Volume I Part 13 (2/2)
_27th Jan., 1813._
”SIR,
”On the 14th of this month, I transmitted to the hand of your royal highness a letter relative to the cruelty and injustice of my situation, in reference to my beloved child's separation from me, the most heart-rending point upon which you could so severely afflict me.
Why does your royal highness refuse to answer my simple, but honest and honourable inquiry? What have I not endured since the moment I became your princess and wife? Heaven only knows, and heaven only can avenge my wrongs. It is now more than seventeen years since I gave birth to your lovely daughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales, at which time I did most certainly hope and also believe, that her royal father's affectionate recollections of her mother would not only revive, but be exemplified.
Yet to this time, your royal highness has not evinced one spark of regard to the consort you vowed 'to love and cherish.'
”More than this, my lord and husband, you permit her majesty to usurp such extreme authority over me, and insult me in every possible way.
Why, my lord, I ask, do you allow these indignities to be imposed upon your cousin and wife, (so called) the mother of the heiress to the throne of these united kingdoms? If I had deserved such treatment, I should most naturally have avoided all scrutiny; but, that I have endeavoured to obtain all possible investigation into my conduct, I need only refer to my several correspondencies with your august father, your brother of York, privy council, &c. &c.
”I cannot conclude without saying, if you refuse me justice, I will leave indisputable proofs to this insulted nation that its generosity has been abused, though, at the same time, I would save _you yourself_ from IGNOMINY at the hazard of my liberty. To the queen, I never will bow. Her majesty WAS, IS, and EVER WILL BE, A TYRANT to those she may imagine obstacles in her path. Perhaps her majesty presumes I am not an object of material consequence; but time will develop all these things.
If this letter meet not with your royal approbation, I can only regret it, and waiting your reply,
”I am, ever, ”Your faithful and devoted ”CAROLINE.”
”P.S. I entreat your royal highness to inform yourself of every part of my conduct which may at any time have been esteemed derogatory; and, while I beg this favour, I trust your royal highness will never again submit to the unprincipled, slanderous, and abominable aspersions cast upon my character. Let me suggest, my lord, that TRUTH MUST PREVAIL, SOONER OR LATER. After the most deliberate, careful, and scrutinizing investigations, I only beg to be punished with the most extreme rigour, if I am found GUILTY; but if free from guilt, I ought to say, I have an indisputable right to be ACKNOWLEDGED SO!”
”_To his Royal Highness, the Prince Regent._”
This letter was not noticed when the commissioners sat on the 23rd of February; and Lord Liverpool never even mentioned it when communicating with the princess, or when he had the private interview with her royal highness, by the regent's request.
We should not act with justice or honour if we neglected to state this _omission_; because the letter reflected much credit upon the princess, and ought to have been the first read when the council a.s.sembled. The result of this new inquiry, however, was what the vindictive queen intended it should be; for the almost-distracted Princess of Wales was refused the natural privilege of intercourse with her only daughter!
In the mean time, every opportunity was gladly embraced to detract the character of the princess. Base inuendos and malicious remarks were incessantly poured forth against her, until her life became one continued scene of sorrow and abuse, caused by those from whom she ought to have experienced protection. Under these imputations, the princess again appealed, by an address to the Speaker of the House of Commons; and, after many inquiries and replies, the subject was dismissed with an acknowledgment, that ”_Her royal highness is declared free from all imputation._”
We must not here forget to mention, that Mr. C. Johnstone submitted a motion, on the 5th of March, ”to request the prince regent will permit the copy of a certain report, made in 1806, to be laid before the House;” but Lord Castlereagh opposed it, as being _unnecessary_, and the doc.u.ment was consequently refused.
Notwithstanding the disgust manifested by every honest Englishman at the base conduct of Sir John and Lady Douglas, when they preferred their abominable charge against the character of the Princess of Wales in the year 1806, they had the hardihood to present a pet.i.tion to the House this year _to re-swear to the truth of their former depositions concerning the conduct of the Princess of Wales_! No proceedings, of course, took place in consequence of this attempt still to propagate their calumnies; but a motion was made by Mr. C. Johnstone, a few days afterwards in the House of Commons, ”That the pet.i.tion of Sir John and Lady Douglas ought to be regarded as an audacious attempt to give a colour of truth, in the eyes of the nation, to evidence which they had delivered touching the conduct of her royal highness the Princess of Wales, and which evidence was a foul and detestable endeavour to bring the life and honour of her royal highness into danger and suspicion.”
This resolution, however, could not be pa.s.sed, in consequence of the House _not being in possession of the evidence_, which was refused, as we have just stated, by Lord Castlereagh; but many members expressed their agreement with the _sentiments_ of the resolution.
What was the _real_ reason for not _prosecuting_ Sir John and Lady Douglas, after the House had rejected their pet.i.tion with such indignation, on the motion of Mr. Johnstone, it is not very easy to divine; that alleged by Lord Castlereagh is most certainly not a _satisfactory_ one. It has been often insinuated, that if the conspiracy against the life and honour of the Princess of Wales did not originate with her royal relatives, it was certainly fostered and brought to maturity by persons connected with the queen and the prince regent; and the evidence of Bidgood and Cole very much favours that opinion. If the Douglases, and Bidgood and Cole, were the ”suborned traducers,” to which her royal highness alluded in one of her letters to the prince about this time, the impunity with which the knight and his lady were suffered to continue at large cannot excite surprise. This impunity, the report that Bidgood had received a pension of one hundred and fifty pounds a year, and the direct interference of the Prince of Wales in promoting the inquiry, and in entering his caveat to prevent the princess being received at court, have thrown a suspicious veil around this part of the proceedings, which will not be very soon removed.
On the 23rd of March, the Princess of Wales had to bear another severe stroke of fortune, in the death of her mother, the d.u.c.h.ess of Brunswick, who was interred with much funeral pomp, at Windsor, on the 31st. This melancholy event, following so closely after her late persecutions, was as much as the princess could endure; and had it not been for the sympathetic attentions of one confidant, her royal highness would, no doubt, have sunk under her immense load of sorrow.
In July and August, the princess devoted the greater portion of her time to correspondence with the prince, her husband. Very many of the letters could not, we think, have met the eye of the regent, or answers must have been sent, if only in common courtesy, as the prince knew _his_ honour, and also that of his family, were at stake. We have _transcripts of all these letters_; but shall content ourselves with only introducing _the last she wrote to his royal highness previous to her going abroad_.
The following is a literal copy of it:
”_23rd of Aug., 1813._
”SIR,
”I have waited, with most anxious feelings, to receive an acknowledgment of the safe receipt of several important communications which I addressed to you as 'private and confidential.' To this hour I have not received a reply, and I therefore take up my pen for the last time upon this most disagreeable business. To you it is well known, that the good king, your father, has invariably treated me with the most profound respect, and proper attention; and his majesty would have done me more essential service long since, had it not been for the oath he gave to Lord Chatham, to preserve from all _public_ investigation the connexion formed in 1759 with the Quakeress.
”I am aware, Sir, that you may say I intrude myself upon your royal notice very frequently; but I think and feel it to be my indispensable duty and privilege. I have lately had an interview with Lord Liverpool; but his lords.h.i.+p cannot serve your royal highness and the persecuted Princess of Wales. I, therefore, shall not submit myself to any further interviews with his lords.h.i.+p, by my own request. As I intend this letter as a _final appeal_ and _explanation_ to your royal highness, I beg to ask your forbearance and lenity on account of its length and detail.
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