the French army. He told their lordships that Bergami was the private, but familiar, servant of General Pino; and they had it uncontradicted in evidence, that, while in the service of General Pino, he received wages at the rate of three livres a-day, waiting regularly at table. This was the evidence relative to the previous situation of Bergami-a previous situation which was granted on the other side, but accounted for by its being said that he was born and destined to be a gentleman, but was reduced to necessities. Of this man's family, it would be seen that no less than twelve or thirteen had been taken into the Princess's service: by his relatives and connexions her Royal Highness was beset on all sides, with one most remarkable exception, which their lordships could not fail to notice, and which had been already emphatically alluded to by his learned friend, the Attorney-General; it was, that Bergami's wife never made her appear ance where the Princess took up her residence. All the rest of the family, and Bergami's child, were with the Princess; but the wife was kept at a distance; she never could partake of the hospitality of her Royal Highness's establishment; she was the only one of the family who was called to submit to every sacrifice without a murmur. How was it possible to reconcile all these facts with the statement of his learned friends opposite, that Bergami's fidelity as a servant was the sole cause of his advancement? It was impossible to put all these facts together, without arriving at the conclusion, that the degrading intercourse had been carried on which was stated in the preamble of the bill. In regard to the Milan commission, it was observed: Not a single fact could be brought forward to prove that the Milan commissioners had been guilty of the smallest impro priety of conduct. It might, perhaps, be said that some impropriety had in a particular instance attached to some subordinate agent; be that as it might, he was justified in asserting, that the commissioners neither countenanced such conduct, if it had occurred, nor were in the smallest degree privy to it. The learned Counsel, like his predecessor, expressed his surprise at the language used on the other side, and particularly at the appeals made to what passed out of doors. Their lordships, he trusted, would decide solely upon the evidence, without any regard to such considerations. When the pleadings had concluded, Mr Brougham came forward with letters of Baron Ompteda, which be requested to be allowed to read, as throwing light upon the conduct of the Milan commission. The Duke of Hamilton moved, that these letters should be received. Even Earl Grey and Lord Holland, however, were of opinion, that this was inconsistent with the rules of law, and that an inquiry into the conduct of the Milan commission would now be premature. The motion was therefore negatived by 145 to 16. This long and anxious proceeding being now brought to its legal termination, the House had to proceed to the legislative part of the question. The debate on the second reading was of extraordinary length, being continued through five successive nights. As a full report of it would be sufficient to fill a great part of our volume, we must, of course, confine ourselves to a few leading features. The Lord Chancellor spoke first. He began with recapitulating the grounds on which the mode of proceeding adopted appeared to him the most eligible, as well as with defending the decisions, both positive and negative, which had been passed upon various points. Considering, then, the general result of the evidence, if they looked at a few facts which had been proved by witnesses quite above all suspicion, and on whom no suspicion had been attempted to be castthey would then be able to pronounce an opinion on the charge of adultery. Looking at the case in this point of view, it did appear to him, and it was with the utmost pain he said it, that he could draw no other conclu sion than that there had been an adulterous intercourse. With respect to contradictions, and the contradictions which it might be said had been given to the evidence, it had been his duty very frequently to consider the effect which contradictions might have in summing up the judgment, if he might use the expression, in cases which had come under his observation. It might often happen, in the course of a trial, that circumstances were proved which might have no effect upon the real question at issue; and it might also happen that facts were alleged which it was impossible for any party to contradict. But, in cases where persons were called who spoke to a particular fact, other persons being present, and no contradiction was given with respect to that fact, (those persons being within the reach of the party whose interest it was to disprove the fact), then it appeared to him that the circumstance of these persons not being called amounted to a tacit admission, that the fact so charged was incapable of contradiction. Now, suffer him for a moment to lay out of the case all the evidence which has been called in support of this bill-to lay out of the case the evidence of Majocci, and Demont, and Ratelli(and when he desired that these might be left out, he was not presuming nor meaning to admit that these persons might not, in many circumstances, have spoken the truth), --but laying out of the case the whole of this evidence, let their lordships travel with him to the polacre. Now, who went on board the polacre with her Royal Highness? There was Schiavani, Hieronymus, Bronn, the Countess Oldi, Carlino, Camera, and William Austin. He thought their lordships would feel with him, that if they were trying the mere question, whether Bergami and the Princess slept under the same tent or awning, whichever they pleased to call it, there could be no doubt on the subject. His lordship then went over other details of the evidence, to shew that they led to the same conclusion. In conclusion, he observed, "One word more as to what is passing out of doors, and then I have done. I take no notice of it, because I am supposed constitutionally not to be acquainted with it. But this I will say, let what may or will happen, that I shall here perform my duty. But your lordships have heard from the barwhat I was sorry indeed to hear from such a quarter, and what I never heard from it before-your lordships, I say, have heard an intimation, that, if you pass judgment against the Queen, you will most likely never have the power to pass another judg ment. You have heard something like a threat held out to you. I declare that such a mode of addressing a judge was never before conceived to be consistent with the duty of an advocate; but whether an advocate be right in using such language or not, you will allow me to observe, my Lords, that it ought to have no effect upon you. You stand here as the great and acknowledged protectors of the lives, the liberties, the honours, and the cha racters, of your fellow-subjects. That trust ought not to be imposed upon you for a minute, if you can be actuated by any improper bias or feeling. For myself, if I had not a minute longer to live, I would say to your I lordships, Be just and fear not.' know the people of this country. If you do your duty to them as you ought, whilst you preserve their liberties and the constitution, which has been handed down to you by your ancestors, the time is not far distant when they will do their duty to you-when they will acknowledge that it is the duty of those to whom a judicial task is imposed to meet reproach, and not to court popularity. You will do your duty, and leave the rest to the wisdom and justice of God, who guides the feelings and sentiments of mankind, and directs the end and tendency of all human affairs. Having thus discharged my own individual duty, I leave it to your lordships to decide what is to be the fate of the bill now upon your lordships' table." Among the speeches made in defence of the Queen, that of Earl Grey was peculiarly distinguished for the copious, profound, and candid manner in which he considered the subject. He could not but express astonishment that the pompous array of charges preferred should have been reduced to the sudden elevation of Bergami, and the scene on board the polacre. On the first subject he agreed that the great favour shewn to Bergami, and the intimacy contracted with him, were deviations from her Royal Highness's rank, and he could not help wishing that she had acted more carefully. But impropriety, although a natural cause of suspicion, was no proof of guilt; and, in his apprehension, there were circumstances and habits which ought to qualify and mitigate that suspicion. Although it might appear paradoxical, he considered that there was something in Bergami's situation which furnished less ground for suspicion than would have existed had he been a person of superior rank. When it was recollected that sovereigns were, in situation, as much above the rest of mankind as a person on a lofty mountain was above the passenger on the plain beneath him, it would not create surprise if it sometimes happened that they acted as if they had lost sight of the proportion which existed between themselves and those below them. Besides, they claimed the right, as well as possessed the power, to exalt individuals from the lowest stage in society to the most distinguished rank and the highest honour. He agreed with his noble and learned friend on the woolsack, that the advancement of Bergami differed very much from that of individuals who, after long years of exertion, worked their way to distinction either in the bar or the church, the army or the navy. He likewise thought with him, that it was one of the noblest points of the British constitution, that it placed no bar in the road to promotion before any individual. Still he could not forget, that all history, both ancient and modern, and especially our own history, was pregnant with examples of persons elevated from the lowest to the most exalted stations, from no other motive than caprice and favour; and, as was said by a noble friend of his, it was seldom found that those who obtained that good fortune did not let in some part of their family to partake of it. The rapid elevation of Bergami-and he did not mean to assert that it was not a circumstance of suspicion-ought then to be considered with some qualification, especially when it was recollected where her Majesty was at the time residing. She was in a country surrounded by war, of which the convulsions, however they might hereafter terminate, had shaken society from its very basis-she was in a country where she every day saw, on the one hand, individuals who had been reduced from affluence to poverty, and, on the other, individuals who had been exalted from obscurity to distinction, by the appalling events of the French revolution-she was in a country whose very sovereign had risen from a situation in life as humble and as obscure as that of Bergami-nay, more, she knew that, at that very time, the government of England was in amity and alliance with another monarch whose origin was equally low and contemptible. He again repeated, that the elevation of Bergami was suspicious; but their lordships wanted something more definite than those suspicions, on which so much stress had been laid. The Lord Chancellor had said, with respect to Majocci and Demont, that though he thought that there were many contradictions and inconsistencies in their evidence, he could not go so far as to say that they might not have spoken a great deal of truth. He (Earl Grey) would allow that it was possible that upon some occasions they might have spoken truth; but their lordships could not depend upon their evidence in any single point, unless they were upon that point confirmed by that of some unimpeachable witness. Earl Grey thought that the Counsel for the Queen might have good reasons for not calling the reserved witnesses, particularly Mariette and the Countess Oldi. If the Counsel had called them to depose to a single fact, they would have laid them open to a crossexamination as to her Majesty's conduct during the whole of that time, and also to the declarations-for that was a point not to be neglected ..which they might have made in the course of it; and should they have been caught tripping upon a single point in the whole of that long period, the lynx eye of his noble friend on the cross-bench would have immediately detected it, and they should have been told that neither of them was entitled to credit. Because they were absent, no one surely could say that their lordships ought to join in a verdict of guilty against her Majesty, as if that indeed were the only question which they were called upon to decide. As to another leading point, Earl Grey would now admit, that, by the evidence of five witnesses, and the admission of Lieutenant Hownam, the fact of the tent scene on board the polacre was placed before them. His noble friend had stated, that the admission of Lieutenant Hownam came on her Majesty's Counsel by surprise, and that, from the moment it was made, the whole course of the defence was altered, and an endeavour was made to prove a conspiracy. This certainly was not the fact. He had listened with the utmost pleasure and attention to the strain of eloquence, correct reasoning, and legal argument in which her Majesty's case was opened by her Attorney-General, and he certainly did not recollect him to have stated, as a part of his case, an admission that Bergami slept under the tent; but he was equally certain that his learned friend did not state that he meant to set up a denial of that fact as any part of the defence, which he assuredly would have done if he had intended to introduce such a denial. Besides, if his memory did not fail him, Mr Williams, in his admirable comment on the evidence that had been called, and his eloquent and perspicuous statement of that which was to be brought forward, distinctly admitted that the fact would not be disproved. No attempt was made to alter the course of the defence, in consequence of any thing that had been stated by Flynn or Hownam. It was, it appeared, intended originally that the de fence of the Queen should not be supported by any effort to cast a doubt on the fact that Bergami had slept under the tent. The principal circumstance that took place on board the polacre, was, as he had just observed, proved by five witnesses, and supported by the admission of Lieutenant Hownam; and it amounted to this, that during five weeks Bergami did sleep under the tent of the Queen. The question was, were their Lordships to infer from this that the criminality of the Queen was so decisively proved as to justify a verdict of guilty? The conduct imputed to the Queen did not appear to him to come before their lordships surrounded by all that mystery and concealment which commonly attended the tracing of a man, in the night, to the apartment of a woman, and his staying there, under those peculiar circumstances which would only lead to one inference and conclusion. It was a circumstance of a suspicious nature, which he regretted to have occurred, and for which the reason and excuses that had been assigned did not appear to him to be altogether satisfactory. That circumstance might, however, have existed under the peculiar nature of the case; and considering how her Royal Highness was situated on board the polacre, it might have appeared consistent with perfect innocence. The statements of Gargiulo, leading to an opposite belief, appeared to him on many grounds liable to suspicion. Looking to the danger to which her Royal Highness might be exposed; considering that Bergami, who was raised to the rank of her chamberlain, (whether improperly or not he did not mean to inquire), though he slept under the tent, did so when the hatches were open, which was always the case, he could not bring his mind to infer, from the VOL. XIII. PART I. circumstance of his reposing there, that a criminal familiarity existed between the parties. If even a case was made out, which left no doubt on his mind that a connexion subsisted between Bergami and the Queen, he would still never admit that it had taken place on board ship. Was it not ridiculous to suppose, because they went on board together, that they must have an intrigue? Every man must feel, looking to the situation in which the Queen was placed, fatigued and exhausted with constant exertion, that such a period was not suited to the indulgence of passion. At such a time motives of such a nature could not exist, while, on the other hand, reasons more consistent with innocence could be found for the conduct she was said to have pursued towards Bergami. When this was the case, it was for his noble friend to throw the doubt into the scale of the accused party, instead of laying it aside entirely. He would ask of their lordships who had been on board ship, and were used to the miseries of sea voyages, whether those sufferings did not for a time put an end to delicacy of feeling even in the most modest women, who were compelled by circumstances to act in a manner to which they had been previously unaccustomed. He admitted that a suspicion existed, but could they, from a suspicion alone, draw any fair inference of criminality that could authorise a verdict of guilty? Well, then, was the case to be made out by adding to it other facts, which did not stand on sufficient proof to be received by themselves? He alluded particularly to the sudden elevation of Bergami. They were, he admitted, matters of great suspicion, but taken together they were no more than suspicion, and could not amount to the fair conclusion of guilt, which alone P |