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priety of behaviour, but expressly asserting facts of the most confirmed, and abandoned criminality, for which, if true, my life might be forfeited. These are stated to have been followed by declarations from other persons, who, though not speaking to the same facts, had related other particulars, in themselves extremely suspicious, and still more so, as connected with the assertions already mentioned.

On this, it is observed to me, that it is most important that I should know the extent, and the particulars of the charges or informations against me, and by what accusers they have been made; whether I am answering the charges of one set of accusers, or more. Whether the authors of the original declarations, who may be collected from the Report to be Sir John and Lady Douglas, are my only accusers; and the declarations which are said to have followed, are the declarations of persons adduced as witnesses by Sir John and Lady Douglas to confirm their accusation; or whether such declarations are the charges of persons, who have made themselves also, the authors of distinct accusations against me.

The requests, which, I humbly hope, your Majesty, will think reasonable, and just to grant, and which are suggested by these further observations

are,

First, That your Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct, that I should be furnished with copies of these declarations; and, if they are rightly described in the Report, as the necessary founda

tion of all the proceedings of the Commissioners, your Majesty could not, I am persuaded, but have graciously intended, in directing that I should be furnished with a copy of the Report, that I should also see this essential part of the proceeding, the foundation on which it rests.

Secondly, That I may be informed whether I have one or more, and how many accusers; and who they are; as the weight and credit of the accusation cannot but be much affected by the quarter from whence it originates.

Thirdly, That I may be informed of the time when the declarations were made. For the weight and credit of the accusation must, also, be much affected, by the length of time, which my accusers may have been contented to have been the silent depositories of those heavy matters of guilt, and charge, and,

Lastly, That your Majesty's goodness will secure to me a speedy return of these papers, accompanied, I trust, with the further information which I have solicited; but at all events a speedy return of them. And your Majesty will see, that it is not without reason, that I make this last request, when your Majesty is informed, that, though the Report appears to have been made upon the 14th of July, yet it was not sent to me, till the 11th of the present month. A similar delay, I should, of all things, deplore. For it is with reluctance, that I yield to those suggestions, which have induced

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me to lay, these my humble requests, requests, before your Majesty, since they must, at all events, in some degree, delay the arrival of that moment, to which, I look forward, with so earnest, and eager an impatience; when I confidently feel, I shall complete ly satisfy your Majesty, that the whole of these charges are alike unfounded: and are all parts of the same conspiracy against me. Your Majesty, so satisfied, will, I can have no doubt, be as anxious as myself, to secure to me that redress, which, the laws of your kingdom (administering, under your Majesty's just dispensation, equal protection and justice, to every description of your Majesty's subjects,) are prepared to afford to those, who are so deeply injured as I have been. That I have in this case, the strongest claim to your Majesty's justice, I am confident I shall prove; but I cannot, as I am advised, so satisfactorily establish that claim, till your Majesty's goodness shall have directed me, to be furnished with an authentic statement of the actual charges against me, and that additional information, which it is the object of this letter most humbly, yet earnestly, to implore.

I am,

SIRE,

Your Majesty's most dutiful, submissive, and humble Daughter-in-law,

Montague House.

To the King.

(Signed)

C. P.

Aug. 20th, 1806.

THE Lord Chancellor has the honour to return, to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, the box, as he received it this morning from His Majesty. It contains the papers he formerly sent to her Royal Highness, and which he sends as they are, thinking that it may be in the meantime most agreeable to her Royal Highness.

The reason of their not having been authenticated by the Lord Chancellor, was, that he received them as copies, from Earl Spencer, who was in possession of the originals; and he could not therefore, with propriety, do so, not having himself compared them; but Her Royal Highness may depend upon having other copies sent to her, which have been duly examined and certified to be so.

The box will be delivered to one of her Royal Highness's Pages in waiting, by the principal officer, attendant upon the Lord Chancellor, and he trusts he shall find full credit, with her Royal Highness, that in sending a servant formerly with the papers, the moment he received them (no messenger being in waiting, and the officers who attend him, being detained by their duties in court,) he could not be supposed to have intended any possible disrespect, which he is incapable of shewing to any lady, but most especially to any member of His Majesty's Royal Family.

To Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.

Lincoln's Inn Fields, Aug. 24, 1806.

His Majesty has been pleased to transmit to me the letter which he has received from your Royal Highness, dated the 17th instant; and to direct, that I should communicate the same to the Lords Commissioners, who had been commanded by His Majesty to report to His Majesty on the matters therein referred to; and I have now received His Majesty's further commands, in consequence of that letter, to acquaint your Royal Highness, that when I transmitted to your Royal Highness, by the King's commands, and under my signature, the copies of official papers, which had been laid before His Majesty, those papers were judged thereby duly authenticated, according to the usual course and forms of office; and sufficiently so, for the purposes, for which, His Majesty had been graciously pleased to direct them to be communicated to your Royal Highness.

That, nevertheless, there does not appear to be any reason for His Majesty's declining a compliance with the request which your Royal Highness has been advised to make, that those copies should, after being examined with the originals, be attested by some person to be named for that purpose and that, if your Royal Highness will do ine the honour to transmit them to me, they shall be examined and attested accordingly, after correcting any errors, that may have occurred in the copying.

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