entered into without great difficulty and great delicacy. Was it fitting, he would ask their Lordships, that the House, on the mere ipse dixit of a minister, and without inquiring for themselves, should decide that there were grounds of proceeding against the illustrious individual who was accused? The noble Lord had assumed, and the assumption certainly was not Parliamentary, that this committee must report that there were grounds for farther proceeding. There was no such necessity; it might report that there were not, as well as that there were grounds. He agreed, that full opportunity ought to be given to the Queen to prepare for her defence. He thought that she and her counsel should have their choice as to the time at which the requisite delay should be granted-whether it should be before the trial commenced, or after the charge and the evidence in support of it had been brought forward. But the inquiry before the secret committee did not imply any charge. Their Lordships, by referring the papers to a committee, were not by that proceeding making any charge against her Majesty, but were merely ascertaining whether any charge should hereafter be made. He would not suffer himself to be swayed by arguments, grounded on the clamour of the factious and discontented out of doors. The members of the committee consisted of Peers, as honourable and as well qualified as could possibly have been chosen.

Lord Erskine had originally supported the motion for a secret committee, as the most tender way of dealing with the accused. After what had passed, however, and after the petition presented by the Queen herself on the subject, he conceived there was no longer any possibility of avoiding a public trial, and thought the House should at once proceed to it.

VOL. XIII. PART I.

The Lord Chancellor could see no change which had occurred in the state of the case. He conceived it quite clear, that there was no ground on which the Queen could incur the charge of high treason. It was by a forced construction at best, that adultery in the Queen Consort was made to infer such a charge, even when committed with a subject; but when it was committed with a foreigner, there did not appear to him the slightest pretence on which it could be founded. In regard to the mode of procedure, he would state, and he wished that his voice was loud enough to convey the opinion from one corner of the empire to the other, that those brought a most abominable and unjust charge against his Majesty's ministers, who said that they were desirous of disposing of this important question in the most offensive way that the public imagination could conceive, when it heard the words "secret committee." His obligations to the Crown were very great-still no punishment would be too severe for him, if he, during the prosecution of the inquiry into which they were about to enter, holding the high judicial situation which he held, was willingly to lose sight for a moment of the great principles of English justice. He admitted the full responsibility of ministers on the present occasion, but considered that responsibility as a point of very secondary importance, in a question where the King and Queen were personally interested. Ministers, therefore, were the better able to endure the taunts of ignorance, stupidity, precipitancy, and vacillation, which were so liberally thrown out against them. As for the argument, that the members of the secret committee, after pronouncing an opinion, could not sit in judgment on the question, it was one which had never before been held.

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Whenever there had been such committees, as was usual upon bills of attainder, bills of pains and penalties, and bills of impeachment, the noble Lords who had sat on such committees had never been suspected of performing the duties which devolved upon them in subsequent stages, with less fidelity on that account. How would noble Lords, who held that opinion, propose to do in cases of bills of impeachment, brought in by a Committee of the whole House? He had been accused of being too much addicted to delay; but though he would willingly grant all the delay which appeared to be necessary, impartiality seemed to require, that no more should be granted. If further proceedings in this important inquiry should be deemed necessary, he should enter upon them in the spirit so ably described by an eminent English Judge, who declared that he had made a covenant with God and himself, that neither affection, nor any other undue principle, should ever make him swerve from the strict line of his duty.

The Marquis of Lansdowne and Lord Holland supported the motion for inquiry, which was opposed by the Earls of Donoughmore and Lauderdale. The question being then called, the motion was negatived by a majority of 103 to 47.

On the day previous to the above debate, the House of Commons had under their consideration the course which they were to take on this great question. The debate was introduced by Lord Castlereagh, who supposed that every effort, both on the part of his Majesty's Government, and of Parliament itself, to avert inquiry, had now been exhausted, and that nothing remained but to put both parties, as speedily as possible, into the situation which they were to occupy, pending the course of a ju

dicial inquiry. The mode of proceeding adopted by ministers, was that which appeared to them consonant to the soundest views of Parliamentary practice. Although they would not have hesitated, upon the evidence in their possession, to bring the subject in a distinct and intelligible form before the House, yet it appeared to them incumbent, first of all, to enable Parliament to ascertain whether there were prima facie grounds for entertaining such charges. One hope was also, that, during the sitting of a secret committee, means might be found to avert the necessity of a mere public and extended investigation. The case had now undergone an important change: Her Majesty had repeatedly protested against any secret inquiry, and represented it as an injury done to her. In consequence also of proceedings in this House, every attempt had been made to effect an accommodation. Without attempting to cast blame upon any quarter, he might say, that something was fairly anticipated from the disposition professed by the Queen to yield to the judgment of Parliament. It had been thought, that from the moment her legal character and dignity as Queen were satisfactorily recognized-from the moment her rank and honour had ceased to be implicated-that all other matters would be secondary and subordinate-and that she would be willing to submit to the arbitration of one or more respectable individuals, regarding the questions of reception, patronage, and income. In favour of this supposition the House had given its solemn judgment. It was not, he believed, saying too much to state, that the records of the country might be searched in vain for any approach by the House to a member of that illustrious family, or to any individual connected with the throne, more calculated to

conciliate the feelings. Her Majesty had disregarded the opinion of the House of Commons in a manner which could not have been done by the other side of the royal house. The most serious and solemn appeal ever made to a member of the Brunswick family, had in this instance proved unavailing; and the House must feel, that it had exhausted every thing in the way of the exertion of its influence and authority; and that the only course, consistent with its dignity and the principles on which it had acted, was now to consider how it could put in a train of judicial investigation those charges, an inquiry into which it had made one of the greatest efforts in the history of Parliament to avert. In these circumstances, the motives which had induced to recommend a secret committee, seemed no longer to exist. He was, therefore, ready to submit to the House a motion, which, without any further preliminary, might put it in possession of the charges contained in the information now on the table. He conceived it, however, to be of advantage, that the measure should originate in the Upper House, which was in more judicial habits than the House of Commons. He should therefore propose an adjournment from the present Monday to Thursday se'ennight, by which time they might be able to judge of the view which the House of Lords was taking of the case. He proposed also, that the debate on the King's message should be adjourned to the day immediately after Thursday. He had heard it insinuated, that the address to her Majesty had been of such a tenor, that the resolutions of the House were ipso facto buried in oblivion; and that no future step, preliminary or direct, could be taken with regard to these charges. Nothing certainly could be farther from the tenor of

Mr Wilberforce's speech, which merely proposed this as the best means of averting an inquiry, otherwise inevitable. An individual of the illustrious rank of Queen of these realms, could not be placed in a situation of charge, without injury to the dignity of the Crown, and the best interests of the country, whatever might be the result. He trusted, that neither in reason, nor in common sense, would any man attribute to his honourable friend, who served his country so usefully, disinterestedly, and ably, so extravagant and untenable a proposition, as that the resolutions he had proposed should at once put a stop to all future proceedings. He trusted that no more would be heard of such quibbling reasoning. He was confident, that the manly mind of the right hon. gentleman (Mr Tierney) disavowed it. The calamity, indeed, had fallen upon the country-no honourable exertions had been able to avert it; and he hoped that Parliament would now resume its ancient character for dignity and moderation, and that, in the course of the distressing examinations which now appeared inevitable, the voice of party would sleep, and the efforts of faction be suspended. The House, as the great council of the nation, ought to be divested of all angry passions, and free from the influence of all personal interests. Most of all, he hoped that that tone of feeling would be absent, which, though it might belong to politics, could not belong to justice.

Mr Brougham most cordially joined in the appeal made at the conclusion of the noble lord's speech. On the part of her Majesty, he had to express his infinite satisfaction-a satisfaction which was but the reflected image of her own-that at length justice was to be administered according to law, and on the principles of the constitution; that they were to hear

no more of the dark, inquisitorial, unjust, and, as he should say, illegal proceedings, which, in the first instance, they had been invited to adopt. Her claim from the first had been for open investigation-her protest against an invisible tribunal. He never had before seen such an instance of the address and tactical skill of the noble lord. It was said, that the Queen now courted open inquiry; and the gallantry and politeness of the noble lord could not refuse it. But had not the Queen, in the message presented to the House at the very outset of the proceedings, held the same language? She had then defied, courted, challenged, he might say demanded, a public scrutiny. With the change, however, which had taken place, her Majesty was perfectly satisfied, and was fearlessly prepared to stand or fall by the consequences. At the same time, he did not precisely see upon what ground ministers now came forward, and pronounced that to be necessary, which a few days before was declared injurious, if not fatal to the nation. With regard to the failure of their address, whether her Majesty's answer was wise or unwise, he should not stop to inquire. He could safely and conscientiously give his solemn assurance -and he gave it not for the purposc of exculpating where no charge was brought, or of shrinking from a responsibility which he would rather court, but for the Queen's character and honour-that her legal advisers had laid before her all their views of the whole question; that, before she returned an answer to the address, they had submitted every consideration which a knowledge of what had passed in Parliament, and during the negociations, suggested to their minds; that every fact and every circumstance had been minutely stated, and a conviction expressed that a re

fusal to comply with the wishes of the House must lead to a full investigation of the case. With all this information and these suggestions before her, her Majesty, with a fearlessness, which, in the history of human action, nothing but conscious innocence ever inspired, expressed her deliberate, her unbiassed, and resolute determination to abide by the consequences of the step which she was taking. If her Majesty was the first Brunswick who had so refused, let the House consider that she was the first Brunswick and the first Queen who had been placed in the same situation, and who had received an address at all similar. Her Majesty had felt the concession incompatible with her honour; but he trusted the House would not allow themselves to be biassed by this rejection of their proposal. However anxious her Majesty was to proceed, he must claim for her some delay. It was three weeks' journey to the place of her residence in Italy; three weeks' back; to which must be added, the period requisite for collecting evidence. All this must be granted, in order that her Majesty's evidence might be placed in position with the case against her. If the inquiry were proceeded in, however secretly, something would certainly creep out of the many orifices that would be open on the occasion.

The motion was opposed by Colonel Palmer, and supported by Mr B. Bathurst. Mr Western thought the House had hitherto acted with propriety, all its proceedings having been taken with the view of avoiding an inquiry. The sense of the whole country was distinctly and evidently opposed to such an inquiry, and the sentiments of the House, when the subject was mentioned on the first night, were shewn to be distinctly and decidedly contrary to any investigation of this green-bag. With this

view he had voted for the motion of Mr Wilberforce; but he could not concur in any proposition having inquiry for its object. He therefore moved, that instead of Thursday se'ennight, the words "this day six months" should be inserted.

Mr Tierney assured Lord Castlereagh, that the inference he had drawn from a particular shake of his head was quite erroneous; and that no change had taken place in his views on the subject. It appeared to him truly extraordinary, that ministers should attempt to go on with the inquiry, after agreeing to vote it derogatory to the dignity of the Crown, and injurious to the best interests of the empire. The noble lord, after the lapse of three weeks, had promised that the matter should come to a conclusion this day. He would give no information what he meant to do, for the best of reasons, that he did not know. Now the debate was to be adjourned till Friday next, for the purpose of making a different motion, dependent, however, upon certain contingencies. Were the House to be trifled with in this manner, and to be made to move only at a certain distance from the House of Lords? For the three last weeks the Lords had been waiting for them, and he supposed they were to wait for the Lords during the three ensuing. Ministers declared their readiness to undertake the entire responsibility, and yet the whole tendency of their measures was to shift it off their own shoulders. They declared their wish for an amicable arrangement, and yet the whole tenor of their conduct to the Queen, both when abroad and since her return home, tended to render that impossible. Ministers had all the obloquy of these proceedings on their own heads; for if there was a man under heaven more unwilling than another to wound or insult the feelings

of a woman, that man was, he believed, the illustrious personage now on the throne. All the insults and affronts that had been experienced by her Majesty, came from ministers, and from ministers alone. Such acts were wholly contrary to the nature and disposition of his Majesty. They had not deigned to return an answer to any remonstrance or application made by her. At last, when driven to a conciliatory course, they produced nothing except a reference to the letter of the 15th of April, which, he must contend, was harshly worded, against all conciliation, and ought never to have been sent. Then there must be a regular negociation, worked up into the shape of what was called a protocol, a strange name for a document relating to a family quarrel; while the basis must be residence abroad. It could scarcely be expected that a proposition so imperatively and peremptorily laid down could be acceded to. If there had been a sincere desire for conciliation, one confidential friend would have done more in an hour than the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Liverpool, and my Lord Castlereagh, would effect in an age. The Queen had mentioned the Liturgy, or introduction at foreign courts, but had been willing to receive any other proposition for an equivalent; yet ministers had made no attempt to find one.

They now declared, that the Crown would not retract; and, as long as the present ministers continued in office, conciliation was out of the question. The question with the House was, whether they would keep those ministers, or whether they would tranquillize the country. He spoke the word tranquillize advisedly; for he heard from all quarters the strong feeling which existed on the subject. His Majesty's ministers made the Queen appear to be oppressed, insulted, and degraded. When that