visits, in no private apartments of my house, but in my drawing-room, where my ladies have, at all times, free access, and as they usually take their luncheon with me, except when they are engaged with visitors, or pursuits of their own, it could but rarely occur that I could be left with any gentleman alone for any length of time, unless there were something in the known and avowed business, which might occasion his waiting upon me, that would fully account for the circumstance. I trust your Majesty will excuse the length at which I have dwelt upon this topic. I perceived, from the examinations, that it had been much inquired after, and I felt it necessary to represent it in its true light. And the candour of your Majesty's mind will, I am confident, suggest that those who are the least conscious of intending guilt, are the least suspicious of having it imputed to them; and therefore that they do not think it necessary to guard themselves, at every turn, with witnesses to prove their innocence, fancying their character to be safe, as long as their conduct is innocent, and that guilt will not be imputed to them from actions quite indifferent. The deposition, however, of Mr. Cole is not confined to my being alone with Sir Sidney Smith. The circumstances in which he observed us together he particularizes, and states his opinion. He introduces, indeed, the whole of his evidence by saying that I was too familiar with Sir Sidney Smith M but as I trust I am not yet so far degraded as to have my character decided by the opinion of Mr. Cole, I shall not comment upon that observation. He then proceeds to describe the scene which he observed on the day when he brought in the sandwiches, which I trust your Majesty did not fail to notice, I had myself ordered to be brought in. For there is an obvious insinuation that Sir Sidney must have come in through the Park, and that there was great impropriety in his being alone with me. And at least the witness's own story proves, whatever impropriety there might be, in this circumstance, that I was not conscious of it, nor meant to take advantage of his clandestine entry, from the Park, to conceal the fact from my servant's observation. For if I had had such consciousness, or such meaning, I never could have ordered sandwiches to have been brought in, or any other act to have been done, which must have brought myself under the notice of my servants, while I continued in a situation, which I thought improper, and wished to conceal. Any of the circumstances of this visit, to which this part of the deposition refers, my memory does not enable me in the least degree to particularize and recal. Mr. Cole may have seen me sitting on the same sofa with Sir Sidney Smith. Nay, I have no doubt he must have seen me, over and over again, not only with Sir Sidney Smith, but with other gentlemen, sitting upon the same sofa; and Itrust your Majesty will feel it the hardest thing imaginable, that I should be called upon to ac count what corner of a sofa I sat upon four years ago, and how close Sir Sidney Smith was sitting to me. I can only solemnly aver to your Majesty, that my conscience supplies me with the fullest means of confidently assuring you, that I never permitted Sir Sidney Smith to sit on any sofa with me in any manner, which, in my own judgment, was in the slightest degree offensive to the strictest propriety and decorum. In the judgment of many persons perhaps, a Princess of Wales should at no time forget the elevation of her rank, or descend in any degree to the familiarities and intimacies of private life. Under any circumstances, this would be a hard condition to be annexed to her situation. Under the circumstances, in which it has been my misfortune to have lost the necessary support to the dignity and station of a Princess of Wales, to have assumed and maintained an unbending dignity would have been impossible, and if possible, could hardly have been expected fron me. After these observations, Sire, I must now request your Majesty's attention to those written declarations which are mentioned in the Report, and which I shall never be able sufficiently to thank your Majesty for having condescended, in compliance with my earnest request, to order to be transmitted to me. From observations upon those declarations themselves, as well as upon comparing them with the depositions made before the Commissioners, your Majesty will see the strongest reason for discrediting the testimony of W. Cole, as well as others of these witnesses whose credit stands in the opinion of the Commissioners so unimpeachable. They supply important observations, even with respect to that part of Mr. Cole's evidence which I am now considering, though in no degree equal in importance to those which I shall afterwards have occasion to notice. Your Majesty will please to observe, that there are no less than four different examinations, or declarations of Mr. Cole. They are dated on the 11th, 14th, and 30th of January, and on 23rd of February. In these four different declarations he twice mentions the circumstance of finding Sir Sidney Smith and myself on the sofa, and he mentions it not only in a different manner, at each of those times, but at both of them in a manner, which materially differs from his deposition before the Commissioners. In his declaration on the 11th of Janu ary* he says, that he found us in so familiar a pos-.. ture, as to alarm him very much, which he expressed by a start back and a look at the gentleman. In that dated on 22nd of February, however (being asked, I suppose, as to that which he had dared to assert, of the familiar posture which had alarmed him so much,) he says, " there was nothing, particular in our dress, position of legs, or arms, that was extraordinary; he thought it improper that a single gentleman should be sitting quite close to a married lady on the sofa, and from that situa * See Appendix (B.) p. 98. tion, and former observations, he thought the thing improper. In this second account, therefore, your Majesty perceives he was obliged to bring in his former observations to help out the statement, in order to account for his having been so shocked with what he saw, as to express his alarm by "starting back." But, unfortunately, he accounts for it, as it seems to me at least, by the very circumstance which would have induced him to have been less surprised, and consequently less startled by what he saw; for had his former observations been such as he insinuates, he would have been prepared the more to expect, and the less to be surprised at, what he pretends to have seen. But your Majesty will observe, that in his deposition before the Commissioners,* (recollecting, perhaps, how awkwardly he had accounted for his starting in his former declaration,) he drops his starting altogether. Instead of looking at the gentleman only, he looked at us both; that I caught his eye, and saw that he noticed the manner in which we were sitting; and instead of his own starting, or any description of the manner in which he exhibited his own feelings, we are represented as both appearing a little confused. Our confusion is a circumstance, which, during his four declarations, which he made before the appointment of the four Commissioners, it never once occurred to him to recollect. And now he does recollect it, we ap peared he says, "a little confused."-A little con fused!-The Princess of Wales detected in a situa* Appendix (A.) p. 1r. |