times, carrying luncheon and wine with her, "when Captain Manby's ship was at Long Reach, always Mrs. Fitzgerald with her. She would

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go out at one, and return about five or six, "sometimes sooner or later."

"The date when Captain Manby's ship was lying at Long Reach, is not given; and therefore, whether this was before or after the scene of the supposed salute, does not appear. But for what was this statement of Mr. Bidgood's made? Why was it introduced? Why were these drives towards Long Reach with luncheon, connected with Captain Manby's ship lying there, at the time examined to by the Commissioners? The first point, the matter foremost in their minds, when they call back this witness for his re-examination, appears to have been these drives towards Long Reach.-Can it have been for any purpose, but to have the benefit of the insinuation, to leave it open to be inferred, that those drives were for the purpose of meeting Captain Manby? If this fact was material, why, in the name of justice, was it so left? Mrs. Fitzgerald was mentioned by name, as accompanying me in them all; why was not she called? She perhaps was my confidant; no truth could have been hoped for from her;-still there were my coachman and helper, who likewise accompanied me; why were they not called? They are not surely confidants too.But it is, for what reason I cannot pretend to say, thought sufficient to leave this fact, or rather this insinuation, upon the evidence of Mr. Bid

I

good, who only saw, or could see the way went when I set out upon my drive, instead of having the fact from the persons who could speak to the whole of it; to the places I went to; to the persons whom I met with.

"Your Majesty will think me justified in dwelling upon this, the more from this circumstance, because I know, and will shew to Your Majesty, on the testimony of Jonathan Partridge which I annex, that these drives, or at least one of them, have been already the object of previous, and I believe, nearly cotemporary investigation. The truth is, that it did happen upon two of these drives, that I met with Captain Manby; IN ONE of them that he joined me, and went with me to Lord Eardley's, at Belvidere, and that he partook of something which we had to eat;-that some of Lord Eardley's servants were examined as to my conduct upon this occasion;

and I am confidently informed that the servants gave a most satisfactory account of all that passed; nay, that they felt, and have expressed, some honest indignation at the foul suspicion which the examination implied. On the other occasion, having the boys to go on board the Africaine, I went with one of my ladies to see them on board, and Captain Manby joined us in our walk round Mr. Calcraft's grounds at Ingress Park, opposite to Long Reach, where we walked, while my horses were waiting. We went into no house, and on that occasion had nothing to eat.

"Perfectly unable to account why these facts

were not more fully inquired into, if thought proper to be inquired into at all, I return again to Mr Bidgood's evidence. As far as it regards my conduct at Montague House, it is confined to the circumstances, which I have already mentioned. And, upon those circumstances, I have no further observation, which may tend to illustrate Mr. Bidgood's credit, to offer. But I trust if, from other parts of his evidence, Your Majesty sees traces of the strongest prejudices against me, and the most scandalous inferences drawn from circumstances, which can in no degree support them, Your Majesty will then be able justly to appreciate the credit due to every part of Mr. Bidgood's evidence.

"Under the other head into which I have divided this part of the case, I mean my conduct at Southend, as relative to Captain Manby, Mr. Bidgood is more substantial and particular. His statement on this head begins by shewing that I was at Southend about six weeks before the Africaine, Captain Manby's ship, arrived. That Mr. Sicard was looking out for her arrival, as if she was expected. And as it is my practice to require as constant a correspondence to be kept up with my charity boys, when on board of ship, as the nature of their situation will admit of; and as Mr. Sicard is the person who manages all matters concerning them, and enters into their interests with the most friendly anxiety, he certainly was apprized of the probability of the ship's arrival off Southend, before she came. And here I may as well perhaps, by the way

remark, that as this correspondence with the boys is always under cover to the Captain; this circumstance may account to Your Majesty for the fact which is stated by some of the witnesses, of several letters being put into the post by Sicard, some of which he may have received from me, which were directed to Captain Manby.

"Soon after the arrival of the Africaine, however, Bidgood says the Captaiu put off in his boat. Sicard went to meet him, and immediately brought him up to me and my ladies;— he dined there then, and came frequently to see me. It would have been as candid, if Mr. Bidgood had represented the fact as it really was, though perhaps the circumstance is not very material:-that the Captain brought the two boys on shore with him to see me, and this, as well as many other circumstances connected with these boys, the existence of whom, as accounting in any degree for the intercourse between me and Captain Manby, could never have been collected from out of Bidgood's depositions, Sicard would have stated, if the Commissioners had examined him to it. But though he is thus referred to, though his name is mentioned about the letters sent to Captain Manby, he does not appear to have been examined to any of them, and all that he appears to have been asked is, as to his remembering Captain Manby visiting at Montague House, and to my paying the expense of the linen furniture for his cabin. But Mr. Sicard was, I suppose, represented by my enemies to bea

confidant, from whom no truth could be extracted, and therefore that it was idle waste of time to examine him to such points; and so unquestionably he, and every other honest servant in my family, who could be supposed to know any thing on the subject, were sure to be represented by those, whose conspiracy and falsehood, their honesty and truth were the best means of detecting. The conspirators however, had the first word, and unfortunately their veracity was not questioned, nor their unfavorable bias suspected.

"Mr. Bidgood then proceeds to state the situation of the houses, two of which, with a part of a third, I had at Southend. He describes No. 9 as the house in which I slept; No 8, as that in which we dined; and No. 7, as containing a drawing-room, to which we retired after dinner. And he says, "I have several times seen the "Princess, after having gone to No. 7 with 'Captain Manby and the rest of the company, "retire with Captain Manby from No. 7, through "No. 8, to No. 9, which was the house where "the Princess slept. I suspect that Captain

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Manby slept very frequently in the house. "Hints were given by the servants, and I believe "that others suspected it as well as myself.”— What those hints were, by what servants given, are things which do not seem to have been thought necessary matters of inquiry. At least, there is no trace in Mr. Bidgood's, or any other witness's examination, of any such inquiry having been made.

"In his second deposition, which applies to