СНАР. VI. 1820. The on the 17th of August. servants to uncover. But the strength of the popular feeling was not thoroughly seen till after the arrival of the witnesses against the queen. The first batch of these unhappy men landed at Dover on the 7th of July. The people set upon them, 'beat them unmercifully, venting all the while the deepest execrations against them.' They were removed by stealth to London, and lodged during the trial in some temporary buildings in Cotton Yard. Cotton Yard, long since swept away, was in the immediate neighbourhood of the Houses of Parliament. The only direct communication which it had with the street was effectually closed by strong doors bound with iron. Ingress from the river side of Parliament Stairs was as effectually barred by a brick wall and a strong timber partition. And a new causeway, also closely fortified, projecting to low water mark, formed the only means of communication between the outer world and the imprisoned witnesses.1 If precautions were necessary to defend the witnesses reception against the queen from the violence of the mob, still greater precautions were requisite to avert a popular disturbance on the 17th of August. It was certain that a vast crowd would be collected to witness the commencement of the proceedings; it was possible that violence might be attempted by the populace. Troops were consequently quietly pushed forward towards the metropolis; a large body of artillery was moved up from Woolwich; the Surrey Horse Patrol was quartered in the livery stables opposite Astley's Theatre, in the Westminster Bridge Road; special constables were sworn in to keep the approach to the House of Lords; and two barriers, consisting of massive pieces of timber, were stretched across New Palace Yard from St. Margaret's Church to the King's Bench Record Office. On the morning of the 17th the whole line of the Westminster 1 Ann. Reg., 1820, Chron., pp. 244, 255, 365. Road was patrolled by the City Light Horse. The Horse Police occupied Parliament Street and Whitehall; two regiments of Life Guards were stationed in Palace. Yard, and the Coldstreams were marched into Westminster Hall, where a powerful train of field-pieces was stationed. But the imposing display of military force was lost in the vast crowd by which the streets were thronged. From St. James's Square, where her Majesty had slept on the previous evening, through Pall Mall, Charing Cross, Whitehall, Parliament Street, and Palace Yard the crowd formed one uniform, compact, and unbroken body. The windows and roofs of the houses which lined the route were thronged by anxious, sympathising spectators. London had never seen so vast a crowd. The people, however, were not riotous. They hooted the Duke of Wellington; they cheered the Duke of Sussex; they called on the Guards to remember their queen but they attempted no hostile demonstration ; they inflicted no injury on anyone. From eight o'clock in the morning till ten the vast crowd continued to increase. A little before ten a universal cheer announced that the queen had left her house. Her Majesty, who was in an open carriage, drawn by six horses, and who was attended by Lady Anne Hamilton, proceeded slowly through the people. The sentinels at Carlton House presented arms to her, and were cheered for doing so. The shouts, which greeted her throughout her progress, were said by one who was present to be the loudest he had ever heard. The living mass which surrounded her Majesty's carriage thronged after it as it rolled slowly away. The strong barriers at St. Margaret's Church snapped in an instant before the irresistible pressure of the crowd. The mechanical contrivances which the Government had prepared proved inadequate for the occasion. Nothing but the good humour of the multitude averted СНАР. VI. 1820. CHAP. VI. 1820. Scene in a more serious castastrophe than the rupture of a wooden barrier. The scene which was presented inside the House the Lords, throughout the trial was of the most imposing character. Two galleries, each containing two rows of seats, had been temporarily constructed on either side of the chamber for the accommodation of the peers who should be unable to find room in the House itself. In the body of the House two-thirds of the space usually allotted to strangers were assigned to the counsel, the solicitors, and the witnesses engaged or called on either side. The queen herself occupied the seat immediately adjoining the bar which was usually allotted to the bishop who was not a peer-the Bishop of Sodor and Man. A chair of state, covered with crimson velvet, and adorned with gilt mouldings, was placed there for her accommodation. She was dressed in black, but a rich white lace veil 'flowed gracefully over her shoulders and hung like an antique vestment over her dress' Her chair faced the throne, the woolsack, the table, the peers, and, it may be added, the members of the other House of Parliament, who were accommodated with places in the space adjoining the throne. Rarely before had so memorable an assemblage been collected in so comparatively small a space. There was the Duke of York, heir-presumptive to the throne of England, himself only eleven years previously the subject of an inquiry as damaging as that to which his sister-in-law the queen was now exposed. There was the Duke of Clarence, busily whispering in the ears of his brother peers the basest insinuations against the character of his sister-in-law. There was the Duke of Sussex, alone among his family eager to be excused the invidious task of judging between his brother and his brother's wife. There were the four peers, Lord Grenville, Lord Spencer, Lord Ellenborough, and Lord Erskine, who had solemnly acquitted the queen of the grave charges brought against her in 1806. There were the members of the secret committee who had just recommended the institution of the present proceedings against her Majesty-a Chancellor, once her Majesty's firm friend, now her reluctant accuser; Prime Minister, driven into the proceedings against his better judgment from a culpable dislike to displease his sovereign; a Home Secretary, who, as a member of the Talents Administration, had been a party to the proceedings of 1806; a President of the Council, who had deferred to the decision of the Government; a primate, a bishop, and half a dozen other dukes, marquises, earls, and barons. There was the great captain whose incomparable skill had brought the most terrible of modern wars to a victorious issue, subjected for a time to the unreasonable hostility of the populace, from the part which he had taken against the queen. There was the Duke of Hamilton, generously leaning to his sister's mistress. There was Lord Lauderdale, criticising in the broadest of Scotch the provincial Italianisms of the Lombard witnesses. There, mingled on one solemn judgment-seat, were accusers who had made up their minds already, and judges who were open to conviction. There were peers who owed their titles to the king, peers who were expecting further honours from him, peers who held emoluments at his will and pleasure, peers who were hoping for fresh favours from their sovereign-met together, at the will of their king, to pronounce judgment on the honour and character of their queen.1 CHAP. VI. 1820. The spectators instinctively turned their eyes to the The judges. Posterity perhaps feels as great an interest in the counsel. plain knot of lawyers behind the bar. There, on one side, stood the Attorney-General, Sir Robert Gifford; the Solilicitor-General, Sir John Copley; the king's AdvocateGeneral, Sir Christopher Robinson; Dr. Adams, a civilian ; 1 Ann. Reg., 1820, Chron., pp. 62, 366, 376, 381. CHAP. 1820. The trial. and Mr. Parker, an outer barrister.' There, on the other side, stood Brougham, Denman, Lushington, Williams, Tindal, and Wilde. The prizes of the profession seemed at the feet of the fortunate lawyers who were retained on the king's side. Everything that the Court could do to retard the promotion of the advisers of the queen was certain to be done. Yet the counsel for the queen attained on the whole higher positions, both in their profession and in the State, than those for the king. On the king's side Sir John Copley became Lord Chancellor ; Gifford became Master of the Rolls and a peer; Parke a judge of the King's Bench, a baron of the Exchequer, and Lord Wensleydale. On the queen's side Brougham, the leader, became Chancellor; Wilde, the junior, rose also to the Chancellorship; Denman became Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Tindal Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Lushington a judge of the High Court of Admiralty, and Williams a justice of the Queen's Bench. Rarely had any client been defended by counsel destined for such distinction as those who were retained for the queen. The trial-for such it really was-was delayed at the outset. Lord Carnarvon had the address to elicit a formal opinion from the judges that the queen, even if she were guilty of adultery with a foreigner, had not committed high treason within the meaning of the Act of Edward III.1 On the motion of Lord Kenyon the queen's counsel were heard against the principle of the bill; and the 17th, 18th, and 19th of August were mainly occupied with the speeches of Brougham and Denman on the one side, and with the replies of the Attorney and Solicitor-General on the other. On the 19th of August the Attorney-General opened the case for the Crown, and on the next day the examination of the witnesses began. 1 Hansard, New Series, vol. ii. p. 632. |