66 66 66 that fectly as all the rest of us, 66 power and place to which she, was doomed to fall a victim had been satisfied-then in "vain did she open her doors "to their lordships and their families; then it was that "those whom she had hitherto "condescended to court-and it was no humiliation to court-wives are paragons of conjugal "the first society in the world, constancy; that looseness of "abandoned her. Her Majesty manners; that adultery, single was then reduced to the alter- or double; that fornication, sim"native of begging society in ple or compound; that greedi"this country as a favour, or ness; that profligacy; that the "of leaving it. She could not, tricks of black legs; that by humbling herself, have ob- swindling on a grand scale; "tained the society of British that stupid arrogance, and peeresses, and must have stinking cowardice; that. sought that of other classes, meanness that soars and 66 or gone abroad. Such, then," pride that licks the dust ;" that being the circumstances, it all these are wholly unknown was not in the presence of in that assembly, and in the "their lordships that he ex- familics of that assembly, to pected to hear the Queen re- whom you were addressing "proached for going abroad: yourself. Of all this I might "It was not here that he had have been as well convinced as thought any one would have you are; but, while the de"dared to lift up his voice, and clarations of my Royal Mistress "make it a topic of censure that upon the subject lay before the "the Princess of Wales had as- world, I never would have "sociated with foreigners uttered that which should be "with some whom, perhaps, she found to be in direct contradic"might say she would not, and tion to those declarations. ought not to have chosen un- might have been as thoroughly "der other and happier circum- convinced as you are, that the "stances." Ministers; that the Green Bag Committee Lords; that those who brought in the Bill of Pains and Penalties; that those who have repeatedly voted in favour of carrying on that Bill; that those who refused your Royal Mistress a list of witnesses; that those who refused her a list of places; that those who have shut the witnesses up in a fortress; that those who have barricadoed the streets, and surrounded themselves with horse police as well as with Upon what ground you thought it conducive to the interest of your client to bestow this nauseous panegyric upon the Peers and their families, I do not know; but this I know, that if I had been in your place, and if I had read, as you must have read, the public declarations of your Royal Mistress herself, I should not have praised the Peers and their families, even though I had been convinced, as I dare say you are, as per I 66 66 66 66 regular soldiers; that those "surest protector, when danger amongst whom are the men "threatened her; and, by a that employed COOKE, POWELL," coincidence most miraculous in BROWN, and the rest of the her eventful history, not one of hunters after evidence; that "her intrepid defenders was ever those amongst whom are great" withdrawn from her, without numbers of persons (including "that loss being the immediate two own brothers of the King) "signal for the renewal of moholding lucrative offices, during "mentous attacks upon her hopleasure: I might have been as nour and her life. Mr. Pitt, thoroughly convinced as you "who had been her constant that this was the most proper "friend and protector, died in tribunal in the world; that "1806. A few weeks after that these were the fittest persons " event took place the first aithat could be found on the "tack was levelled at her. Mr. face of the earth to judge "Pitt left her as a legacy to Mr. between the King and Queen: “ Perceval, who became her I might have been quite sure best, her most undaunted and that this was the case; but if 1 firmest protector. But no had carried down protests to 68 sooner had the hand of an them as you have done, in the assassin laid prostrate that name of my Royal Mistress," Minister, than her Royal Highagainst their jurisdiction; and "ness felt the force of the blow if I had had as you have lying by the commencement of a rebefore you, the declarations of my "newed attack, though she Royal Mistress, as to the cha-" had but just been borne racter of this House of Peers," through the last by Mr. PerI would have suffered my tongue ceval's skilful and powerful to have been torn from my "defence of her character. Mr. throat rather than have called "Whitbread then undertook them and their families "the "her protection, but soon that "ornament of the country, and melancholy catastrophe hap"the first society in the world.” "pened which all good men of One would have thought the" every political party in the thing impossible; but when" state, he believed, sincerely once a real talker gets a gait," and universally lamented: then as the Yorkshire-men call it, he came with Mr. Whitbread's never knows where to stop. "dreadful loss the murmuring of On he goes through thick and "that storm which was so soon thin. One would have thought it to burst with all its tempesimpossible that you should make "tuous fury upon her hapless shift to sing the praises of Pitt and" and devoted head." of Perceval, upon this occasion; but you did it; and we shall now see how: "How wretched was not the lot of this lady as displayed in all the events "of her chequered life! It was * always her sad fate to lose her "best stay, her strongest and If, instead of poor Whitbread, whose name a real friend would refrain from mentioning, the devil had occurred to your mind, you certainly would have praised him; for how could you have declined it after having praised those two execrable and ex י ecrated Ministers, PITT and PERCEVAL? People may abuse the devil as long as they please; but I am satisfied he never did half so much harm to mankind; during the same space of time I mean. They were the scourge of England; and, by the means of England's resources, they were the scourge of the world. cess is quite clear; for, he had not only collected all the materials together; not only had he arranged all the documents; but he had had them printed in a book which was to have been published on a certain day! But, only two days before that day arrived, the little lawyer and all his tribe became Ministers. We remember the pretence for that change of ministry. The pretence was a false one on the part of the coming in ministry. The ousted fellows might possibly be gulled; but this was the true cause of the change of the ministry. And that it was the true cause is proved as clear as day-light, by the fact, that Perceval, instead of publishing the book according to advertisement, went to the printer's, took the whole edition, carried them home and burnt them. Three copies had escaped, two of which were bought up at an enormous expence. The third was reserved for a higher destiny. Never was a more true word said, however, than that PITT left the Princess as a LEGACY to Perceval. The little sharp terrier of a lawyer seemed to regard her Royal Highness in that light; and he turned his legacy to most excellent account. The legacy put him into place and put his enemies out of place; and the same legacy kept him in place when he would have been turned out, had it not been for the legacy. His conduct towards her Royal Highness; or, rather, her Royal Highness having listened to his advice, was the source, and the only source, of all her future calamities. When the commission of 1806 had ended its inquiries; when the perjury had been detected; when the scandalous conspiracy had been discovered; that was the time for exposure! That was the time for crushing the enemies of the Princess. If that had been done then, she would have held her courts when the Prince became Regent; she never would have been separated from her child; she never would have been wheedled out of the country; and, her name would have been in the Liturgy now, and she with a crown upon her head. That Perceval himself deem-stances, talking of halters. Your ed the exposure necessary to the overture to the Ministers in interest and safety of the Prin- 1819; your renewed negocia And, yet, you have the effrontery to declare that Perceval was your Royal Mistress's best and firmest supporter and constant friend! She was an excellent legacy to him indeed. It was she kept him in place when the Prince became Regent. To her he owed the immense sums which he himself received; and to her his son and widow owe the immense sums which they now receive. This was a subject which, if I had been under your particular circumstances, Į would have avoided as men avoid, under certain circum tions in April 1820, or, soon after the late King's death; your extraordinary backwardness in communicating with her Majesty after the late King's death; the strange story you told in answer to Canning on the 7th of June last; the promise that you then made of explaining the matter another time, and your never having explained it from that day to this; the confession that came from yourself, that you had been engaged with the King in a negociation in 1819, or, at least, that you had voluntarily carried a message from the King to Lord Liverpool on the subject; your conduct in the case of the Protocols; your conduct with regard to the resolutions sent to the Queen by deputation; the answers to the addresses from Preston and from Nottingham; your sneers and scoffs at Mr. Alderman Wood: all these things, and a great many others, not forgetting your defence of the Spy-system, while you knew your Royal Mistress was beset with spies all these things, none of which would ever have been mentioned by me any more, but which are all remembered, ought to have made you shun an eulogium on little lawyer Perceval. All these things ought to have made you, when a topic like this was afloat, silent and as demure as certain females are said to be at a christening. It is clear that you wanted to talk about any thing but the real thing; but you would have done better by introducing your Dame Schools and your Education Digest, or your Agricultural Distress; half a dozen leaves of deep and dark balder dash from the Edinburgh Review; any thing but the his tory of lawyer PERCEVAL; for it is utterly impossible to hear of that history without reverting instantly to the eircumstances relating to yourself, which I have above hastily flung together. It is very curious that, in this speech of yours, you praise every body but the person whom it was your duty to defend! One would have thought that you might find something to praise in that illustrious personage. The greatness of mind that she has displayed under her manifold and unparalleled sufferings; her rare benevolence and humanity; the consciousness of innocence and the ardent love, of honest fame, which she gave proof of in her prompt decision at St. Omers; her courageous and heroic conduct upon so many occasions and under such perilous circumstances; that kindness and affability, mixed with true dignity of deportment, which has won her the hearts of all classes of people, except the greedy and profligate faction, whom the nation detests: in some of these; in some one of these, at least, you might, I think, have found something to dwell upon, since panegyric was But, no ! to be your theme. The House of Peers, the Peers', wives and families; the Aristocracy; the Throne, the Altar, Pitt and Perceval. These were the objects of your admiration ; and your Royal Mistress was left to find a panegyrist where she could. You might have alluded to, and even mentioned, the glorious spectacle, which, even while you were speaking, was exhibited on the Thames, and which was announced to you and to the" ornament of the country," from the cannon's mouth and in the shouts of not less than fifty thousand people. You might have told the "first society in the world" that more than a hundred thousand people were at that moment assembling with in four hundred yards of your Royal Mistress's mansion; that two thousand boats and barges were bearing an honest people to her door to pledge themselves to maintain her rights or perish in the attempt. You might have told the ornament of the nation that two hundred flags were waving upon her lawn, and that when she made her appearance on her balcony, every eye was moistened by the reflection that she had suffered so long, such malignant, such hellish persecution. An observation or two of this sort might have supplied the place of an eulogium on Lawyer Perceval, or of that ridiculous rhodamontade, with which you concluded your inappropriate and spiritless ha rangue. dain on all the anger, all the malice, of her open foes, and even on all the intrigues of secret foes. I can see clearly what the despicable Whigs are at. That miserable Junto of cast off Councillors of place-hunting, hungry, malignant politicians, who hope, that, by some meaus or other, they shall squecze themselves in to get a share of the remnant of the plunder; to lick up some of the blood of the dead lion, if they have not been able to share in the devouring of his carcase. They deceive themselves. The storm is of too trying a nature for them to live out in it. They had better keep to their dens, and, without meddling, wait the result. i believe that her Majesty was sent by God Almighty for our good. It required her case to be before us to convince a certain portion of the people of the lengths to which this system could go. She has given rise, in the space of three months, to as much discussion as naturally belonged to ten years. Her cause naturally and necessarily allied itself to that of the people. The discussion has commenced and gone on: and all that seems to be wanted at present, is, the presence of the Bald Bully, who ridiculed the "revered and ruptured Ogden," to witness the effect. Before I conclude let me again assure you, that all your efforts at smothering will be vain. If I thought it possible for you eventually to do injury to the cause of the Queen, I should be cautious in addressing you, knowing well that a stung Law- You will hug yourself in the yer will if he can have revenge thought that the circulation of some way or other. But I defy our sentiments is narrowed by you to do injury to the cause of the Six Acts; but, be not so the Queen. Let the decision be sure. The Six Acts have in what it may, no harm can hap-great part defeated themselves; pen to her Majesty. She is safe no thanks to those who obas the cagle in the cedar tops: tained us the favour of banishand may look down with dis-ment. Truth has found its way, |