in security, the person of a false accuser, and to leave the accused in the predicament of neither being able to look forward for protection to an acquittal of himself, nor for redress, to the conviction of his accuser:-that these and many other objections occur to such a mode of proceeding, in the case of a crime known to the laws of this country, appears to be quite obvious. -But if Commissioners acting under such a power, or Your Majesty's Privy Council, or any regular Magistrates, when they have satisfied themselves of the falsehood of the principal charge, and the absence of all legal and substantive offence, are to be considered as empowered to proceed in the examination of the particulars of private life; to report upon the proprieties of domestic conduct, and the decorums of private behaviour; and to pronounce their opinion against the party, upon the evidence of dissatisfied servants, whose veracity they are to hold up as unimpeachable; and, to do this without permitting the person whose conduct is inquired into, to suggest one word in explanation, or contradiction of the matter with which they are charged; it would, I submit to Your Majesty, prove such an attack upon the confidence and security of domestic life, such a means of recording, under the sanction of great names and high authorities, the most malicious and foulest imputations, that no character could possibly be secure; and would do more to break in upon and undermine, the happiness and com

fort of life, than any proceeding which could be imagined.

"The public in general perhaps, may feel not much interest in the establishment of such a precedent, in my case. They may think it to be a course of proceeding scarcely applicable to any private subject; yet, if once such a court of honor, of decency,and of manners, was established, many subjects might occur, to which it might be thought advisable to extend its jurisdiction, beyond the instance of a Princess of Wales. But should it be intended to be confined to me, Your Majesty, I trust, will not be surprised to find that it does not reconcile me the better to it, should I learn myself to be the single instance in your kingdom, who is exposed to the scrutiny of so severe and formidable a tribunal. So far therefore, from giving that sanction or consent to any fresh Inquiry, upon similar principles, which I should seem to do, by requiring the renewal of these examinations, I must protest against it; protest against the nature of the proceeding, because its result cannot be fair. I must protest, as long at least as it remains doubtful, against the legality of what has already passed, as well as against the legality of its repetition.-If the course be legal, I must submit to the laws, however severe they may be. But I trust new law is not to be found out, and applied to my case. If I am guilty of crime, I know I am amenable, (I am most contented to continue so,) to the impartial laws of Your Majesty's kingdom,

and I fear no charge brought against me, in open day, under the public eye, before the known tribunals of the country, administering justice under those impartial and enlightened laws. But secret tribunals, created for the first time for me, to form and pronounce opinions upon my conduct, without hearing me; to record, in the evidence of the witnesses which they report, imputations against my character, upon ex parte examinations,-till I am better reconciled to the justice of their proceedings, I cannot fail to fear. And till I am better informed as to their legality, I cannot fail in duty to my dearest interests, most solemnly to remonstrate, and to protest against them.

"If such tribunals as these, are called into action against me, by the false charges of friends turned enemies, of servants turned traitors, and acting as spies; by the foul conspiracy of such social and domestic treason, I can look to no security to my honor, in the most spotless and cautious innocence. By the contradiction and denial, which, in this case, I have been enabled to procure, of the most important facts which have been sworn against me by Mr. Cole and Mr. Bidgood;-by the observations, and the reasonings, which I have addressed to Your Majesty, I am confident that, to those whose sense of justice will lead them to wade through this long detail, I shall have removed the impressions which have been raised against me.-But how am I to insure a patient attention to all this statement? How many will hear that the Lord

High Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, the First Lord of the Treasury, and one of Your Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, have reported against me, upon evidence which they have declared to be unbiassed and unquestionable; who will never have the opportunity, or if they had the opportunity, might not have the inclination, to correct the error of that Report, by the examination of my statement.

"I feel therefore, that by this proceeding, my character has received essential injury. For a Princess of Wales to have been placed in a situation, in which it was essential to her honor to request one gentleman to swear, that he was not locked up at midnight in a room with her alone; and another, that he did not give her a lascivious salute, and never slept in her house, is to have been actually degraded and disgraced. I have been, Sire, placed in this situation, I have been cruelly, (Your Majesty will permit me to say so,) cruelly degraded into the necessity of making such requests. A necessity which I never could have been exposed to, even under this Inquiry, if more attention had been given to the examination of these malicious charges, and of the evidence on which they rest. Much solicitude is felt, and justly so, as connected with this Inquiry, for the honor of Your Majesty's illustrious family. But surely a true regard to that honor, should have restrained those who really felt for it, from casting such severe reflections on the character and virtue of the Princess of Wales.

"If, indeed, after the most diligent and anxious

Inquiry, penetrating into every circumstance connected with the charge, searching every source from which information could be derived, and scrutinizing with all that acuteness, into the credit and character of the witnesses, which great experience, talent, and intelligence could bring to such a subject; and above all, if, after giving me some opportunity of being heard, the force of truth had at length compelled any persons to form as reluctantly, and as unwillingly as they would, against their own daughters the opinion that has been pronounced; no regard, unquestionably to my honor and character, nor to that of Your Majesty's family, as in some degree involved in mine, could have justified the suppression of that opinion, if legally called for, in the course of official and public duty. Whether such cantion and reluctance are really manifest in these proceedings, I must leave to less partial judgments than my own to determine.

"In the full examination of these proceedings, which justice to my own character has required of me, I have been compelled to make many observations, which I fear may prove offensive to persons in high power. Your Majesty will easily believe, when I solemnly assure you, that I have been deeply sorry to yield to the necessity of so doing. This proceeding manifests that I have enemies enough; 1 could not wish unnecessarily, to increase their number, or their weight. 1 trust however, I have done it. I know it has been my purpose to do it, in a manner as little offensive as the justice due to