No. 8, Vol. 3.] LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1820. [PRICE 6d.

THE QUEEN.

Agreeable to our promise in the sixth number of the last volume, we recur to a defence of this much injured and grossly insulted woman. In spite of all threats and machinations to the contrary, the Queen has arrived in London, and in such an open and determined manner, as must go a great way to silence the breath of slander. It appears that as soon as the route of the Queen for England was known, Mr. Brougham and Lord Hutchinson set off to meet her before she reached the English shore. They met at St. Omer's in France, on the road to Calais, and after an interview, Lord Hutchinson, who it appears was commissioned by the King and his minis ters, to endeavour to arrest her intention of visiting England, made the following communication to Mr. Brougham, as her Law Officer:-"That her Majesty should renounce the title and rank of Queen of England and all connection with the British Royal Family, that she should on no pretence whatever set foot on the English shore, and that on her complying with this request she should receive an income of £50,000 per ann., but in case of a refusal and immediateTy on her landing in England, a parliamentary impeachment would be moved against her." The Queen, like a virtuous and true heroine, spurned this base offer with a becoming and dignified indignation by ordering her carriage to be ready instantly and entered it direct for England, without even consulting with Mr. Brougham, her Attorney-General. We rejoice at this indifference paid to this latter gentleman, for whatever be his abilities as a lawyer, much suspicion hangs about his character as an honest man. We sincerely hope, that the Queen will not leave her case to the management of this individual. He has displayed so much equivocation, such VOL: III. No. 8.

Printed and published by J. Carlile, 55, Fleet Street.

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an inexcusable anxiety for place and profit, that, like Gifford and Copley, we consider his principles not to be virtue proof against prostitution. He seldom rises to speak in the House without throwing out a hint about forming a coalition with the present ministers, or expressing a hope that he shall shortly fill one of their places. He was weak enough to say thus much to the freeholders of Westmoreland, that he hoped by and by to be in office, when he should be able to use the same influence with regard to bribery and corruption as his antagonists, the Lowthers, are now able to do. This was certainly a pretty proposition from an alleged independent candidate to those he calls independent freeholders. Mr. Brougham has let the cat out of the bag too often, and has shewn a disposition to support all the abuses of the present system, provided he be admitted to share the plunder. We consider him to be just the man to act with Castlereagh and Canning; and again we say, that we hope the Queen will be on her guard. His journey and conduct with Lord Hutchinson have excited much suspicion in the public mind already, and from what passed at St. Omer's it appears that the Queen was not altogether blind to it.

It is almost needless to observe, that the Queen was received in England with every mark of respect that a people, indignant at the treatment she has received, could bestow upon her. "God bless her," was in the mouth of every one, 66 she has a noble spirit-she must be innocent:" and if an attempt had been made to arrest her journey by refusing her horses, the people would, in spite of such an attempt, have drawn her to London. This attachment from the people does not arise from any love or adherence to the pageantry of monarchy, it is because they have seen the Queen, as an unprotected female, exposed to the persecution of a gang of villains. Mr. Alder man Wood met her Majesty in Franee, and accompanied her to London, where, in default of a palace having been provided for her, he has given up his house in South Audley Street to her Majesty use. His whole conduct in this respect, and the fearless manner in which he has made himself the protector of this insulted and injured female, has done honour to his head and his heart. We rejoice to think that the Queen has entrusted herself into the hands of a man of such firm integrity as Mr Alderman Wood. There is more honesty in his little finger than in the whole body of Mr. Brougham.

The slanderous charge which is now about to be exhibited against her Majesty is, that she has made a Count Bergami

one of her attendants, her paramour. All England knows that similar attempts to impeach her innocence and ruin her person have been made before, and that after having been sifted to the bottom, by her persecutors, with all that perjury could adduce against her, she was honourably acquitted a second time We should therefore receive, with more than usual distrust, any charge of the kind at present, when she has not a relative left to open his mouth for her, and see that she has fair play; but is exposed to the malice of a husband, with kingly authority, who has the disposition, if not the power, of an Oriental Sultan, who has a ministry rife in wickedness and corruption, and a venal parliament at their controul. Therefore, the profligacy of the Ministers and Parliament is so notorious, that any resolutions to which they may come with respect to the Queen, will not have the slightest tendency to impeach her innocence in the bosom of the people of England. The object of the King is unquestionably to play OLD HARRY with her, but we sincerely trust, that the voice of the nation will be sufficiently loud to deter him from his wicked and unmanly pur→

pose.

In our defence of this ill-treated woman, we are inclined to go a great way: we would put the case to the extreme, and admit, for argument's sake only, that the Queen has placed her affections on some individual since she was brutally expelled from Carlton House. Where is the crime? Where is the lack of virtue? Not in the Queen, but in Jim who has acted as a brute towards her. Even in this extreme, her conduct would be justifiable by the laws of nature, of honour, of morality, of virtue, of religion, and of humanity. We drew an outline of this case in the sixth number of the second volume, to which we would wish the reader to refer, as we would avoid a repetition of the same article as unnecessary here.We will now take a peep on the other side, and see what the conduct of the husband has been, and see whether it has not been such as will justify the conduct of the wife even in the extreme, but unfounded case, in which we have placed it. It is notorious, that the present King cohabited many years with Mrs. Fitzherbert; it is as notorious that he has cohabited of late years with the Countess of Hertford, and if common fame be not a lying strumpet, her relative, Lord Yarmouth, discoloured his eyes and face for it, on cathing him where the latter nobleman felt his honour touched and abashed. The tales of his cohabition with other persons are innumerable, and we must stop here and confess, that we should not think him

a jot worse as a King or a man for it, was it not for his ma lignant, treacherous, and abominable conduct towards a woman, whom he has drawn within the bonds of matrimony, to whom he has religiously sworn affection and protection, and whom he has not only driven from his bed as a wife in the bloom of her youth, but has studiously endeavoured to break her spirits and her heart by the most unmanly and brutal conduct. It is notorious that in those commissions which were instituted to examine into the debts of the late Prince of Wales, that several debts at brothels were accumulated, and one rather a heavy one at the house of an old bawd in one of the streets leading into Piccadilly. It would be the heighth of impudence to mention this, or to bring up the vices and follies of his youth, did we not see that the charge against the Queen, to make the worst of it, even if it was true, which we have just grounds to disbelieve from former circumstances, is no more than a slight inadvertance; it is not adultery, it is not a crime; it is not an offence against virtue or morality. The Queen has been reluctantly expelled from the bosom of her husband above twenty-years: within that time he has not shewn her the slightest mark of respect, but was told her in a public letter that they were not designed by nature for each other, and that they could never live together as man and wife This was a virtual divorce as far as their individual actions were concerned. The King bestowed his affections on other women, and if the Queen had actually bestowed her affections on any other man she would have been not a jot less virtuous than any married or single woman in the country. We again repeat, that if the laws of the society we live in have been outraged, the sin lieth at the door of the husband. The Queen had always the strongest maternal attachment to her daughter, and it was evident that as the Princess Charlotte grew up she saw in whom the fault of the separation lay, and consequently directed her filial attachment to her mother in preference to her father. She had the painful occasion of witnessing the insolent attempt to degrade her mother, but this only served to rivet her affection towards her. The question now simply resolves itself into thiswe have a King and a Queen, the one has as good a title to the Crown as the other, but they cannot resolve to unite.It is of the same importance to the nation that we should have a Queen as well as a King, and if justice be fairly administered it should come to this-that the party which refuses to unite with the other in the common right and title, should resign

all pretension for unwarrantable obstinacy. This nation has always flourished better under a Queen on the throne alone, than with a King, and there is not a question but it would be so again. I cannot attempt to give any particular reason for this, but it has happened, and every old woman will concur with me, that because it has so happened it may so happen again! We left the Queen at South Audley-street, and we now proceed to notice the proceedings in Parliament respecting her. On Tuesday just as the Queen arrived in London, the following message was sent to both Houses of Parlia ment:

"GEORGE R.-The King thinks it necessary, in consequence of the arrival of the Queen, to communicate to the House of Lords certain papers respecting the conduct of her Majesty, since her departure from this kingdom, which he recommends to the immediate and serious consideration of the House.-The King has felt the most anxious desire to avert the necessity of disclosures and discussions which must be as painful to his people, as they can be to himself: but the step now taken by the Queen leaves him no alternative. The King has the fullest confidence that, in consequence of this communication, the House of Lords will adopt that course of proceeding which the justice of the case, and the honour and dignity of his Majesty's Crown may require."

A similar message was sent to the Commons, and in both Houses a smart discussion arose on the subject. Mr. Brougham gave an outline of the manner in which those papers had been obtained. It appeared that some pettifogging barrister had hired himself to the Ministers, or more likely to the King, to go out and live somewhere near the late residence of the Queen, and there endeavour to bribe some of her Majesty's servants to perjure themselves and swear falsely that she had shared her bed with this Count Bergami. Attempts were also made by means of picklock keys, to rifle her escrutoire.Nothing that could have the slightest tendency to deprive her of life or her honour has been neglected by this Barrister Spy and a Baron Ompteda, who was the Hanoverian Ambassador to the Pope. However, their villainies have been all detected, and it is much to be desired that a full investigation of the whole business should take place, that we might know the real character of those, who so profusely squander the public money for such base, treacherous, and murderous purposes. It is all nonsense, now-a-days, to tell us that a King can do no wrong, we know better, and he should be as amenable to public opinion for all his private conduct as any other indivi