisle upon my conduct. Your Majesty's warrant purports to authorize them to collect the evidence, and not the opinion of others; and to report it, with their own judg

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