quarter, and mention the matter again in court, as soon as he had any communication to make.

On the other side, the applicant stated, that the bonds had not only existed, but were still in existence, and that those to which he was legally entitled were then in his possession, and that he appeared there in person to enforce his claim. The motion was then disposed of, with the understanding that Sir Arthur Pigott should mention it again at as early a day as possible. This, however, Sir Arthur neglected to do, and the court was again moved by the claimant, when it appeared, to the astonishment of all, that Sir Arthur had entirely forgotten the business. It was, however, finally agreed to confer at chambers on the subject, and the matter was no more heard of.

This conduct of Sir Arthur Pigott constitutes one of not the least extraordinary features of this singular transaction, and it goes a great way to prove to what shifts and expedients a lawyer can have recourse, in order to bolster up a rotten and indefensible cause. In the first place, with the most unblushing effrontery, he declared that he never heard of the existence of the bonds in question; and that he verily believed no such obligations ever were in existence. Can it for a moment be credited, that Sir Arthur Pigott, the legal adviser of the Prince of Wales, could enter the Court of Chancery, with the ignorance of a fact on his mind, which was then notorious, not only in this country, but in every part of the continent? The bonds in question were then floating in the money market as common as any other negotiable security. There was scarcely a broker on the Exchange, who had not some of them in his possession to dispose of; and it was well known, that secret agents were employed to depreciate their value, in order that they might be bought up at the lowest price; and it was no later than the year 1829, that Mr. Charles, of Canterbury, had laid before him notorial copies of the whole arrangements, bonds, &c., verified in France by a French notary, upon which legal proceedings were threatened, but which were never car

ried into effect, on the ground, it is believed, of a compromise having been entered into with the holders.

It is not improbable that Sir Arthur Pigott was obliged to act up to the instructions given to him, and that the part which he had to perform was one of great difficulty and delicacy. His denial of the existence of the bonds, however, tended in a great degree to excite the animosity of the holders, and to make them more clamorous for the liquidation of their claims. The fact also having transpired of the successful issue of the application of Mr. Martignac to the Court of Chancery, the applicants considered that the path was chalked out to them by which they could be equally successful: and, consequently, a number of holders on the continent hastened to this country, for the sole purpose of enforcing their claims, without investing themselves with any political character, or mixing themselves up with either of the great contending parties, which were then struggling in France against the despotism and fanaticism of the Bourbon race.

At this period, that weak and imbecile minister, Lord Sidmouth, held the seals of the Home department; and it was under his administration that the odious Alien Act was put into its fullest force: the spirit of espionage, so uncongenial to the principles of a free constitution, like that of England, was carried to an extent hitherto unknown in this country; and the unoffending foreigner, who had sought an asylum on the British shores from the troubles which devastated his own country, was, on the mere breath of suspicion, or some anonymous information, taken secretly from his bed, and without knowing the nature of the offence which he had given, hurried out of the country, and thrown upon a hostile shore, into the possession of his most implacable enemies, to meet the immediate death of the traitor. As a powerful political engine, at a period of anarchy and rebellion, when kings were fighting for their thrones, and nations for their constitutions, the exercise of the Alien Act might have been tolerated under circumstances of an imperious nature.

It is, however, the abuse of it of which

we complain, and its application to individuals, whose cases came not within the sphere of its operation, according to the principles on which the alien laws were founded. In no instance, perhaps, was the severity of the Alien Act carried to a greater extent, than in the case of the holders of the bonds of the royal princes They came to this country to enforce a just and long-standing claim for moneys, which they had advanced on the security of the future monarch of it, and of his illustrious brothers; and, certainly, it must be acknowledged that if circumstances did not admit of the immediate liquidation of those claims, that degree of courtesy was due to the claimants, which is always readily and willingly granted from a debtor to his creditor, in the most ordinary transactions of life. The exact reverse, however, was the case with the unfortunate bondholders of the Princes. Their claim was disputed on the ground that they were not the original holders. In vain they argued that they had given a bona fide consideration for them, and therefore that their title was unquestionable to all the advantages which would have resulted to the original holders, in whose shoes they considered themselves to be then standing. This argument was blinked by the subterfuge, that no proof had been given of any bona fide consideration having been paid; that the revolution in France, and the consequent troubles in the adjacent countries, had completely altered the political relations of England, and had placed the responsibility of the grantors of the bonds on a very different footing, than it stood at the time when the security was entered into. This, however, was a species of reasoning, which the bondholders could not, or would not understand. They considered the laws of England to be open to them, and to those laws they expressed their determination to appeal for redress. The temper of the English people was not at this period in a state to endure any fresh cause of excitation; much less one which bore immediately upon the extravagance and profligacy of their princes. The French were then reading a most powerful lesson o the Bourbon princes, on the wasteful expenditure of the

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nation's riches; and it was feared, not without some substantial grounds, that the English people might be disposed to read the same lesson, in equally expressive terms, to some of their own princes, the catastrophe of which might close in the same manner as had been exhibited in France. An immediate adjustment of the bonds was certainly the most efficient method of stifling the clamour of the claimants; but, although advisable in one point of view, it was attended in another with the greatest danger and embarrassment to the parties concerned; for, on the return of the claimants to the continent, rejoicing in the success of their application, the whole host of the holders would tread in the same steps, and repair instantly to England to substantiate their claim upon the royal Princes. In the mean time, the claimants then in the country shewed by their proceedings that the threat of an appeal to the laws was not an idle breath; and it was judged neccessary and higly politic that an immediate stop should be put to them. Accordingly, without a single moment's notice, the whole of the claimants were taken up under the Alien Act, and being put on board a vessel in the Thames, it set sail immediately for Holland; but, for a particular purpose, it cast anchor at the Nore, under pretence of waiting for the necessary papers from, the Secretary of State's office.

And here begins the gravamen of the charge which we make against the constituted authorities of this country, in the commission of an act which might have been tolerated under the tyranny of a Nero, or the ferocious despotism of a Russian autocrat. The charge is one dark and dreadful;-dark in the secrecy and mystery which still hangs over the transaction;— dreadful as it implies the commission of an act which could only have been engendered in the head of a fiend, and which the hands of fiends could alone have executed. We know not on what head to attach the enormity of the crime; but for the sake of the country which could have nurtured such a head in its bosom, we should hail an official and authentic denial of the fact, as the happy removal of a stain upon its character,

which now adheres to it with the most obstinate tenacity, extending in its inflictions to the very highest quarters, and implicating individuals in the estimation of foreign nations, which were heretofore accustomed to regard the British character as a compound of all that was noble and dignified in human

nature.

It was openly declared in a certain quarter, that the act was one of mere accident-one of those casualties against which no human foresight could prevail. But it is not customary to throw the veil of secrecy and mystery over a mere accident; for where an evident desire of concealment is manifested, there is generally something more than accident or casualty behind. The particulars of the tragical catastrophe were known but to few; and it was not the interest of those few to divulge all they knew upon the subject. Rumour, which is generally very busy on occasions of this kind, obtained but a very partial insight into the affair; but still such a sufficiency was gathered as to sanction and confirm the suspicion, that accident had very little to do in the affair, but that the whole was a deep-laid, diabolical plan to prevent the unfortunate holders of the bonds. from giving any further trouble on the score of their claims.

In some cases, presumptive evidence is as strong as positive proof, and it were natural to presume that the crew of the vessel in which the bondholders were embarked must have had some very powerful reasons for taking to their boat at night, and landing on the nearest shore but most extraordinary it was that, before they reached it, not a vestige of the vessel which they had just left was discernible above water-it had sunk, and every soul on board perished. If accident had any share in this catastrophe, it must be attributed to a Power which distributes the evil and the good in this world according to its own wise and inscrutable dispensations; but if it sprang from premeditation and design, on the head of man let the whole weight of the ignominy rest; and when the day of retribution comes, the spirits of the victims will rise from the deep, the hour of vengeance is arrived, and woe to those on whom its weight may fall!