nesses to those charges which were brought in support of the principal accusation,-witnesses, whom, any person, interested to have protected my character, would easily have shewn, out of their own mouths, to be utterly unworthy of credit, and confederates in foul conspiracy with my false accusers, are reported to be "free from all suspicion of unfavourable bias;" their veracity, "in the judgment of the Commissioners, not to be questioned;" and their infamous stories, and insinuations against me, to be "such as deserve the most serious consideration, and as must be credited till decisively contradicted."

The Inquiry, after I thus had notice of it, continued for above* two months. I venture not to complain, as if it had been unnecessarily protracted. The important duties, and official avocations of the Noble Lords, appointed to carry it on, may naturally account for, and excuse, some delay. But however excusable it may have been, your Majesty will easily conceive the pain and anxiety, which this interval of suspense, has occasioned; and your Majesty will not be surprised, if I further represent, that I have found a great aggravation of my painful sufferings, in the delay which occurred in communicating the Report to me. For though it is dated on the 14th July,

*The time that the Inquiry was pending, after this notice of it, is here confounded with the time which elapsed before the Report was communicated to Her Royal Highness. The Inquiry itself only lasted to the 14th or 16th of July, which is but between five and six weeks from the 7th of June.

I did not receive it, notwithstanding your Majesty's gracious commands, till the 11th of August. It was due, unquestionably, to your Majesty, that the result of an Inquiry, commanded by your Majesty, upon advice which had been offered, touching matters of the highest import, should be first, and immediately, communicated to you. The respect and honour due to the Prince of Wales, the interest which he must necessarily have taken in this Inquiry, combined to make it indisputably fit, that the result should be, forthwith, also stated to His Royal Highness. I complain not, therefore, that it was too early communicated to any one: I complain only, (and I complain most seriously, for I felt it most severely) of the delay in its communication to me.

Rumour had informed the world, that the Report had been early communicated to your Majesty, and to his Royal Highness. I did not receive the benefit, intended for me by your Majesty's gracious command, till a month after the Report was signed. But the same rumour had represented me, to my infinite prejudice, as in possession of the Report, during that month, and the malice of those, who wished to stain my honour, has not failed to suggest all that malice could infer, from its remaining in that possession, so long unnoticed. May I be permitted to say, that, if the Report acquits me, my innocence entitled me to receive from those, to whom your Majesty's commands had been given, an immediate notification of the fact that it did acquit me.

That, if it condemned me, the weight of such a sentence should not have been left to settle, int any mind, much less upon your Majesty's, for a month, before I could even begin to prepare an answer, which, when begun, could not speedily be concluded; and that, if the Report could be represented as both acquitting, and condemning me, the reasons, which suggested the propriety of an early communication in each of the former cases, combined to make it proper and necessary in the latter.

And why all consideration of my feelings was thus cruelly neglected; why I was kept upon the' rack, during all this time, ignorant of the result of a charge, which affected my honour and my life; and why, especially in a case, where such grave matters were to continue to be "credited, to the prejudice of my honour," till they were decidedly contradicted," the means of knowing what it was, that I must, at least, endeavour to contradict, were withholden from me, a single unnecessary hour, I know not, and I will not trust myself, in the attempt, to conjecture.

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On the 11th of August, however, I at length received from the Lord Chancellor, a packet containing copies of the Warrant or Commission authorizing the Inquiry; of the Report-and of the Examinations on which the Report was founded. And your Majesty may be graciously pleased to

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recollect; that on the 13th I returned my grateful thanks to your Majesty, for having ordered these papers to be sent to me.

Your Majssty will readily imagine that, upon a subject of such importance, I could not venture to trust only to my own advice; and those with whom I.advised, suggested, that the written Declarations or Charges upon which the Inquiry had proceeded, and which the Commissioners refer to in their Report, and represent to be the essential foundation of the whole proceeding, did not accompany the Examinations and Report; and also that the papers themselves were not authenticat ed. I therefore ventured to address your Majesty, upon these supposed defects in the communication, and humbly requested that the copies of the papers, which I then returned, might, after being examined, and authenticated, be again transmitted to me; and that I might also be furnished with copies of the written Declarations so referred to in the Report. And my humble thanks are due for your Majesty's gracious compliance with my request. On the 29th of August I received, in consequence, the attested copies of those Declarations, and of a Narrative of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent; and a few days after, on the 3d of Septeniber, the attested copics of the Examinations which were taken before the Commissioners.

The Papers which I have received are as follow: *The Narrative of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, dated 27th of December, 1805.

A Copy of the written Declaration of Sir John and Lady Douglas, dated December 3, 1805.,

A Paper containing the written Declarations, or Examinations, of the persons hereafter enumerated;-The title to these Papers is,

"For the purpose of confirming the Statement "made by Lady Douglas, of the circumstances " mentioned in her Narrative, The following ex"aminations have been taken, and which have "been signed by the several persons who have "been examined"

Two of Sarah Lampert ;-one, dated Cheltenham, 8th January, 1806,-and the other, 29th March, 1806.

One of William Lampert, baker, 114, Cheltenham, apparently of the same date with the last of Sarah Lampert's.

Four of William Cole, dated respectively, 11th January 14th January, 30th January, and 23rd February, 1806.

One of Robert Bidgood, dated Temple, 4th April, 1806.

One of Sarah Bidgood, dated Temple, 23rd April, 1806; and

One of Frances Lloyd, dated Temple, 12th May, 1806.

* See Appendix (B).