1

that the vindication of my honor will be again complete."

On Wednesday the 28th of June, the secret committee of the lords met, and proceeded to open the Green Bag. Her majesty's counsel, Messrs. Brougham and Denman attended, and put in a sealed letter, expressing the sentiments of their royal client upon the extraordinary and unprecedented proceedings which have now been commenced against her. The learned gentlemen remained in waiting a considerable time, in order to receive an answer to the letter delivered on the part of the queen, but none being returned by the committee, her majesty's counsel withdrew.dio.

The committee first met in lord Shaftesbury's private room, and after remaining there a short time, they went to the robing room, and finally chose the old house of lords as the most commodious apartment, and the farthest removed from interruption. The gentleman usher of the black rod and other officers of the house were stationed in various parts, and suffered no person to approach the committee room, while a number of constables were in attendance in other directions. fa sovics spe Lords Lansdown and Erskine were excused from the committee, at their own request, and lords" Hardwicke and Ellenborough attended in their 162 babor However the house of commons might have

1820.

paused in their proceedings, for the purpose of waiting for the report of the secret committee of the lords, the people at large lost no time in shewing the sense which they entertained of the charges, which had been brought forward, and of the injury which her majesty had sustained.

A requisition having been signed by the livery of London, to hold a common hall for the purpose of considering the propriety of an address from that body to her majesty, on her arrival in this country, the livery met on Friday the 30th June,, and at one o'clock, the lord mayor took the chair.

Mr. Gibson came forward to propose certain résolutions; the second of which we shall give, as being the only one out of the usual form:

"That we have beheld with grief the numerous insults and indignities that have been offered to her majesty, both at home and abroad, and lament that persons should be found with such unchristian feelings as to advise the omission of her name in the solemn services of the church; and we have felt the highest inFdignation at the insulting aud degrading propositions which were made to her majesty before her arrival in this country; and we are equally disgusted with those which have been made since her arrival, to induce her to become an exile. from this land, which might afford her enemies fresh opportunities for those calumnies, which probably they never would have dared to attempt if she had remained in England. it in andhanmou edi

The resolutions being carried, thanks were proposed to Mr. Alderman Wood for his conduct to

wards her majesty on which, the worthy alderman expressed himself as follows:

7

no

"That if his conduct had given satisfaction to his constituents, he was happy. There w were many reasons why he should remain silent, both in that place, and elsewhere; but the time would, doubt, come, when he might speak out. Not all the taunts and goadings he endured, in the house, or elsewhere, had tempted him to break that silence, or violate the deep respect he owed to the illustrious lady in question. He had," he said, "long known the peculiar situation of her majesty, and the measures that had been adopted to prevent her return to this country; and he was sure that no honest man in the kingdom, knowing what he knew, would have hesitated to have acted exactly as he had done. Whether or not his conduct had been regulated by profound and absolute wisdom, was not for him to say, but this he would say, fearlessly, that what he had done, he had done with an upright heart; and he felt convinced, that in the end he should receive the approbation of every honorable mind in the country. He had abstained from all public dinners or meetings, because he would not be tempted to give any thing like a public opinion, and he should still abstain from ex, pressing any opinion, except this one-that her majesty must not leave this kingdom." Speaking of the offer made to her majesty at St. Omer's, he