Your Majesty has seen how many enemies I have, and how little their malice has been restrained by any regard to truth, in the pursuit of my ruin. Few, as it may be hoped, may be the instances of such determined and unprovoked malignity, yet I cannot flatter myself "that the world does not produce other persons, who may be swayed by similar motives to similar wickedness." Whether the statement to be prepared by the Prince of Wales, is to be confined to the old charges, or is intended to bring forward new circumstances, I cannot tell; but if any fresh attempts of the same nature shall be made by my accusers, instructed as they will have been by their miscarriage in this instance, I can hardly hope that they will not renew their charge, with an improved artifice, more skilfully directed, and with a malice, inflamed rather than abated, by their previous disappointment. I therefore can only appeal to Your Majesty's justice, in which I confidently trust, that whether these charges are to be renewed against me, either on the old or on fresh evidence; or whether new accusations, as well as new witnesses, are to brought forward, Your Majesty, after the experience of these proceedings, will not suffer Your Royal mind to be prejudiced by ex parte secret examinations, nor my character to be whispered away by insinuations or suggestions, which I have no opportunity of meeting. If any charge, which the law will recognise, should be brought against me in an open and a legal manner, I should have no right to complain, nor any apprehension to meet it. But till I may have an opportunity of so meeting it, I trust Your Majesty will not suffer it to excite even a suspicion to my prejudice. I must claim the benefit of the presumption of innocence till I am proved to be guilty; for, without that presumption, against the effects of secret insinuation and ex parte examinations, the purest innocence can make no defence, and can have no security. "Surrounded, as it is now proved, that I have been for years, by domestic spies, Your Majesty must, I trust, feel convinced, that if I had been guilty, there could not have been wanting evidence to have proved my guilt. And, that these spies have been obliged to have resort to their own invention for the support of the charge, is the strongest demonstration that the truth undisguised, and correctly represented, could furnish them with no handle against me. And when I consider the nature and malignity of that conspiracy, which I feel confident I have completely detected and exposed, I cannot but think of that detection with the liveliest gratitude, as the special blessing of Providence, who, by confounding the machinations of my enemies, has enabled me to find, in the very excess and extravagance of their malice, in the very weapons which they fabricated and sharpened for my destruction, the sufficient guard to my innocence, and the effectual means of my justification and defence. "I trust, therefore, Sire, that I may now close this long letter, in confidence that many days will not elapse before I shall receive from Your Majesty, that assurance that my just requests may be so completely granted, as may render it possible for me, (which nothing else can) to avoid the painful disclosure to the world of all the circumstances of that injustice, and of those unmerited sufferings, which these Proceedings, in the manner in which they have been conducted, have brought upon me. "I remain, Sire, "With every sentiment of gratitude, Most submissive Daughter-in-law, (Signed) C. P. Montague House, February 16th, 1807. "As these observations apply not only to the official communication through the Lord Chancellor, of the 28th ultimo; but also to the private letter of Your Majesty, of the 12th. inst. I have thought it most respectful to Your Majesty and Your Majesty's servants, to send this letter in duplicate, one part through Colonel Taylor, and the other through the Lord Chancellor, to Your Majesty. (Signed) "C. P." To the King. "SIRE, "WHEN I last troubled Your Majesty upon my unfortunate business, I had raised my mind to hope that I should have the happiness of hearing from Your Majesty, and receiving your gracious commands, to pay my duty in your royal presence, before the expiration of the last week. And when that hope was disappointed, (eagerly clinging to any idea, which offered me a prospect of being saved from the necessity of having recourse, for the vindication of my character, to the publication of the Proceedings upon the Inquiry into my conduct,) I thought it just possible, that the reason for my not having received Your Majesty's commands to that effect, might have been occasioned by the circumstance of Your Majesty's staying at Windsor through the whole of the week. I therefore determined to wait a few days longer, before I took a step, which, when once taken, could not be recalled. Having, however, now assured myself, that Your Majesty was in town yesterday-as I have received no command to wait upon Your Majesty, and no intimation of your pleasure,-I am reduced to the necessity of abandoning all hope, that Your Majesty will comply with my humble, my earnest, and anxious requests. "Your Majesty, therefore, will not be surprised to find, that the publication of the Proceedings alluded to, will not be withheld beyond Monday next. As to any consequences which may arise from such publication, unpleasant or hurtful to my own feelings and interests, I may, perhaps, be properly responsible; and, in any event, have no one to complain of but myself, and those with whose advice I have acted; and whatever those consequences may be, I am fully and unalterably convinced, that they must be incalculably less than those, which I should be exposed to from my silence: but as to any other consequences, unpleasant or hurtful to the feelings and interests of others, or of the public, my conscience will certainly acquit me of them;-1 am confident that I have not acted impatiently or precipitately. To avoid coming to this painful extremity, I have taken every step in my power, except that which would be abandoning my character to utter infamy, and my station and life to no uncertain danger, and, possibly, to no very distant destruction. "With every prayer for the lengthened continuance of Your Majesty's health and happiness; for every possible blessing, which a Gracious God can bestow upon the beloved Monarch of a loyal people, and for the continued prosperity of your dominions, under Your Majesty's propitious reign, I remain, "Your Majesty's "Most dutiful, loyal, and affectionate, Montague House, 5th of March, 1807 To the King. "C. P." |