Queen's chamberlain, originally moved, that that sphere of life, compared with the fortune which has since attended him in her service, is of itself matter of suspicion. Let me, however, remind your lordships, that the rapidity of the promotion of Bergami has been greatly overstated; and the manner in which it took place is a convincing proof, that the story of love having been the cause of it, is inconsistent with the fact. Believe Majoochi and Demont, and three weeks after Bergami's arrival in the household, he was promoted to her bed. How was it with respect to the board? Because, after that, he continued in the situation of courier; he dined with the servants, and lived not even with the chamberlains; certainly not, for they were at her table, as usual. He continued to dine with the servants at Genoa; notwithstanding Majoochi's story, it is proved to your lordships that he did not dine with her. He continued as a courier, even after he had once sat at her majesty's table by accident. This is not the rapidity of pace with which love promotes his favorite votaries; but he was a man of merit, as your lordship shall hear in evidence-his father was a proprietor of moderate income, in the north of Italy. He had got into difficulties, as happened of late years to many of the Italians; and his son had sold his estate in order to pay his father's debts.

Mr. Brougham then went on to speak of the familiar terms upon which Bergami lived with his former master general Pino, and to state, that he was specially recommended to the Queen

as a person deserving of protection and promotion by the marquis Ghisiliari, chamberlain to the emperor of Austria.

In conclusion, Mr. Brougham observed, that as the conduct of the Queen had been so severely scrutinized, and as it was important to show that where guilt had not existed, even impropriety could not be proved, he had thought it right to say so much of the circumstances of Bergami. If the Queen had frequented company below her proper station, if she had been proved to have committed any guiltless unworthiness, he could have stood notwithstanding upon high ground indeed; but he had no occasion to stand upon it; guilt there was none-levity there was none-unworthiness there was none: had there been any of the latter, he might have appealed upon a ground which always supports virtue in jeopardy,-the course of her former life at home, while she enjoyed the protection of the late King. In his hand he held a testimonial from that beloved prince, which he was sure could not be read without the deepest sense of its importance, and the deepest sorrow that he who wrote it had been no longer spared. The plainness and honesty, and intelligible manly sense of this letter (said the learned gentleman), is such, that I cannot refrain from the gratification of reading it. It was written in 1804

"Windsor Castle, Nov. 13th, 1804. "My dearest Daughter-in-law and Niece;-Yesterday I and the rest of my family, had an interview with the prince of Wales at Kew. Care was taken on all sides to avoid all subjects of altercation or explanation; consequently the conversation was neither

instructive nor entertaining; but it leaves the prince of Wales in a situation to show whether his desire to return to his family is only verbal or real,”—(a difference which George the 3rd never knew, except in others)"which time alone can show. I am not idle in my endeavours to make in quiries, that may enable me to communicate some plan for the advantage of the dear child you and me with so much reason must interest ourselves; and its affecting my having the happiness of living more with you is no small incentative to my forming some ideas on the subject; but you may depend on their being not decided upon, with out your thorough and cordial concurrence, for your authority as mother it is my object to support.-Believe me, at all times, my dearest daughterin-law and niece, your most affectionate father-in-law and uncle,

"GEORGE R."

This, my lords, was the opinion which this good man, not ignorant of human affairs, no ill judge of human character, had formed of this near and cherished relation, and upon which, in the most delicate particulars, the care of his grand-daughter and the heir of his crown, he honestly, really, and not in mere words, always acted.

I might now read to your lordships a letter from his illustrious successor, not written in the same tone of affection-not indicative of the same tone of regard-but by no means indicative of any want of confidence, or at least of any desire harshly to trammel his royal consort's conduct.

The learned counsel read the etter, as follows:

nature has not made us suitable to each other. Tranquil and comfortable society is, however, in our power; let our intercourse, therefore, be restricted to that, and I will distinctly subscribe to the condition which you required, through lady Cholmondeley, that even in the event of any accident happening to my daughter, which I trust Providence in its mercy will avert, I shall not infringe the terms of the restriction, by proposing, at any period, a connexion of a more particular nature. I shall now finally close this disagreeable correspondence, trusting, that, as we have completely explained ourselves to each other, the rest of our lives will be passed in uninterrupted tranquillity. I am, "Madam, with great truth, Very sincerely your's, "GEORGE P."

66

"Windsor Castle, "April 30th, 1796."

My lords, I do not call this, as it has been termed, a Letter of Licence-this was the term applied to it, on the former occasion, by those who are now, unhappily for the Queen, no morebut I think it such an epistle as

would make it matter of natural wonderment to the person who received it, that her conduct should ever after-and more especially the more rigorously, the older the parties are growingbecome the subject of the most unceasing, unscrupulous watching and investigation.

Such then, my lords, is this case. And again let me call on your lordships, even at the risk of repetition, never to dismiss for a moment from your minds, the two great points. upon which I rest my attack upon the evidence;-first, that they have not proved the facts by the good witnesses who were within their reach, whom they have no shadow of pretext for not calling-and secondly, that the witnesses whom they have ventured to call are, every one of them,

injured in their credit. How, I again ask, my lords, is a plot ever to be discovered, except by the means of these two principles? Nay, there are instances, in which plots have been discovered, through the medium of, the second principle, when the first had happened to fail. When venerable witnesses have been seen to be brought forward, when persons above all suspicion have lent themselves for a season to impure plans, when nothing seemed possible, when no resource for the guiltless seemed open-they have almost providentially escaped from the snare by the second of those two principles; by the evidence breaking down where it was not expected to be sifted, by a weak point being found, where no pains, from not foreseeing the attack, had been made to support it. Your lordships recollect that great passage-I say great, for it is poetically just and eloquentin the Sacred Writings, where the Elders had joined themselves, two of them, in a plot which had appeared to have succeeded, "for that," as the Scriptures say, "they had hardened their hearts, and had turned away their eyes, that they might not look at Heaven, and that they might do the purposes of unjust judgments." But threy, though giving a clear, consistent, uncontradicted story, were disappointed, and their victim was rescued from their gripe, by the trifling circumstance of a contradiction about a mastich tree.

Let no

man call those contradictions or those falsehoods which false witnesses swear to from needless falsehood, such as Sacchi about his changing his name, or such as Demt about her letters, or such as Majoochi about the

banker's clerk, or such as all the others belonging to the other witnesses not going to the main body of the case, but to the main body of the credit of the witnesses-let not man rashly and blindly call those accidents.— They are dispensations of that Providence, which wills not that the guilty should triumph, and which favourably protects the innocent.

Such, my lords, is this case now before you! Such is the Evidence in support of this measure-inadequate to prove a debt

impotent to deprive of a civil right-ridiculous to convict of the lowest offence-scandalous if brought forward to support a charge of the highest nature which the law knows-monstrous to ruin the honour of an English Queen! What shall I say, then, if this is their case-if this is the species of proof by which an act of judicial legislation, an ex post facto law, is sought to be passed against this defenceless woman? My lords, I pray your lordships to pause. You are standing upon the brink of a precipice. It will go forth your judgment, if it goes against the Queen. But it will be the only judgment you ever will pronounce which will fail in its object, and return upon those who give it. Save the country, my lords, from the horrors of this catastrophe-save yourselves from this situation-rescue that country, of which you are the ornaments, but in which you could flourish no longer, when severed from the people, than the blossom when cut off from the root and the stem of the tree. Save that country, that you may continue to adorn it-save the Crown, which is in jeopardythe Aristocracy which is shaken

more can stand secure amongst the shocks that shall rend its kindred throne. You have said, my lords, you have willed-the Church and the King have willed -that the Queen should be deprived of its solemn service. She has, indeed, instead of that solemnity, the heartfelt prayers of the people. She wants no prayers of mine. But I do here pour forth my supplications at the Throne of Mercy, that that mercy may be poured down upon the people, in a larger measure than the merits of its rulers may deserve, and that your hearts may be turned to justice.

Mr. Williams followed on the same side. He examined and discussed the evidence for the Bill, with even more minuteness than Mr. Brougham; but up to the conclusion of the day's proceeding, he did not open any topic which had not been previously touched upon by Mr. Brougham.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5. Previously to Mr. Williams resuming his argument,

The Marquis of Lansdown called the attention of the House to a letter, purporting to have been written by Mr. Marietti the elder to his son, which had appeared in the newspapers, and which seemed to repeat the charge against colonel Browne, of having used threats to deter the latter from interfering in the Queen's behalf; the letter bore date the 20th of September. He would move that Mr. Giuseppe Marjetti should be called to verify the hand-writing of his father

The Earl of Liverpool expressed his concurrence, and Mr. Marietti was sworn. He verified several letters, but none corresponding in date with the published letter alluded to by the marquis of Lansdown. Being asked by the noble marquis whether he had received any other letter from his father upon the subject of his interference on the Queen's behalf, he replied in the negative.-[The letters were put in.]

Mr. Williams resumed his argument with an allusion to the peculiar difficulties by which the Queen was embarrassed in endeavouring to bring forward witnesses in her defence-not to deal in vague generalitics, he would cite particular instances. In order to meet the evidence of Barbara Kress, her Majesty had thought it expedient to produce the Chamberlain of the Grand Duke of Baden, who had been placed, by the special appointment of the Grand Duke, in constant attendance upon her Majesty during the whole period of her residence at Carlsruhe. Her Majesty accordingly sent a letter, written by her hand, and carried by the most respectable messenger she could select, Mr. Brougham, the brother of her attorney-general, to solicit the attendance of this nobleman. That letter, however, having proved ineffectual, she again wrote a letter to the Chamberlain, and another to the Grand Duke. Upon this second occasion, the Chamberlain professed his willingness to come, but declared, with tears in his eyes, that he had express orders to the con