forded; and he objected to the amendment, not for the reasons stated by the Noble Lord, but because he knew not by what mode of proceeding it could be followed up. MR. PONSONBY felt peculiar pain in differing from the amendment proposed by his Hon. Friend. He knew no parliamentary grounds on which to address the Prince Regent to lay the papers before the House. If they had the Report before them, it would not enable them to form an accurate judgment of the case; nor could he find any consideration that would justify the interference of the House of Commons. The Prince Regent had the power of any father to say how often, under all circumstances, his wife should visit his daughter: and as a Sovereign, he had the farther right of superintending the education of the heiress to the Crown. He disavowed any advice to, or interference with the conduct of the Princess on his own part, and on that of any of those with whom he was in the habit of acting. He deprecated all attempts to get into power by exciting family feuds and dissensions. He wished that all could lay their hands on their hearts and say the same. LORD CASTLEREAGH disclaimed every imputation of that nature. MR. WHITBREAD in explanation said, that the Report threw a doubt on the innocence of the Princess of Wales. He had, therefore, wished for its production, intending to have moved for such farther documents as the case might seem to require: but the testimonies borne, in the course of this debate, in her favour, had greatly suspended the necessity of his motion. MR. CANNING observed, that painful as this debate must be to all, he had derived a great consolation and satisfaction from hearing what had just fallen from the Hon. Gent. who spoke last, which did him as much credit as the ability and zeal with which he had supported his motion of amendment. The only case which could have supported such a motion as that proposed, had been done away by the honourable and repeated sentences of acquittal which had been pronounced for Her Royal Highness in the course of the debate. He should therefore vote against the motion, or the amendment, with a full conviction that he was doing what public duty required, and what every proper feeling justified. He like the Noble Lord, had some share in the transaction of 1807, and he considered the decision then pronounced as a verdict of complete acquittal. If he considered the present Report as a revival of former charges, he would not, had he been in the Councils of the Prince Regent, have advised His Royal Highness to sign the Commission; he should have contented himself with say ing, that as a father, His Royal Highness had a right to control his own family, and as a Sovereign to educate the heir to the throne. After the explanations of the Noble Lord, he did not think the proceeding liable to that objection. He should, therefore, oppose the present motion, trusting that no future motion of the same kind would come before the House. Every man who looked to the consequences of angry discussions and protracted debates on such subjects, would think no period so proper to terminate them as the present. MR. BRAGGE BATHURST justified himself and his Colleagues in the course they had taken. MR. GANNING explained. THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL thought it was enough to justify the last report that the Speaker's name was signed to it. When the Princess made a complaint on so solemn a point as Confirmation, it became His Royal Highness to refer it to those venerable advisers whose names were in the Commission. Alluding to an expression of Mr. Whitbread's, referring to the opinion signed by His Royal Highness's legal advisers, and wishing he had him in the same situation in which he (the SolicitorGeneral) had had many in his fortunate practice, he said that he should have then had nothing to fear; for the dread of crossexamination vanished where there was nothing to conceal. He, together with Mr. Adam and Mr. Jekyl, had certain papers referred to them, on which they gave an opinion; but which he never since saw, till it was made public. MR. WHITBREAD explained. MR. YORKE expressed his hope, that the Mover would withdraw the original motion. Mr. COCHRANE JOHNSTONE declined doing so, and said, he considered this as the proudest day in his life. The Amendment and original Motion were negatived without a division.-Adjourned. Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent-Garden, LONDON: Printed by J. M'Creery, Black-Horse-Court, Fleet-street. COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER. VOL. XXIII. No. 12.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1813. [Price 1s. 353] NOTICE. [354 possession of some facts relative to the endeavours that were still making for the The present Double Number of the Re- same purpose; but, still I said, that the gister contains all the Depositions against Book would come out. I assured my readthe PRINCESS OF WALES; the Double Num-ers, in the most unqualified terms, that they ber, to be published next week, will contain the whole of her defence; and thus, these two Double Numbers will contain every word of what has been called THE BOOK. N. B. The Index to the last volume of the Register will be published in a few weeks. TO JAMES PAUL, OF BURSLEDON, IN LOWER DUBLIN TOWN- Letter IV. London, 19th March, 1813. My dear Friend, You must remember, that, while I was in Newgate for writing about the flogging of the English Local militiamen at the town of Ely, and the employment of German troops upon the occasion; you must remember, that, while I was in that jail, and not many months before the expiration of my two years, and the payment of a fine of a thousand pounds, which the Prince Regent received in behalf of his Royal Father, who, during my imprisonment, was become incapable of governing in person; you must remember, that, at the time here referred to, I confidently predicted, and, indeed, positively asserted, that the BOOK would come out in spite of all that could be done to prevent its publication. It was notorious, that many thousands of pounds had been expended in order to prevent the appearance of this Book; it was notorious that the most extraordinary means had been resorted to in order to secure that object; and I was in would, at no very distant day, see the whole of the famous BOOK. Since the date of my last letter to you, the BOOK, the real, the genuine Book, has made its appearance in print, in a conplete form, in an octavo volume, and being page for page and word for word with the original work. Thus, then, my prophecy is fulfilled; and, though prophets are said not to be honoured in their own countries, I ought, I think, to expect my due share of credit in yours. With such a mass of matter before us; overlaid, as we now are, with materials for comment, it is no easy thing to determine where to begin. After a little reflection, however, it appears to me to be the best way, to set out by giving you a short history of this Book, and, before we come to an examination of its contents, as they affect the Princess of Wales, to shew you what were the uses which political and party intrigue has made of those contents. The history of the Book is this: When the Princess of Wales, in consequence of the Letter of the Prince, which you have already seen, quitted Carleton House, she went to reside in a house called Montague House, at Blackheath, near Greenwich, which is about five or six miles distant from London. There, in the year 1801, she became accidentally acquainted with a Lady Douglas, the wife of Sir John Douglas, who, as an officer of marines, greatly distinguished himself at the siege of St. Jean D'Acre, when that place was so bravely defended by Sir Sidney Smith against Buonaparte. Lady Douglas and her husband soon became extremely intimate with the Princess, who, according to the statement of Lady Douglas, seems to have been very fond of her indeed. This intimacy continued until 1804, when the Princess, after some previous bickerings, dismissed Lady Douglas from her society. M The four Lords, having thus got their authority for acting, assembled and called such persons as they chose in order to examine them on oath, touching the matters alleged against the Princess by Lady and Sir John Douglas. It is not my intention to stop here, in order to inquire into the legality or propriety of this mode of proceeding, my business, at present, being simply to tell you what was done; to trace along the proceedings to the present time; and to show you the uses which politicians and parties have made of these family concerns, and thereby to enable you to judge of the way in which our national affairs are managed, and to settle in your own impartial mind, whether we, who call for a reform of the House of Commons, are the enemies of the throne and of the Royal Family. Lady Douglas and her husband, after this, I as, indeed, you ought to refer to all the that is to say in 1805, and in the month documents as you proceed. of December in that year, gave in, as she states, in consequence of commands to that purpose from the Prince of Wales, a written stalement of facts, relative to the lan'guage and behaviour of his wife, and particularly relative to the birth of a child, which she asserted the Princess to have brought into the world in 1802. The statement of facts is now published; but, as it is the same, in respect to all the material points as the deposition of this Lady, which deposition you will find in another part of the present double number of my Register, I shall not insert it this week. It does no where, that I can discover, appear, how the Prince came by the knowledge of Lady Douglas being in possession of such dreadful secrets. Lady Douglas says, that she makes the statement in obedience to the commands of the Prince; but, who gave the information, which induced His Royal Highness to give such commands, we are no where, that I can perceive, informed. Yet, this is a circumstance of considerable importance; and, we must not fail to bear it in mind. Lady Douglas was the depository of the awful secret; and she says, that she divulged it by command; but, before the command was issued, the person issuing it must have known that she possessed a secret of some sort about his wife. This circumstance must be borne in mind. When the Four Lords had gone through the examinations, beginning with those of Lady and Sir John Douglas, they made, agreeably to the warrant under which they acted, a REPORT thereof to the King, a copy of which Report is the first of the documents hereunto subjoined. When you have read that Report, you will see, that the Four Lords declared the Princess to be quite clear of the charge of having been pregnant in 1802; but, that they left her stigmatized with charges of minor import. The Princess, upon receiving a copy of But, be this as it may, the STATE-. this Report, together with copies of all the MENT of FACTS was made, and was laid Statements and Depositions that had been before the Prince, verified by the DUKE OF received against as well as for her, wrote SUSSEX. The Statement of Facts, which several letters to the King, and these let ters contain her defence against those minor was to serve, or, at least, which did serve, charges with which the Four Lords left as the ground-work of all the further pro- her tarnished. The whole of these Letters ceedings, has, in the printed Book, now I have not, this week, had room to insert; published, the name of "AUGUSTUS "FREDERICK" signed to it, in order, I but, I have inserted all the DEPOSI suppose, to verify the authenticity of it;TIONS against the Princess; because, these in order to verify, that it was signed by naturally come before the Defence of the accused party. Lady and Sir John Douglas. So that the Prince, when it was laid before him, could have no doubt of its being authentic. Thus in possession of an assertion of his wife's criminality, the Prince, it seems, -lost but little time in laying the Statement before his father, who, on the 20th of May, 1806, issued a warrant to the four Lords, ERSKINE, SPENCER, GRENVILLE, and ELLENBOROUGH, to examine into the ⚫ matter. A copy of this warrant, being the 2d of the subjoined documents, will explain its own nature, if you refer to it, BOOK; to its origin, its possible object, We now come to the making of THE and its effects, which are now of much more importance to the people here, and to the world in general, than the truth or falsehood of the several allegations themselves. As to these we will hereafter inquire; but, at present, the uses that have been made of the Book is the subject of our inquiry. The Princess, when the Report of the Four Lords was laid before her, resorted, as it was natural she should, to legal ad visers, that is to say, to men eminent f It was, therefore, not unnatural for the Princess, when the Four Lords had made their Report respecting her, to look to Mr. the profession of the law. She chose, as her chief adviser, PERCEVAL, who was shot last year by John Bellingham. It is now said, that two others, the late At-Perceval as an adviser. She did so, and, torney General, GIBBS, who is now a as you will soon see, he was a man who Judge, and the present Attorney General, knew how to manage such a concern to the Sir Thomas Plomer, were also consulted; greatest advantage. but it is perfectly notorious, that Perceval was the chief adviser. You must now go back with me a little and take a view of the state of parties. In 1805, when the information was given to the Prince by Lady Douglas, PITT was minister, and Perceval was his Attorney General. But, even at that time, Pitt was ill at Bath; and, in January, 1806, soon after the information was in the hands of the Prince, Pitt died. His death was followed by the ousting of his set, and Lord Eldon, who was Lord Chancellor, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Canning, Lord Camden, and others, went out of place, and, in the usual way, formed the OPPOSITION to Mr. Fox, Lord Grenville, Lord Grey, Lord Erskine, and others, who came into power, and who, from a trick of party, where called the Whig Adminis tration. This change, you will observe, took place in 1806, and in the month of February, and it brought into the possession of long sought power, those persons who had always been regarded, and, indeed, called, the Prince's Friends; and, you will observe, from the words of the King's warrant, that Lord Erskine, who was now become Lord Chancellor, and who had been the Chancellor of the Prince, laid before the King the abstract of those declarations against the Princess, upon which the King founded his warrant for the inquiry. I do not mention these circum stances for the purpose of raising in your miud a suspicion, that the Prince would not have made the appeal had his friends not been in power, because I believe he would; but, I mention, them for the purpose of showing you the true state of all the parties with regard to each other, and also for the purpose of preparing your miud for the clear comprehension of certain matters that have arisen since the Regency was established in the person of the Prince. Having gat possession of all the documents relating to so important an affair, the first thing that was done, was, through the means of a correspondence between the Princess and the Lord Chancellor Erskine, to obtain a verification of the Report, the Warrant, the Statement of Facts of Lady Douglas, and the Several Depositions, Examinations, aud Letters, which you will find subjoined to this Letter. This being done, the little lawyer had materials to work upon; and, under his advice, the Princess then addressed two Letters to the King, which Letters I shall hereafter publish, and in which Letters she defended herself, made observations on the conduct of her accusers and of the other parties concerned, and called upon the King to restore her to his presence at court, from which, since the making of the complaint against her, she had been kept. The addressing of these Letters to the King took place, as you will see by the dates, during the summer and autumn of 1806. The Report of the Four Lords was made to the King on the 14th of July in that year; the Princess did not receive a copy of it, as you will see, for some time; from the time she did receive that copy, she continued writing to the King to the date of her Letter of the 2d October, 1806, concluding with her prayer to be restored ta his presence at court, and thus to be cleared in the eyes of the world. Thus were materials for THE BOOK every day, up to this time, increasing in the hands of Perceval, who seems to have been duly impress ed with a sense of their value, The King, having the defence of the Princess before him, and also her demands of justice at his hands, referred her Letters to his Cabinet Ministers, and required their opinion and advice as to what he ought to do in the case. The Princess, as you will see, had called for her justification in the eyes of the world by means of an admission to court. That she insisted upon as abso Amongst those who were ousted by the lutely necessary to the vindication of her death of PITT was his Attorney General, honour. And certainly her request was PERCEVAL, who, at the change, became, most reasonable; for, it was gone forth to of course, a member of the OPPOSITION to the world, that she had been accused of the Whigs, who, as I observed before, having had a child in consequence of an ilwere also denominated the Prince's friends.licit amour. It had, indeed, been also stated, that she had been cleared of this, I see, been productive of very important but that other imputations remained. There consequences, not only to this country but fore, said she, let me appear at court, and to all those countries which have been affectthen the nation will be convinced, that I ed by the measures of our cabinet. am cleared of every thing of which I have PRESENT. been accused; or, said she, if you refuse" MINUTE OF CABINET, Downingme this request; if you refuse me this open street, January 25, 1807. testimony of your conviction of my innocence, let me be proved to be guilty in a "The Ld. Chancellor, Lord Vis. Howick, fair and open manner. Let me be proved" Lord President, Lord Grenville, to be guilty, or let me be treated as inno-"Lord Privy Seal, * Lord Ellenborough, Mr.Sec. Windham, Mr. Grenville, cent. "Earl Spencer, "Your Majesty's confidential servants "have given the most diligent and atten❝tive consideration to the matters on which Nothing could be more reasonable, nothing more fair, nothing more just than this; but, the King, who seems, through the whole of the transactions, to have acted the part of an impartial judge as well as of a considerate and kind parent, was ham-" your Majesty has been pleased to require pered by the previous decision of the Four "their opinion and advice. They trust Lords, which left a stain upon the Prin-" your Majesty will not think that any apocess's character. In this emergency he did "logy is necessary on their part for the dewhat a King of England ought to do. He "lay which has attended their deliberareferred the Letters of the Princess to his "tions, on a subject of such extreme imconstitutional advisers, the ministers; and 66. portance, and which they have found to be bade them, after perusing and considering" of the greatest difficulty and embarrassall that the Princess had to say, give him their opinion and advice as to the course he ought to pursue. "ment.They are fully convinced that "it never can have been your Majesty's "intention to require from them, that The ministers (the Whigs you will ob- they should lay before your Majesty a serve) appear to have been greatly puzzled" detailed and circumstantial examination upon this occasion. They were involved in and discussion of the various arguments a dilemma out of which it was impossible" and allegations contained in the letter for them to get. They were compelled," submitted to your Majesty, by the Law either to advise the King to suffer the Prin- " Advisers of the Princess of Wales. cess to come to court, or not to suffer her" And they beg leave, with all humito come to court. If the latter, they ran "lity, to represent to your Majesty that the risk of all the dangers of an open expo-" the laws and constitution of their counsure of all that has now been exposed. "try have not placed them in a situation in They ran the risk of the publication of" which they can conclusively pronounce Lady Douglas's Statement and Deposition;" on any question of guilt or innocence afof Mr. Edmeades's deposition; and of all "fecting any of your Majesty's subjects, the other depositions, proving so clearly" much less one of your Majesty's Royal what had been going on against the Prin- " Family. They have indeed no power or cess. But, on the other hand, if they ad- "authority whatever to enter on such a vised the King to receive the Princess at "course of inquiry as could alone lead to court, what would that advice have amount-any final results of such a nature. The ed to with regard to the judgment of the "main question on which they had conFour Lords, who had made the Report of "ceived themselves called upon by their 14th July, 1806, and who were four out of duty to submit their advice to your Mathe eleven members of the Cabinet, not for- "jesty was this,-Whether the circumgetting that Earl Moira was a fifth? "stances which had, by your Majesty's In this dilemma the ministers, in Cabi-commands, been brought before them, net Council assembled, took a course which were of a nature to induce your Majesty generally, if not always, proves fatal to "to order any further steps to be taken those who pursue it; that is to say, a middle" upon them by your Majesty's Governcourse; and, on the 25th of January, 1807," ment? And on this point they humbly after long and repeated deliberations, laid" submit to your Majesty that the advice before the King the result, in the following" which they offered was clear and unequiminute, which you will read with great vocal. Your Majesty has since been attention, seeing that it has, as you will" pleased further to require that they |