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had had laid before him, the charge which was made against me by Lady Douglas, and the declaration in support of it, proceed in the following manner.

* "In the painful situation in which his Royal "Highness was placed by these communications, "we learnt that His Royal Highness had adopted "the only course which could, in our judgment, "with propriety be followed. When informations "such as these had been thus confidently alleged, "and particularly detailed, and had been in some degree supported by collateral evidence, applying to other facts of the same nature, (though going "to a far less extent,) one line only could be pur❝sued.

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"Every sentiment of duty to your Majesty, and "of concern for the public welfare, required that "these particulars should not be withheld from

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your Majesty, to whom more particularly belonged the cognizance of a matter of State, so "nearly touching the honour of your Majesty's "Royal Family, and, by possibility, affecting the "succession of your Majesty's Crown.

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"Your Majesty had been pleased, on your part, "to view the subject in the same light. Considering it as a matter which, on every account, de"manded the most immediate investigation, your Majesty had thought fit to commit into our hands "the duty of ascertaining, in the first instance, "what degree of credit was due to the information, " and thereby enabling your Majesty to decide "what further conduct to adopt respecting them." *Report, p. 6. ante.

His Royal Highness then, pursuing, as the four Lords say, the only course, which could in their judgment, with propriety, be pursued, submitted the matter to your Majesty.-Your Majesty directed the Inquiry by the four noble Lords.-The four Lords in their Report upon the case, justly acquitted me of all crime, and expressed (I will not wait now to say how unjustly) the credit which they gave, and the consequence they ascribed to other matters, which they did not, however, characterize as amounting to any crime.—To this Report I made my answer.-That answer, together with the whole proceedings, was referred by your Majesty, to the same four noble Lords, and others of your Majesty's confidential servants. They advised your Majesty, amongst much other matter, (which must be the subject of further observations) that there was no longer any reason why you should decline receiving me.

Your Majesty will necessarily conceive that I have always looked upon my banishment from your Royal Presence, as, in fact, a punishment, and a severe one too. I thought it sufficiently hard, that I should have been suffering that punishment, during the time that this Inquiry has been pending, while I was yet only under accusation, and upon the principles of the just laws of your Majesty's kingdom, entitled to be presumed to be innocent, till I was proved to be guilty. But I find this does not appear to be enough, in the opinion of the Prince of Wales. For now, when

after this long Inquiry, into matters which required immediate investigation, I have been acquitted of every thing which could call for my banishment from your Royal Presence;-after your Majesty's confidential servants have thus expressly advised your Majesty that they see no reason why you should any longer decline to receive me into your presence ;-after your Majesty had graciously notified to me, your determination to receive me at an early day, His Royal Highness interposes the demand of a new delay; desires your Majesty not to take any step; desires you not to act upon the advice which your own confidential servants have given you, that you need no longer decline seeing me ;not to execute your intention, and assurance, that you would receive me at an early day;—because he has laid the documents before his Lawyers, and intends to prepare a further statement. And the judgment of your Majesty's confidential servants, is, as it were, appealed from by the Prince of Wales, (whom, from this time, at least, I must be permitted to consider as assuming the character of my accuser);—the justice due to me is to be suspended, while the judgment of your Majesty's sworn servants is to be submitted to the revision

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my accuser's Counsel; and I, though acquitted, in the opinion of your Majesty's confidential servants, of all that should induce your Majesty to decline seeing me, am to have that punishment, which had been inflicted upon me, during the Inquiry, continued after that acquittal, till a fresh

statement is prepared, to be again submitted, for aught I know, to another Inquiry, of as extended a continuance as that which has just terminated.

Can it be said that the proceedings of the four noble Lords, or of your Majesty's confidential servants, have been so lenient, and considerate towards me and my feelings, as to induce a suspicion that I have been too favourably dealt with by them? and that the advice which has been given to your Majesty, that your Majesty need no longer decline to receive me, was hastily and partially delivered? I am confident, that your Majesty must see the very reverse of this to be the case-that I have every reason to complain of the inexplicable delay which so long withheld that advice. And the whole character of the observations with which they accompanied it, marks the reluctance with which they yielded to the necessity of giving it,

For your Majesty's confidential servants advise your Majesty," that it is no longer necessary for

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you to decline receiving me into your Royal "Presence." If this is their opinion and their advice now, why was it not their opinion and their advice four months ago, from the date of my answer? Nay, why was it not their opinion and advice from the date even of the original Report itself? For not only had they been in possession of my answer for above sixteen weeks, which at least furnished them with all the materials on which this advice at length was given, but further, your Majesty's confidential servants are forward to state,

that after having read my observations, and the affidavits which they annexed to them, they agree in the opinions (not in any single opinion upon any particular branch of the case, but in the opinions generally) which were submitted to your Majesty, in the original Report of the four Lords. If therefore (notwithstanding their concurrence in all the opinions contained in the Report) they have nevertheless given to your Majesty their advice, “that "it is no longer necessary for you to decline re

ceiving me;"-what could have prevented their offering that advice, even from the 14th of July, the date of the original Report itself? Or what could have warranted the withholding of it, even for single moment? Instead, therefore, of any trace being observable, of hasty, precipitate, and partial determination in my favour, it is impossible to interpret their conduct and their reasons together in any other sense, than as amounting to an admission of your Majesty's confidential servants themselves, that I have, in consequence of their withholding that advice, been unnecessarily and cruelly banished from your Royal Presence, from the 14th of July, to the 28th of January, including a space of above six months; and the effect of the interposition of the Prince, is to prolong my sufferings, and my disgrace, under the same banishment, to a period perfectly indefinite.

The principle which will admit the effect of such interposition now, may be acted upon again; and the Prince may require a further prolongation,

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