herty, who has not received marks of
friendship from Mr. Wood, who is, upon
all such occasions, ready not only with his
purse but with his personal exertions.
When a man, so eminent for his exertions
in the cause of public liberty, and withal
so frank, so unaffected, and so amiable in
his manners, so free from all vanity, con-
ceit, and ambitious views; when a man
like this had set his heart upon a measure,
and when it was impossible that that mea-
sure could be injurious to public liberty,
Mr. STURCH should, I think, have hesitat-
ed; I think he should have been very diffi-
cult to persuade to come, for the first time,

for the express purpose of opposing that
measure.Let us, however, give a pa-
tient ear to the reasons upon which this op-
position was built.-He begged the Hall
to reflect, whether they would not degrade
themselves by passing the Address.-
You have seen the substance of the Address,
reader; and, do you see any thing in it that
is calculated to degrade those by whom it
was passed? I will say nothing upon the
unmeasured severity of this expression as
applying directly to the mover of the Ad-
dress, who, if the Address was degrading
to those who passed it, must already have
degraded him who moved it; but, I must
say here, that, when Mr. Waithman, was
afterwards reminding the Hall of Mr.
Sturch's exertions in the cause of liberty
in Westminster, he could hardly have for-
gotten, that Mr. Wood did not merit an
attack like this, and especially that it was
not worth while to quit the field of West-
minster for, apparently, the sole purpose
of making this attack.--But, Mr. STURCH'S
reasons: we have not yet seen any of them.

nour to know any thing of Mr. Vandercombe, but I must say, that I heartily wish him joy of his reason for withdrawing his name. -It gave me great pleasure to see Mr. Wood's motion seconded by such a man as MR. THOMPSON. It is that description of men who ought to come forward; men who have no views, and who can have no views other than those tending to the public welfare. Such men should not give way to feelings of disgust or of listlessness. They would soon see babbling impertinence slink away from their presence.-That SIR WILLIAM GURTIS, though he acknowledged the perfect innocence of the Princess; that SIR JAMES SHAW, though, speak-out of Westminster to the Common Hall, ing as a magistrate, he viewed the evidence against the Princess," from beginning to "end as a tissue of perjury and suborna"tion;" that Mr. Alderman Atkins, though he saw the matter in nearly the same light; that these Gentlemen, who are well known to be closely attached to the Ministers; that these Gentlemen should wish to stifle the question; that they should wish to draw a veil over the proceedings; that they should call for a dissolution of the Hall, and so get rid of the Address by a side wind; that they should tell the Gitizens of London that they ought to look up to the Honourable House for an example; that they should tell the people to follow the footsteps of that paragon of wisdom and purity; that these Gentlemen should thus act and speak could be matter of wonder to nobody; but, there may be, and there must have been, many persons to wonder at the conduct of Messrs. STURCH and WAITHMAN.— However, I shall not act the foul part of an insinuator. I will neither insinuate nor assert any thing at all respecting the motives of these Gentlemen; but, I will freely examine the grounds upon which they thought proper to overthrow the motion of Mr. Alderman Wood.Mr. STURCH set out by observing, that, though an old Liveryman, he had never before troubled them with a speech. And, he will, I am sure, think it not unnatural, that I should express my regret and my surprise, that he should have deviated from his long-continued course, upon this particular occasion, when the motion to be opposed had, surely, nothing hostile to liberty in it, and when the person making that motion was well known to Mr. STURCH to be one of the most ardent, most indefatigable, and most liberal friends of public freedom. There has, for years past, been no man who has suffered in the cause of li

He said, that the motion was premature; that the question was not ripe for discussion.-Not ripe! When, then, I pray, is it to be ripe? The whole of the transactions are before the public; the evidence on both sides is in print; explanations of the conduct of particular parties have been given in parliament and elsewhere; in short, every fact and every circumstance belonging to the matter have found their way into print; and, at the end of seven years of mysterious secrecy, the whole is out in broad day-light, so that nothing is now hidden, or can be hidden, from any person in the kingdom. And yet Mr. STURCH does not think the question ripe for discussion. If it be not yet ripe, it will not be ripe till we are all rotten. Much evidence, he said, remained behind

66

as to the SOURCE of the conspiracy.— necessary to guard the throne and the nobiWe have no evidence at all to that point. lity against an overweight in the popular Nor did Mr. Wood want any for his pur- scale; these trifling matters, Mr. Sturch pose. His address only called the thing a thinks that the Livery may be permitted to conspiracy, without saying any thing about handle freely; and also the no less trifling the way in which that conspiracy originated. matters of peace and war, the extreme simNo evidence, therefore, was wanted as to plicity of which put them within the scope the source of the conspiracy. It was suffi- of every understanding!- -But as to a cient for Mr. Wood that the Hall should be question about au Address to a Princess, convinced that there had been a conspiracy. whose ill-treatment and whose long-sufferIf it should hereafter appear who were the ing was notorious to all the world: this original hatchers of the conspiracy, Mr. was a matter too high and too complicated Sturch may then, if he likes, bring forward for the Livery to meddle with !-I, for my a motion relative to them. Mr. Wood's part, should have thought, that this was, Address appears to have had no such object of all others, a matter with regard to which in view. But Mr. STURCH disapproved the Livery were competent to decide. It of the Citizens of London meddling with was a question clear in the understanding, matters of this kind. He highly approved, and coming home to the heart of every he said, of their discussing questions of Par- sound-minded and sound-hearted man. It liamentary Reform and of Peace and War, was a question, upon which no man could but, he asked, "Why should the Livery possibly be in error. There was no room "decide, whether Captain Manby did or for subtlety or doubt; and the only point "did not kiss the Princess of Wales ?". upon which a difference of opinion could Perhaps Mr. Sturch meant this for wit, and, possibly exist was this: whether the motion if so, let it, in that respect, pass for its full for an Address was called for by sound worth; but, taking it in a plain common- sense as well as by justice.-Perhaps, sense sort of way, I must say that it is one Mr. STURCH might mean, that a question of the poorest attempts at perversion that of this sort was beneath the Livery to enI have ever met with. Why should tertain; that the questions as to Parliamen"the Livery decide, &c. ?" But, Mr. tary Reform, Peace and War, and the like, STURCH, why should you ask such a ques- were rendered proper by their importance; tion, when you well know, that they were and that the present question degraded the not, by Mr. Wood's motion, called upon Livery by its want of importance.If to decide any such point? The Address Mr. STURCH is ready to avow, that the talked not of kissing; the Address was not conduct of the Royal Family is of no confoolish enough to deal in any such matters; sequence to the nation; that Addresses to it said nothing of Captain Manby; nor does them, or any of them, are, at all times, it appear to have contained any thing im- under whatever circumstances, degrading plying a doubt upon any point whatever. to those who move or pass them, his oppoWas it, then, fair to endeavour so to per-sition to Mr. Wood's Address will appear vert its tendency? Well, but Mr. consistent; but, then he should have avowSturch, while he tells the Livery that he ed this opinion, and not have endeavoured disapproves of their discussing of questions to disguise his real ground of objection unof this kind, is obliging enough to point out der a plea of want of light, deficiency of to them what kind of questions he does ap- evidence, and a mis-statement about kissing prove of their discussing; which (to speak and Captain Manby. On the other hand, as mildly as possible of it) might as well if Mr. Sturch is not ready to avow such an have been spared by a gentleman, who, ac- opinion; if he allow, that Addresses precording to his own account, appeared be-sented by the City upon the recovery of the fore the Livery for the first time.- -The questions, however, which he does approve of their discussing, are such as relate to Parliamentary Reform, to Peace and War, and the like.Yes, these trifling concerns, the changing of the state of the representation, the arrangements indispensably necessary to a different mode of collecting the voices of the people, the settling of the points as to who shall and who shall not vote at elections, the making of provisions

King; upon his escape from the pen-knife of a mad woman, and from the bullet of a mad man; if Mr. Sturch allow, that these Addresses were not degrading to the City of London, upon what ground, I am curious to know, can he build an objection to an Address to the Princess upon her escape from what all the world is ready to designate a foul and detestable conspiracy? Mr. Alderman Shaw said, and he said it manfully, that, speaking as a magistrate, he

presumptuous enough to attempt to meddle between man and wife; and the anecdote of Alderman Curtis, though full of characteristic wit, was not at all applicable to the point. The Address was not stupid enough to take off, or to hint at, a restoration to conjugal felicity. The Address was no humdrum thing from Doctors' Commons, talk

viewed the evidence against the Princess as being, from beginning to end, a tissue of perjury and subornation. How great, then, must her danger have been! And, shall it be thought degrading to the Citizens of London to express their pleasure at her escape, and also to express their abhorrence of the perjured and suborned accusers? -The object of an Address is to expressing about marriage vows and excommunithe sentiments of those who pass it. There cation. It was called an attempt to force is no immediate practical effect contemplat- the parties to a reconciliation. It does not ed; and to ask what good such an Address appear to have contained even a hint of the can do, is to challenge the propriety of all sort; and all the speeches in opposition to the Addresses that ever were presented in it seem to have been made, to have been the world. Plain, sound sense said, that got up ready prepared, upon the presumpthis was an occasion for the people to ex- tion it would contain some complaint about press their sentiments; a love of truth, a there being two beds for one married coulove of justice and fair-play; compassion ple. Upon any other supposition the for a suffering and friendless woman; the speeches are incomprehensible; for not one sentiments natural to husbands, fathers, word does the Address appear to have consons, and brothers; all the good, all the tained upon the subject of reconciliation. kind, all the generous feelings of the heart, -Mr. Wood very judiciously confined. rose in an unanimous clamour against the himself to applause of the conduct of the objections of Mr. Sturch, who, though Mr. Princess and abhorrence of her perjured Waithman called him his excellent friend, and suborned traducers, leaving the quesand spoke of his great exertions in the cause tion of reconciliation, and all other matters of liberty in Westminster, will, I imagine, between the illustrious parties themselves, With what not fail to profit from the lesson he that day totally untouched upon. received. Indeed, I cannot help thinking, reason, then, was it that Mr. Waithman that he must have been, in some sort, chose to represent the object to be reconci-However, if this pressed into the service. He has long been liation and harmony ?an active man in Westminster, and, being had been the real object, in what way does so, he seems to have thought, that there this gentleman think it could have been was no necessity for his interference in the more likely to be attained? The Address City of London, where he did not reside; sealed the innocence of the Princess; it deand, it is, on his own account, greatly to be clared the conviction of the Citizens of lamented, that this particular occasion London, that she was innocent, and that should have been selected for a departure she was worthy of their admiration and from his usual course.- -We now come loyal affection. Was this likely to "widen "the breach," Mr. Waithman? Do you to the speech of MR. WAITHMAN, who evidently started under the pressure of the dis- think, that the Prince would be less discouragement given by the fate of the speech posed to a reconciliation, because the Citiof Mr. STURCH. He confessed, that he zens of London had shown, that they howas one of those, who had in vain endea- noured and admired the Princess? If you youred to dissuade Mr. Wood from his pur- do, you must suppose His Royal Highness -But, Mr. pose; and, it will not fail to strike the to have a most singular taste.— reader as a little singular, that, in this re- Waithman went further, and said, that this spect, Mr. Waithman should have earnestly was not the way to accelerate redress.laboured to the same end as Mr. Alderman By redress he, of course, meant a removal Alkins; and, if Mr. Waithman profits from of the obstructions to the visits between the his ill-success upon this occasion, he will Princess and her Daughter, together, perin the end be a gainer; because, it will haps, with some steps relative to an estaAnd why, pray, why, teach him to avoid such unnatural co-ope- blishment. rations in future.—Mr. WAITHMAN ob- should not this Address tend towards the served, that this was not the way to acce-producing of the desired effect? Supposing lerate redress and promote reconciliation; such an effect to have been its ultimate aim, and, he afterwards said, that the object why should it not tend towards the producwas reconciliation and harmony.- -Beg-ing of it? The Address appears to conging his pardon, the Address professed to tain not a syllable calculated to offend either have no such object. The Address was not the Prince or his Ministers. It appears to

This latter gentleman said, the question was premature, that it was not ripe (which is the same thing); he wanted more evidence; he wished to wait for additional light; and, upon these grounds he opposed the Address. But, Mr. Waithman, who had reproved the Livery for not paying respect to these sentiments of his excellent friend, so far from thinking the question unripe; so far from wanting more evidence and more light, thought the Address necessary, because "the whole nation was united in one sentiment that Her Royal "Highness was as innocent as her accusers "were guilly" so that he opposed the Address because the question was over-ripe, and because there was no more light to be thrown upon the subject.Considering, therefore, how widely he differed from his excellent friend; considering how little respect he himself paid to that friend's sentiments, he should have been cautious how