her Royal Highness the said Princess of Wales, a most unbecoming and degrading intimacy commenced between her said Royal Highness and the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami: "And her said Royal Highness not only advanced the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, to a high situation in her Royal Highness's household, and received into her service many of his near relations, some of them in inferior, and others in high and confidential situations, about her Royal Highness's person, but bestowed upon him other great and extraordinary marks of favour and distinction, obtained for him orders of knighthood and titles of honour, and conferred upon him a pretended order of knighthood, which her Royal Highness had taken upon herself to constitute, without any just or lawful authority: scandalous, disgraceful, and vicious conduct, on the part of her said Majesty, by which she has violated the duty which she owed to your Majesty, and has rendered herself unworthy of the exalted rank and station of Queen Consort of this realm; and to evince our just regard for the dignity of the Crown, and the honour of this nation, we, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, do humbly entreat your Majesty, that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that her said Majesty, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, from and after the passing of this Act, shall be, and is hereby deprived of the title of Queen, and of all the prerogatives, rights, privileges, and exemptions appertaining to her as Queen Consort of this realm; and that her said Majesty shall, from and after the passing of this act, for ever be disabled and rendered incapable of using, exercising, and enjoying the same, or any of them; and moreover, that the marriage between his Majesty and the said Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, be, and the same is, hereby from henceforth for ever wholly dissolved, annulled, and made void, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." "And whereas also her said Royal Highness, whilst the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, was in her said service, further unmindful of her exalted rank and station, and of her duty to your Majesty, and wholly regardless of her own honour and character, conducted herself towards the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, and in other respects, both in public and private, in the various places and countries which her Royal Highness visited, with indecent and offensive familiarity and freedom, and carried on a licentious, disgraceful, and adulterous intercourse with the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, which continued for a long period of time during her Royal Highness's residence abroad; by which conduct of her said Royal Highness, great scandal and dishonour have been brought upon your Majesty's family and this kingdom. There fore, to manifest our deep sense of such Earl Grey immediately rose and objected, that, though it was generally stated that her Majesty indulged in vices of a low description, yet no particular act was set forth, nor any precise period of time specified, so as to enable her to repel the general charge. He hoped the noble Earl would answer these two questions :first, whether any more particular spe cification of the offences stated by the committee would be laid before House? and, next, whether it was intended to give to her Majesty a list of the witnesses by whom she was accused? The Earl of Liverpool said, that these points would more properly come under discussion at a future period; but he must observe, in the first place, that the communication in the preamble of the bill was as particular as could be found in any bill of the same nature, and was, he thought, quite sufficient for the purpose. With regard to the question respecting the delivery of the names of witnesses, he believed such a course to be wholly unprecedented in parliamentary proceeding, whether it were connected with bills of pains and penalties, or with any other legislative measure; and, as their Lordships must know, it was a course not at all pursued in judicial proceedings, except in cases of high treason. He would, however, state, that there was a claim to which her Majesty was entitled in this instance; not that a list of witnesses should be made out for her, but that, when the case for the prosecution had closed, and the allegations were to be disproved at the bar of that House, then any time which her Majesty might think proper should be afforded to enable her to rebut the evidence adduced against her. Earl Grey, however, insisted, that the Queen would still suffer great disadvantage from not knowing the charges advanced against her, and the evidence in support of them. He also inquired if any counsel was to appear for the prosecution; to which Lord Liverpool replied, that the Attorney-General would receive instructions from the House to that effect. Earl Grey demanded, if any instance was ever known in which the House had directed counsel to support a measure devised by itself. Lord Liverpool replied, that it was common, where parties were not in a situation to institute proceedings themselves, for the House to appoint counsel to assist them; and instanced the Berkeley Peerage. Lord Grey, however, insisted, that this was very different from the House appointing counsel to support a measure originated by itself. The Chancellor observed, that the House had a right, when they chose, to order the Attorney-General to attend to give his assistance. Still Lord Holland thought the present was a strange measure. The Queen, on learning the formi. dable proceeding thus opened against her, was not likely to remain long inactive. On the following day, Lord Dacre presented a petition in these terms: "CAROLINE REGINA. "The Queen has heard, with inexpressible astonishment, that a bill, conveying charges, and intended to degrade her, and to dissolve her marriage with the King, has been brought by the first minister of the King into the House of Lords, where her Majesty has no counsel or other officer to assert her rights. The only alleged foundation for the bill is the report of a secret committee, proceeding solely on papers submitted to them, and before whom no single witness was examined. The Queen has been further informed, that her counsel last night were refused a hearing at the bar of the House of Lords, at that stage of the proceeding when it was most material that they should be heard, and that a list of the witnesses, whose names are known to her accusers, is to be refused to her. Under such circumstances, the Queen doubts whether any other course is left to her, but to protest in the most solemn manner against the whole of the proceeding; but she is anxious to make one more effort to obtain justice, and therefore desires that her counsel may be admitted to state her claims at the bar of the House of Lords." The Chancellor, though he did not absolutely object to hearing counsel, conceived that it could be done only under certain limitations; and Lord Liverpool observed, that if they meant to argue that the preamble of the bill was not sufficiently detailed, that would be an intelligible ground; if they meant to contend that a list of witnesses ought to be furnished to her Majesty, that would be an intelligible ground; if they meant to propose to expedite the proceedings, or to delay them, all these would be intelligible grounds; but he could not consent to their being called in without some limitation. Mr Brougham and Mr Denman were then called in, and asked upon what points they meant to address the House. Mr Brougham made a long enumeration, including almost every point and particular of the measure which had been introduced before their Lordships. The Chancellor conceived it quite impossible, that counsel should be allowed to go on in the way proposed. Their arguments, he conceived, should be limited to the mode of proceeding on the bill, and the time of such proceeding. Lords Grey and Holland urged, that no counsel ought to be heard against the mode of proceeding by bill at all. This motion, however, was overruled; and counsel being called in, were instructed to argue only under the limitations above stated. Mr Brougham now represented the extreme difficulty he felt in pleading under limitations so positive, and yet so difficult to understand. Being allowed to object neither to the proceeding by bill, nor to the present bill, no subject of discussion was left, except the time of proceeding. Even upon that plea, however, if he could satisfy their Lordships that the nature and tendency of the present bill was such as suspended absolute destruction over the head of her Majesty; if he could succeed in the argument which he had urged, partly from the indulgence extended to him by their Lordships, and partly in the delivery of the strong, impetuous, and even clamorous desire of her Majesty to have the accusations, now brought, proved against her, if either their Lordships, or the Attorney-general, or any other of the King's counsel, could prove them; then he trusted that he should have made out a case, even in confining himself strictly to the question, which would induce their Lordships to throw out the present bill now upon its first time of reading. He felt himself bound to state, that a report had reached her Majesty, that she was to be dealt with as if she was the lowest, and not the highest subject in the realm. In opposition to that argument he would say, "God grant that she were in the same situation with the lowest subject in the realm!" If she had been the neanest, instead of the most exalted personage in the country, she would have had no proceeding served upon her, such as he held a copy of in his hand; she would, on the contrary, have been fenced round by the triple fence whereby the law of England guards the life and honour of the poorest female. There must have been a sentence of the Consistory Court-there must have been the verdict of a jury, taken from the same rank of life with herself, who would have sympathised with her feelings, and not one of whose members would have had an interest in oppressing her. She would have been tried by twelve honest, impartial, and disinterested Englishmen, at whose doors the influence which would act upon her present judges might flagitate for years, before it would make the slightest impression either upon the hopes or the fears which it was calculated to excite. She had, therefore, good cause to lament that she was not the lowest subject of his Majesty; and he could assure their Lordships that she would willingly sacrifice every thing, except her honour, which was dearer to her than her life, to obtain the poorest cottage which had ever sheltered an Englishwoman from injustice. In order that their Lordships might not be placed in the most anomalous situation, it would be necessary fully to ascertain, that no impeachment could lie, and that no indictment could be raised for the offence; points upon which his own views were diametrically opposite to the conclusion to which their Lordships had come. It was founded chiefly on the alleged acts having been committed abroad; but, were they sure that some of them might not have taken place at Gibraltar, Malta, or on board a British vessel? (Here the learned counsel was stopped by the Chancellor, as over-stepping the limits prescribed.) Mr Brougham, being obliged to return to the question of time, declared, that her Majesty desired no delay; she was not only desirous that the proceedings now instituted against her should meet with no obstacle on her part to a speedy investigation, but was even desirous that the proceedings, after they had once commenced, should continue de die in diem. Could there be a more crying injustice towards her Majesty than to go on with the accusations which had been preferred against her, to hear part of them supported by evidence; then to discontinue the examination of them, in order to allow that evidence to be collected, sorted, and patched up, so as to tally even with those parts of it which made most materially in her Majesty's favour? The first demand, therefore, which he had to make of their Lordships, was an immediate, the next was a continued proceeding. The learned counsel finally undertook to prove, that it was impossible ministers could believe the Queen guilty of the charges advanced against her, otherwise they never would have consented that her Majesty should remain abroad unmolested, without any measure of degradation or divorce, exposing the dig; nity and honour of the Crown, and the morals of the country where she resided-the first to be lowered, and the last to be contaminated. The situation of the Queen was hard indeed. Before any step had been taken against her-before her title had been disputed-before even men's minds were made up that any thing should be done, various measures had been adopted to stigmatize and degrade her. If those who hitherto had prosecuted this business were indeed aware of the full weight of the evidence-if they relied upon it-if they knew that it must in the end lead to a conviction of enormous guilt, they still had happily contrived that the bitterest stigma, the basest degradation, should precede even that conviction. Her Majesty came before their Lordships as the highest branch of the legislature, the supreme court of judicature; she claimed protection from those who were now trying her by bill, and who hereafter might be called upon to try her by impeachment-who were now legislating, when they might at some future period be required to sit in judgment: but, whether acting in the one capacity or in the other, with the confidence of injured innocence, she flung herself upon the House, and trusted that no mixture of party-no presence of interested persons-no adventitious influence exercised out of doors-no supposed want of sympathy with the feelings of the country-no alleged, though falsely alleged, tendency on the part of their Lordships to truckle to royal favour, would stand between the Queen and justice, or prevent her case from receiving a fair, impartial, and an unprejudiced decision. Mr Denman, following on the same side, argued still more strongly, that the case should be proceeded in without delay. However imperfect her means of defence-however deprived of the instruments to repel so deadly an attack upon her honour, the Queen was anxious to meet her accusers face to face if possible, at this very instant, but, at furthest, after the lapse of only twenty-four hours. Speaking as a British subject, it did not appear to him possible that a Committee of the House could have decided without the examination of a single witness, or without seeing a single person, from whose conduct and deportment it could judge of the truth or falsehood of the fearful accusations. A grand jury was composed of persons unconnected with the parties; the witnesses were examined in open court, and the proceeding followed immediately. On a charge of high treason, the prosecutor and the accused were by law entitled to delay; but this case was different; and the royal lady for whom he appeared demanded immediate inquiry, and called upon her accusers to prove their case, that she might have an opportunity of vindicating her slandered fame, and covering them with shame and ignominy. Was it too much to ask that one moment's needless delay should not occur, that the Queen might know her accusers, see the witnesses, prove their infamy, and establish her own purity? As to the mode of proceeding, it was her Majesty's pleasure that her counsel should urge, as indispensable, that she should be furnished with a list of the witnesses against her: it was, in fact, so obviously necessary, that he could conceive nothing more alarming, than that any one who might sit in judgment upon her should for one instant doubt its propriety. Since the time of Henry VIII. no instance had occurred of Parliamentary proceeding in a case of this nature. Bills' of attainder, and of pains and penalties, were only to be justified by a state necessity, which could not be urged in the present case, when there was no hazard of a spurious issue, and when six years of misconduct had been allowed to pass, without trial, complaint, or remonstrance. The Queen demanded, that the trial should be conducted on the same principles as in the courts below-she demanded a fair and open trial, and the fullest investigation; nor did she feel any dismay at the scores, and even hundreds of witnesses, who were to be summoned against her. When the counsel had finished, the Earl of Liverpool observed, that some interval must be necessary for making the proper arrangements, for securing a full attendance, and the presence of the learned judges. A fortnight had usually intervened between the first and second reading of a bill. He would propose on Monday, (this being Thursday,) to state the order of proceeding, and the time for the second reading. Lords Holland, Lansdowne, Carnarvon, and Grey, urged, that ministers, having been so long employed in collecting evidence, and doubtless in considering the mode of procedure, could not now stand in need of four days to deliberate on the |