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ance usually afforded to all branches of the royal family, the refusal even of an answer to her application for a place of residence in the royal mansions, and the studied slights of foreign ministers abroad, and of the agents of all foreign powers over whom the English government had any influence, must be viewed as measures designed to prejudice the world against her, and could only have been justified by trial and conviction.'

Lord Castlereagh rose to move that the message might be taken into consideration, but protested against the attempt which had thus been made to represent the crown and the ministers in the light of persecutors or prosecutors in this matter. His Lordship observed, that instead of ballot, the committee should be by nomination. After commenting with much severity on the conduct of her Majesty's advisers, he observed, that Mr. Brougham had been in possession of the proceedings determined on more than a month. By her marriage settlement, the Queen was entitled to 50,000l. a-year. The only condition on which the late proposition had been made was, that she should continue to reside abroad. He positively disclaimed any tender having been made to her to give up her dignities as Queen. The only stipulation upon the question of her dignity was, that while travelling abroad, she should, according to an established custom amongst illustrious characters, assume such a title as could not create a perpetual question amongst our ministers at foreign courts, as to the manner in which she was to be treated by them. After his Lordship had moved for referring the papers to a secret committee, Mr. Brougham objected at great length to the evidence which was to be laid before the committee, consisting, as he said, entirely of papers of letters of anonymous letters collected by a secret commission at Milan, which had sat for ten months under the superintendance of a gentleman of the law, one of his Majesty's council. Mr. Brougham expatiated upon a variety of points connected with the subject, particularly upon numerous instances of nefarious conduct alleged to have been practised upon her Majesty on the con

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tinent; after which, Mr. Canning, in reply, complained that the dissent which the honorable and learned gentleman had shewn at St. Omer's to the proposition, had not been expressed before he left London. Mr. Canning justified the omission of her Majesty's name in the Liturgy. Mr. Brougham, in reply to Mr. Canning, declared that her Majesty had no more knowledge of the negociation alluded to than the child unborn. It is very extraordinary that this disclaimer on the part of the learned counsel has never yet been accounted for.

At the instance of Mr. Wilberforce, the House of Commons adjourned until Friday (June 9,) in order to offer an opportunity of coming to some arrangement which might tend to the adjustment of those unhappy differences which (as the amiable mover observed) all wise and good men so deeply deplored. On Friday, Lord Castlereagh moved the further adjournment of the business until Monday. On Monday, as it was understood some negociations were going forward, the consideration of the business was again delayed. Repeated postponements of these important proceedings were moved, and agreed to. On Monday, June 19th, the Earl of Liverpool announced the failure of the negociation, and laid upon the table a series of papers, the detail of the proceedings.

On the motion of Mr. Wilberforce, an address was presented to the Queen, strenuously recommending to her Majesty as much concession as the features of the case would admit, and entreating that as such "large advances had been made towards a negociation, her Majesty would yield to the earnest solicitude of the House of Commons, and forbear to press the adoption of those propositions on which any material difference of opinion rested." A slight amendment was proposed by Sir Francis Burdett, which was accordingly adopted; and Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Stuart Wortley, Sir Thomas Ac land, and Mr. Banks, were then deputed to wait upon the Queen with the address. It was accordingly presented in due form; but her Majesty declining to comply with its prayer, all hopes of a negociation were entirely at an end.

On Monday, the 26th, in the Upper House, Lord Dacre presented a petition from her Majesty, protesting against any secret enquiry, and praying to be heard by her counsel at the bar of their Lordships' House that day, upon the subject matter of the petition.

Agreeably with this prayer, her Majesty's counsel, Messrs. Brougham and Denman, were called in, and respectively heard at great length in support of the petition. The meeting of the secret committee was then, upon the motion of Lord Liverpool, deferred till Wednesday.

On July 5th, another petition was presented from the Queen, stating, that she was perfectly ready, at that moment, to enter upon her defence, on the charges against her, as far as she could understand them; and she begged to remind their Lordships that, as it would be absolutely necessary for her to have certain witnesses for her future defence, she wished to have the nature of the charges against her distinctly stated in the present stage of the proceedings. And, furthermore, her Majesty prayed to be heard at their Lordships' bar that evening by her counsel.

After some discussion, the question for calling counsel was put, and negatived without a division.

The Earl of Liverpool then rose for the purpose of introducing a bill, (of which the following is a copy,) founded upon the report of the secret committee. His Lordship's opinion was, that were they to retrace their steps, there was no other mode of proceeding than that which had been adopted. It was at least doubtful whether an impeachment could be sustained; the case could not be tried in the ecclesiastical courts, nor in the courts of law: a legislative proceeding, therefore, was all that remained; and, under all the circumstances of the case, he still thought it better that the proceedings should originate in that house, and that the bill should be brought forward on the report of a secret committee, rather than on the responsibility of ministers. It was not a question respecting an individual only; it was a great state question; and he did not feel that the course which had been adopted was in

any degree inconsistent with those principles of justice, which they had all an equal interest in maintaining. The essence of the charge was comprehended in the preamble of the bill. On the second reading, the time for which might be hereafter determined, it would be necessary to go to the proof. After some observations, in the hope that the accused might be able to disprove the charges, the bill was read by the clerk:

"An act, entitled an act for depriving Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, Queen of Great Britain, of and from the style and title of Queen of these realms, and of and from the rights, prerogatives, and immunities, now belonging to her as Queen Consort.'

"Whereas, in the year 1814, her Majesty, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, then Princess of Wales, and now Queen Consort of this realm, being at Milan, in Italy, engaged in her service, in a menial situation, one Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, a foreigner of low station, who had before served in a similar capacity.

"And whereas, after the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, had entered the service of her Royal Highness the said Princess of Wales, a most unbecoming and degrading intimacy commenced between her Royal Highness and the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami.

“And whereas her Royal Highness not only advanced the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, to a high station in her Royal Highness's household, and received into her service many of his relations, some of them in inferior, and others in high and confidential, situations about her Royal Highness's person, but bestowed upon him other great and extraordinary marks of favour and distinction; obtained for him orders of knighthood and titles of honor, and conferred upon him a pretended order of knighthood, which her Royal Highness had taken upon herself to institute without any just or lawful authority.

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"And whereas her said Royal Highness, whilst the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, was in

her said service, further unmindful of her exalted rank and station, and of her duty to your Majesty, and wholly regardless of her own honor and character, conducted herself towards the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, and in other respects, both in public and private, in the various places and countries which her Royal Highness visited, with indecent and offensive familiarity and freedom, and carried on a licentious, disgraceful, and adulterous intercourse with the said Bartolomo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomo Bergami, which continued for a long period of time during her Royal Highness's residence abroad, by which conduct of her said Royal Highness, great scandal and dishonor have been brought upon your Majesty's family and this kingdom. Therefore, to manifest our deep sense of such scandalous, disgraceful, and vicious conduct on the part of her said Majesty, by which she has violated the duty she owed to your Majesty, and has rendered herself unworthy of the exalted rank and station of Queen Consort of this realm; and to evince our just regard for the dignity of the Crown and the honor of the nation; we, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled, do hereby entreat your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that her said Majesty, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, from and after the passing of this act, shall be and is hereby deprived of the title of Queen, and of all the prerogatives, rights, privileges, and exemptions, appertaining to her as Queen Consort of this realm; and that her said Majesty shall, from and after the passing of this act, for ever be disabled and rendered incapable of using, exercising, and enjoying the same, or any of them; and moreover, that the marriage between his Majesty and the said Caroline Amelia Elizabeth be and the same is hereby from henceforth for ever wholly dissolved, annulled, and made void, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, whatsoever.'

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