been frequently, and no doubt justly, described as having originated in pique and resentment. It may here be proper to notice, that up to the year 1804 Lady Douglas declares she never mentioned to any person, not even to her husband, the misconduct she afterwards alleged against the Princess. Upon her own acknowledgment this lady did not betray her illustrious friend, from horror at her dereliction of principle, but because she had herself been offended, and her own personal 'feelings wounded.' "On this hint she spake."

When the Duke of Sussex first made the communication to the Prince, he added, that "the Duke of Kent had been partly acquainted with the matter twelve months before." The Prince of Wales accordingly waited on his brother the Duke of Kent, who, without hesitation, mentioned, that about the end of the year 1804, he had received a note from the Princess of Wales, in which she stated that she had involved herself in an unpleasant altercation with Sir John and Lady Douglas, about an anonymous letter and a filthy caricature, which they had presumed to attribute to her Royal Highness. She requested the Duke of Kent to interfere, and to prevent the matter from going further. His Royal Highness, therefore, applied to Sir Sydney Smith, and through him procured an interview with Sir John Douglas: the latter stated his conviction, that both the anonymous letter and the loose drawing were by the hand of the Princess, and that her design was to provoke Sir John Douglas to a duel with his old friend Sir Sydney Smith, by reason of the gross insinuation conveyed respecting Lady Douglas and Sir Sydney. The Duke declared that he was convinced of the falsehood of the insinuation in question, and tolerably certain that both fabrications were in fact some idle story, with which the Princess had no connection whatever. This declaration had the effect of silencing Sir John Douglas for a time; and the Duke of Kent said that he did not deem it proper, under the circumstances, to make his Royal Highness acquainted with a circumstance which might rest entirely on the misapprehension of both parties.

The commissioners, already mentioned, pursuant to the directions of his Majesty, commenced their examination on oath, of Sir John Douglas and Charlotte his wife; the main point of whose evidence was, that the Princess had been pregnant, and had had a child in the year 1802. Lady Douglas deposed, that from the familiar footing of Sir Sydney Smith at Montague House, she suspected him to be the father of the child in question; but she admitted that she had never observed any impropriety in the conduct of the Princess towards him.

The deposition of Sir John Douglas was very short. The only material allegation in it was, that he swore the Princess appeared to him to be pregnant in 1802.

The evidence of these two parties was attempted to be sustained by that of several persons who had lived as servants with the Princess, from the time she had resided at Carlton House: most of their statements, however, were hostile to those of Sir John and Lady Douglas. Robert Bidgood, although he declared that he had observed some familiarities passing between the Princess and Captain Manby, swore that he never observed any appearance of the Princess which could lead him to suppose that she was with child. Charlotte Sander, a German female, who attended on the Princess as her dresser, swore that the child alluded to by Lady Douglas, was brought to her by a woman named Austin, whose husband worked in the dock-yard at Deptford. "The Princess," said she, "was not ill or indisposed in the autumn of 1802. She could not be ill or indisposed without my knowing it. I am sure that she was not confined to her room, or to her bed, in that autumn: there was not to my knowledge any other child in the house; it was hardly possible there could have been any other child there without my knowing it. I have no recollection that the Princess had grown bigger in the year 1802, than usual. I am sure that the Princess was not pregnant; being her dresser, I must have seen it if she was. I solemnly and positively swear, I have no reason to know or believe that the Princess of Wales has been at any time pregnant during

the time that I have lived with her at Montague House. I never heard any body say any thing about the Princess being pregnant till I came here to-day. I never had any reason to suppose that the Princess received the visits of any gentleman at improper hours." This witness also denied that Captain Manby had ever been with her Royal Highness at improper hours.

Frances Lloyd, another servant, bore testimony to the child having been brought to Montague House by its mother, whose name was Austin, and who cried at parting with it, and said she could not afford to keep it. A similar evidence was given by Mary Ann Wilson, who declared she never noticed the shape of the Princess in 1802 to be different from what it had been before. Thomas Stikeman, a page to the Princess, gave an account of the child having been brought by its mother, Mrs. Austin, and of the Princess never having the appearance of pregnancy. The same thing was stated by Sicard, her steward, and other witnesses; and, in short, a mass of evidence went clearly to prove that most of the statements of Lady Douglas were gross falsehoods. The delivery of Sophia Austin of her male child, William, in Brownlow-street hospital, was proved by her own and other evidence, as well as the registry of its baptism; and also its being taken under the protection of the Princess. There remained nothing then to be disproved except the statements made by some of the witnesses, of the Princess having been seen taking improper familiarities with Captain Manby and Sir Sydney Smith. Mrs. Fitzgerald, a companion of the Princess, positively contradicted one assertion made by Lady Douglas, and declared on oath, that Captain Manby had never been in company with the Princess at improper hours. Various exculpatory statements were also made by the medical gentlemen who attended the Princess.

Sir Sydney Smith was at the time of these examinations absent in the service of his country: but it has been reported, that, on his return to England, he had the honor of an inter

view with his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, at which he assured him, that whatever had been imputed to him (Sir Sydney) was an infamous falsehood.

After a careful investigation of the evidence, (of which we have given a digest,) the commissioners submitted the report (of which we subjoin an extract) to his Majesty, in which it will be seen, that although they exculpated her Royal Highness from the principal and most offensive of the charges brought against her, they expressed their disapprobation of her conduct in very devoted terms, and suggested to his Majesty to convey his reproof to her accordingly.

"We are happy to declare to your Majesty our perfect conviction that there is no foundation whatever for believing that the child now with the Princess is the child of her Royal Highness, or that she was delivered of any child in the year 1802; nor has any thing appeared to us which would warrant the belief that she was pregnant in that year or at any other period within the compass of our inquiries.

"The identity of the child, now with the Princess, its parentage, the place and the date of its birth, the time and the circumstances of its being first taken under her Royal Highness's protection, are all established by such a concurrence, both of positive and circumstantial evidence, as can, in our judgment, leave no question on this part of the subject. That child was, beyond all doubt, born in the Brownlow-street hospital, on the 11th day of July, 1802, of the body of Sophia Austin, and was first brought to the Princess's house in the month of November following. Neither should we be more warranted in expressing any doubt respecting the alleged pregnancy of the Princess, as stated in the original declarations -a fact so fully contradicted, and by so many witnesses, to whom, if true, it must, in various ways have been known, that we cannot think it entitled to the smallest credit. The testimonies on these two points are contained in the annexed depositions and letters. We have not partially abstracted them in this report, lest, by any unintentional

omission, we might weaken their effect; but we humbly offer to your Majesty, this our clear and unanimous judgment upon them, formed on full deliberation, and pronounced without hesitation on the result of the whole inquiry.

"We do not however feel ourselves at liberty, much as we should wish it, to close our report here. Besides the allegations of the pregnancy and delivery of the Princess, those declarations, on the whole of which your Majesty has been pleased to command us to inquire and report, contain, as we have already remarked, other particulars respecting the conduct of her Royal Highness, such as must, especially, considering her exalted rank and station, necessarily give occasion to very unfavourable interpretations.

"From the various depositions and proofs annexed to this report, particularly from the examinations of Robert Bidgood, William Cole, Frances Lloyd, and Mrs. Lisle, your Majesty will perceive that several strong circumstances of this description have been positively sworn to by witnesses, who cannot, in our judgment, be suspected of any unfavourable bias, and whose veracity, in this respect, we have seen no ground to question.

"On the precise bearing and effect of the facts thus appearing, it is not for us to decide; these we submit to your Majesty's wisdom: but we conceive it to be our duty to report on this part of the inquiry, as distinctly as on the former facts: that, as on the one hand, the facts of pregnancy and delivery are to our minds satisfactorily disproved, so on the other hand we think, that the circumstances to which we now refer, particularly those stated to have passed between her Royal Highness and Captain Manby, must be credited until they shall receive some decisive contradiction; and, if true, are justly entitled to the most serious consideration.

"We cannot close this report, without humbly assuring your Majesty, that it was, on every account, our anxious wish to have executed this delicate trust, with as little publicity as the nature of the case would possibly allow; and we entreat your Majesty's permission to express our full persuasion, that if