service where there was no Liturgy, but where, he was happy to state, it had been rightly and universally dis. obeyed. He would ask Lord Castle. reagh, first, whether the order in council was as he had stated it to be? secondly, whether it had not been frequently violated? and, lastly, whether any of those who had violated it had ever been, and how, punished? Let the Queen be innocent, or let her be guilty, he thought it incumbent upon the House to place her, and he therefore called upon them now to place her, in the Liturgy, from which she ought never to have been displaced, not even for a moment. His lordship concluded with moving, "That this House, sensible of the objection the Queen must feel at the relinquishment of any points in which her dignity and honour are involved, is of opinion, that the insertion of her Majesty's name in the Liturgy would be, under all the circumstances of the case, the most expedient and most effectual mode of sparing this House," &c.

Mr Denman strongly repelled the charge, that the Queen's legal advisers had been guilty of tergiversation, declaring, that they had kept to the last the ground and attitude they had at first assumed. He endeavour ed to shew, that the Queen had the clearest right to be prayed for by name. He enumerated various instances of ill treatment which she had experienced. It was very singular, that these charges, collected a year ago in the north of Italy, should never have been heard of till they were now laid on the table. The crime was her coming to England. If she had lived abroad, either as Princess of Wales or as Queen of England, she might have conducted herself as she pleased, and there would have been no accusation. She might have wandered over the continent, and exhi

bited the disgrace of England in the sight of foreigners. She might have behaved like the most degraded of human beings, and nothing would have been alleged against her. But her coming to England was a crime which demanded instant inquiry and punishment. The Queen was ready to meet the charges against her. Of that readiness, and of her innocence, she had given the most decisive proof by her immediate appearance in England. This had been universally acknowledged; and yet, in the very same breath, she was praised for the boldness with which she had met her accusers, and advised to give up the right for which she was contending. Her Majesty was content to reside abroad; but, in going abroad, she wished to have her innocence fully and definitely established-establish ed in such a manner as it could only be established by the restoration of her legal rights.

Mr Bankes strongly supported the original motion. He would ask any reasonable man, how ministers could have vindicated themselves, either to the Sovereign or to Parliament, if they had come down to the House with the insertion of the Queen's name in the Liturgy-the ink still wet in one hand, and the papers of accusation which they had received against her in the other? Of the contents of these papers he knew nothing; he hoped to know nothing of them; and as to their truth or falsehood, would offer no opinion. He wished to see the Queen placed exactly in the same situation as if she had never taken the imprudent step of landing in England. He gave credit to her Majesty for the readiness which she expressed to meet inquiry; but he doubted if her advisers were benefiting their client by professing, on the one hand, a wish for conciliation, and making, on the other, that point a sine qua

non, the resignation of which would be no derogation from her character. Mr Williams endeavoured to prove, that ministers had acted improperly and unwarrantably upon this occasion.

Sir Francis Burdett attacked the conduct of ministers in his usual style of unmeasured invective. He applauded the conduct of the Queen in having triumphed equally over their bribe and their threat. She had adopted a course of conduct so magnanimous, as to raise her in all men's minds, and which afforded such presumption of her innocence (to use the expression of the honourable member below him,) as rendered it as doubtless as the valour of the Duke of Wellington. Let the House look at the treatment which this illustrious lady had experienced from her first arrival in this country-cut off from the protection of those whose duty it was to protect her-deprived of that control which she had a right to exercise allowed no intercourse with her family or with her child; and if, under such circumstances, when goaded by insult, and driven almost to madness, she had acted improperly, no man who harboured a principle of honour in his breast would not shed a tear for her misfortunes-but he would not at the same time pursue her with the arm of vengeance, under the mask of mercy. There was much apology for the King, whose ear had doubtless been poisoned by spies and go-betweens; but there was none for ministers, who ought to have undeceived him, and given him sound advice. It ought to have made no difference in their minds, whether the Queen remained abroad or not; they were bound by their duty to the King, and to the country, to pursue a steady course, without any alteration of their views in consequence of her presence or her absence. But, on the contrary,

they told her, that if she continued to live abroad, she might with impunity act in such a manner as to bring disgrace on the King and country; but if she came to England to trouble them, then it would be imperative on the noble lord, as an honest man, to bring down a green bag. He felt some parliamentary difficulty in the extraordinary mode of proceeding which was proposed. They were called on to address the Queen; and if she was to be treated with that respect, it was not, surely, too much to ask ministers to withdraw the stig ma which they had cast upon her character; let either the green bag or the present motion be withdrawn. How any man could hold the bag in one hand, and vote for this motion with the other, he was at a loss to conceive. What, if her Majesty should not choose to receive the address; and, in fact, should not comply with it? She had always been anxious to do what was wished by the House of Commons; she had thrown her life and her honour on them; and therefore there could be no doubt of her confidence in the integrity of the House, or of the deference which she was disposed to pay to its opinions. But he would say for her in the words of the poet

To the liege lord of my dear native land, I owe a subject's homage; yet even him,

And his high arbitration, I reject.

Honour, sole judge and umpire of my conWithin my bosom reigns another lord,

duct."

This point she could not concede; especially, when the House asked it in order to get ministers out of a scrape-to enable them to sneak away with their green bag. The honourable baronet remarked on the great difference between Lord Castlereagh, who pursued the Queen for her vices and bad qualities, and Mr Canning,

his colleague, who wished to punish her for her virtues and good qualities. Her amiable disposition and fascinating manners, he said, would render her the tool of faction; but he would beg to know, of what faction she had ever been the tool, except that to which the right honoura ble gentleman belonged?

Mr Canning declared, that he should not be challenged or provoked to enter into any recrimination. This was not the time for ministers to enter into a justification of their conduct; when that time came, they would be most fully prepared. Mi nisters had been forced into this question-forced by those advisers, who, in an ill-fated hour, had induced her Majesty to return to this country. There were charges, as to the truth or falsehood of which he did not mean to say a word; but they existed. Ministers, in the exercise of a sound discretion, would most gladly have al lowed them to sleep; but no choice was left to them. There could be no desire-desire! how could he say desire, or how suppose that there should be in the mind, he would not say of any honourable man, but of any human creature with the feelings of a man,-how could there be any other wish or feeling but that inquiry should be avoided? If there had been any choice left to ministers, he would himself have considered their conduct most unwarrantable if they had not sacrificed every personal or private feeling to a sense of public duty, by abstaining from all proceedings in this case; but the unfortunate return of the illustrious personage had left them no option. The honourable baronet had described the language in which he himself upon another occasion had spoken of that personage as extravagant. If that language had procured him any credit with the House for sincerity, he hoped he might in the same spirit of sincerity declare, that

he thought it not inconsistent with the strongest feelings-(if in saying so he did not use an improper expression)-the strongest private feelings of admiration and regard for the illustrious individual-for any person holding a public situation, and discharging public duties, to say beforehand that he would use every effort to prevent the agitation of a fruitless question, unless a possible event should occur to make it necessary. That event had unfortunately occurred, and he was not prepared to say that there was any alternative but to proceed to the inquiry. Mr Canning expressed his astonishment at the new and exaggerated importance which had been attached to the affair of the Liturgy. If indeed it were a point of such importance, not merely as a worldly matter, but as a religious observance, what was to be thought of those negociators for the Queen who postponed it to the questions of residence, patronage, and income, and who, when they did introduce this awful heavenly point, of exclusion from the ceremonial of the church, did it in the way of commutation for an equivalent? If it were to raise her Majesty, on the aspirations of millions, to the presence of her Creator, what was to be thought of those advisers who postponed it to a point of etiquette— to a question what sort of introduction her Majesty should obtain at some petty court, like those of Kniphausen and Hohenzollern, where the single minister of state was out at elbows, and the pomp of military parade was kept up by three whiskered grenadiers and the fraction of a drummer? Mr Canning concluded, with expressing his entire concurrence to the motion of Mr Wilberforce.

Some explanations were given by Mr Brougham and Mr C. Hutchin son, chiefly relative to the conduct of Lord Hutchinson.

Mr Wilberforce made a short re

On the same day, the House of Lords, with a good deal of dissatisfaction, agreed to defer the sitting of the Committee till Tuesday next.

On the following evening, an explanation was given by Mr Brougham, from which it appeared, that the Queen, immediately on being informed of the omission of her name in the Liturgy, had addressed a complaint on the subject to one of his Majesty's ministers.

After the passing of the resolution in the House of Commons, Mr Wilberforce, Sir T. Acland, Mr Bankes, and Mr Stuart Wortley, were appointed, as a deputation, to wait upon the Queen and present it to her. The expectation of this event excited an extraordinary interest in the public mind, and all the streets bordering on her Majesty's residence were crowded to excess. The disposition shewn by this multitude was such as altogether tended to confirm her Majesty in the resolution which she was supposed already to have formed. As the carriages conveying the members of the deputation appeared, hooting and hissing, with cries of "No address," were raised to a great extent. The four gentlemen having alighted, were received by the Queen in the drawing-room, with Mr Brougham and Mr Denman on each side, and attended by Lady Anne Hamilton. The members having knelt, and kissed her Majesty's hand, Mr

4

Wilberforce read the resolution of the House. The Queen then returned the following answer :

"I am bound to receive with gratitude any attempt on the part of the House of Commons to interpose its high mediation, for the purpose of healing those unhappy differences in the Royal Family, which no person has so much reason to deplore as myself. And with perfect truth I can declare, that an entire reconcilement of those differences, effected by the authority of Parliament, on principles consistent with the honour and dignity of all the parties, is still the object dearest to my heart.

"I cannot refrain from expressing my deep sense of the affectionate language of these resolutions; it shews the House of Commons to be the faithful representative of that generous people, to whom I owe a debt of gra titude that can never be repaid.

"I am sensible, too, that I expose myself to the risk of displeasing those who may soon be the judges of my conduct; but I trust to their candour, and their sense of honour, con fident that they will enter into the feelings which alone influence my determination.

"It would ill become me to question the power of Parliament, or the mode in which it may at any time be exercised; but, however strongly I may feel the necessity of submitting to its authority, the question whether I will make myself a party to any measure proposed must be decided by my own feelings and conscience, and by them alone. As a subject of the state, I shall bow with deference -if possible, without a murmur-to every act of the sovereign authority; but, as an accused and injured Queen, I

owe it to the King, myself, and all my fellow-subjects, not to consent to the sacrifice of any essential privilege,

or withdraw my appeal to those principles of public justice, which are alike the safe-guard of the highest and the humblest individual."

The deputation, having received this reply, made their obeisance and retired; while the multitude, on receiving notice of what had passed, testified their concurrence by the loudest acclamations.

Such was the unfortunate issue of this attempt, made with the best intentions, to avert the evils impending upon the House and the public from this inquiry. We do not hesitate to say, after considering all the circumstances and issues, that the Queen would have acted a wise part in seizing this opportunity of retiring, with a good grace, from the conflict. Still we question whether the plan of pacification adopted was altogether happy or promising. It should seem, according to the views already given, that the other side was the quarter to which Parliament might most naturally have looked to close the contest, either by arbitration or concession. The Parliament is constitutionally the King's great council; and this

original right was greatly strengthened by his Majesty's having voluntarily come down, and thrown himself upon their judgment. To him, therefore, advice could be tendered with the very best possible grace; while the offering it to the other party, was going out of the regular course of Parliament, and not very compatible with its dignity. What was still more important, counsel addressed to the regular quarter would have been all but imperative; while in the other case, its acceptance depended upon the will, perhaps capricious, of an individual, from whom they had no room to expect the exercise of any peculiar discretion. The resolution might equally, in this case as in the other, have given it to be understood, that the concession was asked merely for the sake of peace, and did not imply any sacrifice or change of opinion. Its success, we think, can scarcely be doubted, especially as there could be little anxiety to open a cause in the face of such a torrent of popular opinion, the impossibility of stemming which, by almost any proof or process, must have been already foreseen.