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they advise your majesty, that "there appear many circumstances of conduct, which could not be regarded by your majesty without serious concern ;" and that, as to all the other facts and allegations, except those relative to my preg-' nancy and delivery, they are not to be considered as " legally and conclusively established," because spoken to in preliminary examinations, not carried on in the presence of the parties concerned. They do not, indeed, expressly assert, that my 'contradiction was not decisive or satisfactory; they do not expressly state, that they think the facts and allegations want nothing towards their legal and conclusive establishment, but a re-examination in the presence of the parties interested, but they go far to imply such opinions. That those opinions are utterly untenable, against the observations I have made upon the credit and character of those witnesses, I shall ever most confidently maintain; but that those observations leave their credit wholly unaffected, and did not deserve the least notice from your majesty's servants, it is impossible that any honourable man can assert, or any fair, and unprejudiced mind, believe.

I now proceed, sire, to observe, very shortly, upon the advice further given to your majesty as contained in the remaining part of the paper; which has represented that, both in the examinations, and even in my answer, there have appeared many circumstances of conduct which could not be regarded but with serious concern, and which have suggested the expression of a desire and expectation, that such a conduct may in future, be observed by me, as may fully justify these marks of paternal regard and affec

tion, which your majesty wishes to show to all your royal family.

And here, sire, your majesty will graciously permit me to notice the hardship of the advice, which has suggested to your majesty, to convey to me this reproof. I complain not so much for what it does, as for what it does not contain; I mean the absence of all particular mention of what it is, that is the object of their blame. The circumstances of conduct, which ap pear in these examinations, and in my answer to which they allude as those which may be supposed to, justify the advice, which has led to this reproof, since your majesty's servants have not particularly men tioned them, I cannot be certain that I know. But I will venture confidently to repeat the assertion, which I have already made, that there are no circumstances of con duct, spoken to by any witness, (whose infamy and discredit are not unanswerably exposed, and esta, blished,) nor any where apparent in my answer, which have the re motest approach either to crime, or to indelicacy.

For my future conduct, sire, impressed with every sense of grati tude for all former kindness, I shall be bound, unquestionably, by senti ment as well as duty, to study your majesty's pleasure. Any advice. which your majesty may wish to give to me in respect of any particulars of my conduct, I shall be bound, and be anxious to obey as my law. But I must trust that your majesty will point out to me the particulars, which may happen to displease you, and which you may wish to have altered. I shall be as happy, in thus feeling myself safe from blame under the benefit of your majesty's advice, as I am

now

now in finding myself secured from danger, under the protection of your justice.

Your majesty will permit me to add one word more.

Your majesty has seen what detriment my character has, for a time, sustained, by the false and malicious statement of lady Douglas, and by the depositions of the witnesses who were examined in support of her statement. Your majesty has seen how many enemies I have, and how little their malice has been restrained by any regard to truth in the pursuit of my ruin. Few as, it may be hoped, may be the instances of such determined and unprovoked malignity, yet, I cannot flatter myself, that the world does not produce other persons, who may be swayed by similar motives to similar wickedness. Whether the statement, to be prepared by the prince of Wales, is to be confined to the old charges, or is intended to bring forward new circumstances, I cannot tell; but if any fresh attempts of the same nature shall be made by my accusers, instructed as they will have been, by their miscarriage in this instance, I can hardly hope that they will not renew their charge, with an improved artifice, more skilfully directed, and with a malice inflamed rather than abated, by their previous disappointment. I therefore can only appeal to your majesty's justice, in which I confidently trust, that whether these charges are to be renewed against me, either on the old or on fresh evidence; or whether new accusations, as well as new witnesses, are to be brought forward, your majesty, after the experience of these proceedings, will not suffer your royal mind to be prejudiced by ex

parte, secret examinations, nor my character to be whispered away by insinuations, or suggestions, which I have no opportunity of meeting. If any charge, which the law will recognise, should be brought against me in an open and a legal manner, I should have no right to complain, nor any apprehension to meet it. But till I may have a full opportu nity of meeting it, I trust your majesty will not suffer it to excite even a suspicion to my prejudice. I must claim the benefit of the presumption of innocence till I am proved to be guilty; for, without that presumption, against the ef fects of secret insinuation and ex parte examinations, the purest innocence can make no defence, and can have no security.

Surrounded, as it is now proved, that I have been, for years, by domestic spics, your majesty must, I trust, feel convinced, that if I had been guilty, there could not have been wanting evidence to have proved my guilt. And, that these spies have been obliged to have resort to their own invention for the support of the charge, is the strongest demonstration that the truth, undisguised, and correctly represented, could furnish them with no handle against me. And when I consider the nature and malignity of that conspiracy which, I feel confident I have completely detected and exposed, I cannot but think of that detection, with the liveliest gratitude, as the special blessing of Providence, who, by confounding the machinations of my enemies, has enabled me to find, in the very excess and extravagance of their malice, in the very weapons, which they fabricated and sharpened for my destruction, the sufficient guard to my innocence,

and

and the effectual means of my justification and defence.

I trust therefore, sire, that I may now close this long letter, in confidence that many days will not elapse before I shall receive from your majesty, that assurance that my just requests may be so completely granted, as may render it possible for me (which nothing else can) to avoid the painful disclosure to the world of all the circumstances of that injustice, and of those unmerited sufferings, which these proceedings, in the manner in which they have been conducted, have brought upon me.

I remain, sire, &c.

(Signed) C. P.

As these observations apply not only to the official communication through the lord chancellor, of the 28th ult.; but also to the private letter of your majesty, of the 12th instant, I have thought it most respectful to your majesty and your majesty's servants, to send this letter in duplicate, one part through colonel Taylor, and the other through the lord chancellor, to your majesty.. To the king.

(Signed) C. P.

Montague-house, March 5, 1807. Sire, When I last troubled your majesty upon my unfortunate business, I had raised my mind to hope, that I should have the happiness of hearing from your majesty, and receiving your gracious commands, to pay my duty in your royal presence, before the expiration of the last week. And when that hope was disappointed, (eagerly clinging to any idea, which offered me a prospect of being saved from the necessity of having recourse, for the vindication of my character, to the publication of the proceedings upon the inquiry into my conduct,)

I thought it just possible, that the reason for my not having received your majesty's commands to that effect, might have been occasioned by the circumstance of your majesty's staying at Windsor through the whole of the week. I, therefore, determined to wait a few days longer, before I took a step, which, when once taken, could not be recalled. Having, however, now assured myself, that your majesty was in town yesterday as I have received no command to wait upon your majesty, and no intimation of your pleasure-I am reduced to the necessity of abandoning all hope, that your majesty will comply with my humble, my earnest, and anxious requests.

Your majesty, therefore, will not be surprised to find, that the publi cation of the proceedings alluded to, will not be withheld beyond Monday next.

As to any consequences which may arise from such publication, unpleasant or hurtful to my own feelings and interests, I may, perhaps, be properly responsible; and, in any event, have no one to complain of but myself, and those with whose advice I have acted; and whatever those consequences may be, I am fully and unalterably convinced, that they must be incalculably less than those, which I should be exposed to from my silence: but as to any other consequences, unpleasant or hurtful to the feelings and interests of others, or of the public, my conscience will certainly acquit me of them;-I am confident that I have not acted impatiently, or precipitately. To avoid coming to this painful extremity, I have taken every step in my power, except that which would be abandoning my character to utter infamy, and my station and life to

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(Present)

Lord chancellor (ELDON)
Lord president (CAMDEN)
Lord privy seal (WESTMORELAND)
The duke of PORTLAND
The earl of CHATHAM

The earl of BATHURST
Viscount CASTLEREAGH
Lord MULGRAVE
Mr. secretary CANNING.
Lord HAWKESBURY.

Your majesty's confidential servants have, in obedience to your majesty's commands, most attentively considered the original charges and report, the minutes of evidence, and all the other papers submitted to the consideration of your majesty, on the subject of those charges against her royal highness the princess of Wales.

In the stage in which this business is brought under their consideration, they do not feel themselves called upon to give any opinion as to the proceeding itself, or to the mode of investigation in which it has been thought proper to conduct it.

But adverting to the advice which is stated by his royal high ness the prince of Wales to have directed his conduct, your majesty's confidential servants are anxious to impress upon your majesty their conviction that his royal highness

could not, under such advice, consistently with his public duty, have done otherwise than lay before your majesty the statement and exami nations which were submitted to him upon this subject.

After the most deliberate consi deration, however, of the evidence which has been brought before the commissioners, and of the previous examination, as well as of the an swer and observations which have been submitted to your majesty upon them, they feel it necessary to declare their decided concurrence in the clear and unanimous opinion of the commissioners, confirmed by that of all your majesty's late con. fidential servants, that the two main charges alleged against her royal highness the princess of Wales, of pregnancy and delivery, are completely disproved; and they further submit to your majesty, their unanimous opinion, that all other particulars of conduct brought in accusation against her royal highness, to which the character of criminality can be ascribed, are satisfactorily contradicted, or rest upon evidence of such a nature, and which was given under such circumstances, as render it, in the judgment of your majesty's confidential servants, undeserving of credit.

Your majesty's confidential servants, therefore, concurring in that part of the opinion of your late servants, as stated in their minute of the 25th of January, that there is no longer any necessity for your majesty being advised to decline receiving the princess into your royal presence, humbly submit to your majesty, that it is essentially necessary, in justice to her royal bigbness, and for the honour and interests of your majesty's illustrious family, that her royal highness the princess of Wales should be admitted, with

as little delay as possible, into your majesty's royal presence, and that she should be received in a manner due to her rank and station, in your majesty's court and family.

Your majesty's confidential servants also beg leave to submit to your majesty, that considering that it may be necessary that your ma jesty's government should possess the means of referring to the state of this transaction, it is of the utmost importance that these documents, demonstrating the ground on which your majesty has proceeded, should be preserved in safe custody; and that for that purpose the originals, or authentic copies of all these papers, should be sealed up and deposited in the office of your majesty's principal secretary of state.

PROCLAMATION OF LOUIS XVIII.

Translation.

LOUIS XVIII, &c.

The moment is at length arrived when Divine Providence appears ready to break in pieces the instrument of its wrath. The usurper of the throne of St. Louis, the devastator of Europe, experiences reverses in his turn. Shall they have no other effect but that of aggravating the calamities of France; and will she not dare to overturn an odious power, no longer protected by the illusions of victory? What prejudices, or what fears, can now prevent her from throwing herself into the arms of her king; and from recognising, in the establishment of his legitimate authority, the only pledge of union, peace, and happiness, which his promises have so often guarantied to his oppressed subjects?

Being neither able, nor inclined to obtain, but by their efforts, that throne which his rights and their affection can alone confirm, what wishes should be adverse to those which he has invariably entertained? What doubt can be started with regard to his paternal intentions?

The king has said in his preceding declarations, and he reiterates the assurance, that the administrative and judicial bodies shall be maintained in the plenitude of their powers; that he will preserve their places to those who at present hold them, and who shall take the oath of fidelity to him; that the tribunals, depositaries of the laws, shall prohibit all prosecutions bearing relation to those unhappy times of which his return will have for ever sealed the oblivion; that, in fine, the code polluted by the name Napoleon, but which, for the most part, contains only the ancient or, dinances and customs of the realm, shall remain in force, with the exception of enactments contrary to the doctrines of religion, which, as well as the liberty of the people, has long been subjected to the caprice of the tyrant.

The senate, in which are seated. some men so justly distinguished for their talents, and whom so many services may render illustrious in the eyes of France, and of posterity-that corps, whose utility and importance can never be duly appreciated till after the restoration

can it fail to perceive the glorious destiny which summons it to be come the first instrument of that great benefaction, which will prove the most solid as well as the most honourable guarantee of its existence and its prerogatives?

On the subject of property, the king, who has already announced his

intention

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