repeated his question in the same form as before, and said that, with the opinions which he entertained upon the subject, he should not have felt satisfied with his own conduct if he had not proposed them to the noble lord on the very first opportunity. (Hear, hear.)

Lord CASTLEREAGH, in a very low tone of voice, proceeded to address the House. As far as we could catch what he said, he observed that he had often before had occasion to admire the good temper of the honorable Gentleman opposite, but he had never had greater occasion to admire it than at the present moment, when he had with so much mildness entered into one of the most im- . portant questions which had ever come under the notice of the House, whether it was considered in its relation to the dignity of the Crown, or to the tranquility of the nation. (Hear, hear, from the ministerial, and re-echoed by the members on the opposition benches.) Out of tenderness to the honorable Gentleman, and with a view to allow him time to reflect upon the subject, he should decline to answer the questions which he had put for he would appeal to the House whether any answer was necessary, considering the grave communication which had been just made to it. He would boldly assert, that a communication of such importance had never been conveyed in less violent and more dignified language; and therefore he was surprised that, if the honorable Gentleman thought the answer to his questions so important, he had not given that

notice of motion which it was considered decorous to give even upon a common turnpike-bill. (Hear, hear.) He (Lord Castlereagh) was determined not to be precipitated by any taunts of honourable members into a premature discussion of this important subject; and therefore if the honorable member opposite wished to gain the information for which he had asked, he must do it by the ordinary means. Those means were open to him, and, if he thought proper, he could at any moment avail himself of them. (Hear.)

Mr. BEAUMONT said that he could not consider the questions which had been put to the noble lord by the honourable member for Shrewsbury as at all calculated to create any impediment to the proper consideration of this momentous subject. From the noble lord's declining to give an answer to those questions, the impression on his mind was, that the letter to which allusion had been made was a genuine letter, but that ministers were so much ashamed of it that they dared not acknowledge it. (Loud cries of hear.)

Mr. CREEVEY said, that it was not only competent for any member to ask such questions as the honorable member for Shrewsbury had asked without giving notice of them, but also to make a motion to the same effect, (cries of hear.) He had felt anxious to acquire similar information with his honourable friend, and actually held in his hand a notice of a motion which he had drawn up with a view to obtain it. He implored the House to consider the situation in which they

were placed. They had a message from the King, desiring them to interfere in his behalf. And why? Because her Majesty the Queen had landed in England (hear)-for that now appeared to be the chief ground of her offence (hear.) Indeed, his Majesty appeared to have the same objection to her being in the same country with him, which he formerly had to her being in the same drawing-room. In order, therefore, to promote his Majesty's wishes, they first offered her a threat, and then a bribe to keep her abroad, but both, he was happy to say, ineffectually. (hear.) The House ought to recollect, that when the King sent them a message, desiring them to interfere in his behalf, it was their bounden duty. to consider, before they went into the evidence, (into which he maintained that they had no right to go, as nobody could doubt of the present being a private prosecution,) not only the situation in which they might themselves be placed, but also the situation in which the King absolutely was placed. In the first instance, he was the procurer of the evidence and the prosecutor of the crime, of which, in the last, he might be called upon to become the judge (hear;) for if a bill of attainder should be passed against her Majesty, it could not be passed without the King's giving his consent to it as a part of the legislature. (hear.) The House ought to beware how it made itself a party to such a transaction, especially as, from the reign of Henry VIII. downwards, it had not been the custom of parliament to interfere

with the Queens of England. (Loud cheers.) The arrival of her present Majesty appeared to have created indescribable alarm amongst gentlemen of the other side of the House; for, strange as it might appear, fifteen ministers failed last night to attend in their places, being too busily employed in arming against one poor, weak, defenceless woman. (loud cheers.) And who was that woman? The daughter of the Duke of Brunswick, the niece of the late King, the wife of the present King, the mother of the Princess Charlotte. (hear, hear.) If that Princess bad been alive, would this business have ever been brought before the house? (hear.) He thought not. He had written in pencil the motion of which he had intended to give notice, relative to the late negotiation at St. Omer; whether he should move to-morrow evening that an account of it be laid before the House, he would not say; but, feeling as he did upon the subject, he should have felt himself a disgraced man, if he had not made the remarks which he had just offered to their notice upon it. (hear.)

Sir R. WILSON assured the House that no motion had ever occasioned more acute regret than that which had just been submitted to the consideration of the House. He trusted, however, that, in the appeal which he was going to make to their generosity, he should meet with the support of a majority of the House. He called upon them to protect her Majesty during the continuance of this inquiry, from every species of

indignity. (hear.) He did not now allude to the indignities which she had received from our ministers at foreign courts, or from those foreign courts themselves, at the instigation of those ministers, nor to the paltry indignity of striking her name out of the Liturgy of the Church: but he did allude to the treatment which she had received in her journey to this country, and to the obstacles which had been raised up to retard it. It was a disgraceful fact, that the Queen of England, in crossing from the Continent, should have had no other vessel on which to erect the royal standard than a common passage-boat. (hear.) It was a disgraceful fact that she should have no place to which she could fly to as an asylum (hear,) that she should have no other roof to shelter her head, than that of an individual, who was an honest man. (loud laughter.) Gentlemen might laugh at the term, but he maintained that the gentleman to whom he alluded was an honest man, and had performed his duty to her Majesty in the same exemplary manner as he had performed all the other duties of his station. (hear, hear.) That individual had given her an asylum which she had not been able to procure in any of the palaces of the crown. (hear.) He was sure that his Majesty would never wish to see any of his subjects treated with indignities which they did not deserve, much less one who had once been the wife of his affection, and still was the partner of his throne. (hear.)

LORD A. HAMILTON deemed no opportunity

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