Volume I Part 19 (2/2)
On the 16th, the queen received an address from the common council of the city of London, to which she returned an answer, so feelingly expressed, as to excite the sympathy and admiration of all present.
On the afternoon of the sixth day of the queen's entry into London, a message was delivered from the king to both houses of parliament, communicating certain reports and papers respecting the queen's misconduct while abroad. On the following Thursday, a committee was appointed in the House of Lords; but the queen transmitted a communication to the House of Commons, protesting against the reference of her accusations to a SECRET TRIBUNAL, and soliciting an open investigation of her conduct.
Thus was commenced a prosecution in principle and object every way calculated to rouse the generous and const.i.tutional feelings of the nation; and the effects were without a parallel in the history of all countries! Could a more outrageous insult possibly have been offered to her dignity, to the honour of her husband the king, or to the morality and decency of the community at large?
Up to this time, Prince Leopold had not tendered his respects to her majesty; yet he was the widowed husband of the queen's only and dearly-beloved daughter! His serene highness had been raised from a state of comparative poverty and obscurity to be honoured with the hand of England's favourite princess, from whose future reign was expected a revival of commerce and an addition of glory. Though this prince was enjoying an annual income of FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS from the country; though he had town and country residences, of great extent and magnificent appearance; though he abounded with horses and carriages; yet not one offer did he make of any of these superfluous matters to the mother of his departed wife, by whose means he had become possessed of them all! Grat.i.tude, however, is generally esteemed a _virtue_, and therefore a German prince could not be supposed to know any thing about it.
About this period, her majesty received numerous communications, tending to prove the infamous proceedings against her to have been adopted without reference to honour or principle, and to warn her from falling into the snares of her mercenary and vindictive enemies. We lay before our readers the following, as sufficient to establish this fact.
”An officer of the frigate which took her majesty (when Princess of Wales) to the Continent averred, in the presence of three _unimpeachable_ witnesses, that a very few days before her majesty's embarkation, CAPTAIN KING, while sitting at breakfast in his cabin with the surgeon of the frigate, received a letter from a _brother of the prince regent_, which he read aloud, in the presence of the said surgeon, as follows:
”DEAR KING,
”You are going to be ordered to take the Princess of Wales to the Continent. IF YOU DON'T COMMIT ADULTERY WITH HER, YOU ARE A d.a.m.nED FOOL!
You have _my_ consent for it, and I can a.s.sure you that you have that of _MY BROTHER, THE REGENT_.
”Your's, (Signed) ********.
”The officer who made the above statement and declaration is a most CREDITABLE PERSON, and the witnesses are all in this country.”
”_London, May 7th, 1820._
”Furnished to supply the queen with PROOF that the _royal duke_ in question is leagued against her, in accordance with the WISHES OF THE KING!”
”PRIVATE DOc.u.mENT.
”Captain King's agent is Mr. STILLWELL, 22, Arundel-street, Strand, London; and the surgeon, who was present during the period the royal duke's letter was read, is JAMES HALL. The witnesses were--Mr.
FRESHFIELD, 3, Tokenhouse-yard; Mr. HOLMES, 3, Lyon's-inn; and Mr.
STOKOE, 2, Lancaster-court; as also before BARRY O'MEARA.
(Signed) ”BARRY E. O'MEARA.”
On the 24th of June, a deputation of the House of Commons was appointed to wait upon her majesty with the resolutions adopted by the House on Thursday, the 22nd. They arrived at a quarter past one o'clock. Mr.
Wilberforce and Mr. S. Wortley occupied the first carriage. At their appearance, strong symptoms of displeasure were indicated. They were then introduced to the queen, Mr. Brougham standing at her majesty's right hand, and Mr. Denman at her left. They severally knelt and kissed her majesty's hand. Mr. Wilberforce then read the resolutions, and her majesty replied to them. On their departure, Mr. Brougham accompanied the deputation to the door; and, after they had taken their seats in the carriages, Mr. Brougham returned to shake hands with them, although the mult.i.tudes a.s.sembled outside hissed them exceedingly.
Her majesty's answer to the before-mentioned resolutions was superior to the tricks of her enemies. In it the queen refused terms of conciliation, unless they accorded with her duty to her own character, to the king, and to the nation! ”A sense of what is due to my character and s.e.x,” said the queen, ”forbids me to refer minutely to the REAL CAUSE of our domestic differences!” Indeed, her majesty's reply was an appeal to those principles of public justice, which should be alike the safeguard of the highest and the humblest individuals. Mr. Wilberforce exposed himself to much censure upon the part he had taken in the House; and, as he so unhesitatingly hinted at the awful contents of the ”Green Bag,” he said, ”by suppressing her own feelings, the queen would endear herself to the country.” We suppose Mr. Wilberforce meant, that, by suppressing her own feelings of honour, she would gratify the honour of the country; and, by again quitting it, demonstrate her grat.i.tude for its unshaken loyalty; but the queen was firm in her resolve to _claim justice_, whether it was given or withheld.
In considering these base endeavours to injure innocence, in order to raise the _n.o.ble_ character of a voluptuous prince, we cannot help remarking that POWER was the _only_ weapon of the vitiated monarch, while RIGHT and JUSTICE formed the s.h.i.+eld of the oppressed Queen of England! Indeed, every man, glowing with the sincere love of his country, and actuated by that honourable affection for its welfare, which takes a lively and zealous interest in pa.s.sing events, must have considered such proceedings against her majesty fraught with inevitable evil. If her innocence, according to the prayers of millions of her subjects, should be made manifest, the public indignation would be sure to be roused, and probably prove resentful. The evidence was known to be of a description on which no magistrate would convict a common pickpocket, and therefore if the legislature should even be induced to consider her majesty guilty of the charges preferred against her, public opinion would certainly refuse to ratify the sentence, and turn with disgust from those promulgating it. In either case, those venerable tribunals, consecrated by our forefathers, must lose that beautiful, that honourable, that unbought, homage which a free people have ever been proud to pay them. No Englishman, we say, accustomed to reverence, with a prejudice almost sacred, the const.i.tution of a parliament, _majestic even in its errors and infirmities_, could contemplate, without pain, the possibility,--nay, the almost certainty,--that the hour was not far distant when the whole nation would look with cold indifference, or gloomy distrust, on the acts of a senate, their generous obedience to which (though it had been accompanied with suffering, and followed by privation) had been ”the admiration of the whole world.”
On the 6th of July, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, usher, of the black rod, waited upon her majesty with a copy of the ”Bill of Pains and Penalties”
against her, presented the previous day to the House of Lords, and which was forwarded by order of their lords.h.i.+ps. Her majesty went into the room where the deputation were waiting, and received a copy of this bill with great calmness. Upon an examination of the abominable instrument, her majesty said, ”Yes, the queen who had a sufficient sense of honour and goodness to refuse the base offer of fifty thousand pounds a-year of the public money, to spend it _when, where, how, and with whom she pleased_, in banquetings, feastings, and excesses, providing it were in a foreign country, and _not at home_, has sufficient resolution to await the result of every investigation power can suggest.” Like another Cleopatra, our insulted queen might have played ”the wanton” with impunity; her imperial bark might have displayed its purple streamers, swelled with the softest Cyprian breezes. It might have sailed triumphantly down the Adriatic, to meet some highly-favoured lover! Yes, by desire of the king, her husband, the queen was requested to accept any terms beside those of a legitimate character. But her majesty preserved her usual firmness and serenity of mind during the unequalled proceedings inst.i.tuted against her, and frequently repeated the unequivocal expression, ”Time will furnish sufficient proof of my innocence.”
On the 5th of August, the queen took possession of Brandenburgh House, formerly the residence of the Margravine of Anspatch, situated near the Thames, and in the parish of Hammersmith. Her majesty left Lady Hamilton's house at four o'clock, attended by her ladys.h.i.+p, and accompanied by Dr. Lus.h.i.+ngton, in an entirely new and elegant open carriage, drawn by four beautiful bay horses. They drove off amidst united shouts of applause from the a.s.sembled people.
Will future generations believe the historian's tale, that a queen,--yes, a brave and virtuous Queen of England too!--was refused a house and a home by the sovereign, her husband? That she, who was lured from her princely home, arrived in the centre of England, and was denied a resting place by the king and his ministers! In consequence of which, she was necessitated to take up her abode in the mansion of a late lord mayor for the s.p.a.ce of three days, and then to accept the use of the house of her lady in waiting for nearly two months; while there were palaces totally unoccupied, and even mouldering into decay for want of being inhabited! This statement will, doubtless, appear overdrawn to future generations; but there are thousands now living who can testify to its accuracy. Ministers, indeed, entered into compact with Deception, and so glaringly committed their sentiments and characters, that, to preserve their own pretended _consistency_, they would have even uncrowned the king himself! A feverish sensation now pervaded the whole public mind, and from the highest to the lowest, the case of the queen was one universal theme of conversation.
On the 6th of August, her royal highness the d.u.c.h.ess of York died. Up to a very late hour of the day on which this occurred, no official communication had been made to the queen; but, in consequence of the event, her majesty requested to postpone several addresses which she had previously appointed to receive.
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