Italian nobility, and sometimes even with Italian commonalty. But who are they that bring this charge? It is not for your Lordships to do so. You are the last persons in the world who should talk of this. You are the witnesses whom I have to call to vindicate her Majesty from that charge, While here, the Princess of Wales courteously opened the doors of her palace to the families of the Peers of England; she condescended to mix with those virtuous persons; she condescended to court your society and so long as your associating with her could second views which were not her views-so long as interests (which were not her interests) could be promoted thereby, she did not court it in vain. But when the lust of place and power, of which she was the instrument and the victim, saw that it was to be gratified elsewhere, she courted your company in vain. It was then that Peers and Peeresses, whom she had condescended to court, deserted her, In the midst of the injury thus heaped upon her, she still had one support in the undiminished respect and affection of her much loved, and revered, and lamented daughter. But when the marriage of that daughter was contemplated; when all England, was occupied with this subject which so much concerned it; the only person to whom it was not announced was the mother! All she had done to merit this neglect was, that she, by the evidence which he had brought against her, had been proved to be innocent of the crime with which he had charged her. When that marriage actually took place, it was only known to the mother of the Princess Charlotte by a courier sent to announce the union to the Pope-that ancient, and valued, and faithful ally of the Protestant succession. A fatal event then happened, which was communicated to the Allied Powers who might sympathize in it, and powers not allied to us, by special messengers. But the person who had the most interest in the event was left to have her feelings stunned and overwhelmed, by hearing by accident of the death, as she had heard of the marriage, of her daughter. The decease of the Princess Charlotte of Wales was only signified to her mother by the issuing of the Milan Commission See the unhappy fate of this Illustrious Woman! Her it has been always to lose her surest stay rest stay when the greatest dan gers threatened and hardly has there been one loss which she has sustained, which has not been the signal for an attack upon her existence! Mr Pitt, her first defender and early friend in this country, died in 1806; few weeks elapsed before a charge of treason was made against her. Mr Pitt left her as a legacy to Mr Percival Mr Percival was her firm, able, and undaunted advocate. No sooner had Mr

even

to

Percival fallen by the hand of an assassin, than she felt it by the renewal of the attacks which his gallantry and uncommon constancy had dissipated. Mr Whitbread was then her defender; when that catas trophe occurred, which good men of all parties lamented, she then heard the distant rumbling of another storm, which did not then approach her, for her daughter stood her friend, and the world then worshipped the rising sun. When that daughter died, all that storm which had been gathering burst on her head by the appointment of the Milan Commission. And, as if no day of loss to my Illustrious Client could pass without some act in the drama against her, the day in which her constant friend and our late revered Sovereign was laid in the earth, that same sun ushered the ringleader of the band of perjured witnesses into the palace of her consort.—Mr Brougham then adverted to the palpable falsehood of the witnesses for the prose cution. His Learned Friend had first stated that he would bring forward witnesses to prove her Majesty's misconduct down to the present time, and then he produces witnesses who swear to her misconduct to within three years of the present time. Then at Naples his Learned Friend had stated, and he prayed their Lordships' attention to this, he should show there were decisive marks of two persons having slept in the bed. Upon her return from the opera, said he, she went to Bergami's bedroom, and was inaccessible on the following day. Every one of these facts, as stated in succession, rises in importance one above the other; and every one of which he not only fails to prove, but is actually negatived by the witness brought to support them. Demont, who swears to nothing decisive, denies she knew at what hour the Princess returned-denies she knew where Bergami slept, and says that her Majesty was up the following day at her usual hour. He came next to the masquerade. She did not go in her own state coach, with bedizened trappings, with all the pomp of a princess: she went in a hired carriage, says he, without the Royal Arms painted on the pannels; and she actually went out at the back door, instead of going by the front, and displaying to the world the great feat she was about to accomplish. He (Mr Brougham) wondered he had not added that she disguised herself in a domino. Then, says his Learned Friend, I am instructed to state that the dress of the Queen was most indecent and disgusting, and so much so that she was hooted from the public theatre. The witness, however, only said that her dress was exceedingly ugly, and that she wore an ugly masqke.-The Attorney-General had said, that at Messina the Queen and Bergami were locked up together at night in the same bed-room;

and that at Zavouna, on the 12th of April, the only access to her bed-room was from his. The witness, however, only swore to one of these facts. His Learned Friend had said, that she remained a very considerable time in the room with Bergami, during which they were heard kissing each other. He (Mr Brougham) had no doubt his Learned Friend had this fact in his paper, but he had it nowhere else. A courier, he said, who returned from Milan, would prove, that upon his entrance Bergami came from the Queen's room-that he was confused, and explained the reason of his having been there, saying he had heard his child cry, and had gone to see what was the matter with it. Sacchi not only does not speak of such a thing, but denies it as strongly as a man can deny any thing, by denying all recollection whatever of it. Mr Brougham then observed upon the statement of his Majesty's Attorney-General, that no respectable person had kept company with the Queen, and asked how he had forgotten Lady Charlotte Lindsay's joining her after all this shocking conduct, also Lady Campbell, &c. She was courteously received by the legitimate, (so far as descent can legitimize,) by the legitimate Duke of Baden; she was also not only received but courted by the legitimate Stewarts of Sardinia, who were, according to some persons, more legitimate than the Brunswicks. Now her Majesty was not only thus received by these Princes, but by a Sovereign, whose legitimacy was, if the lapse of ages gave legitimacy, more legitimate than his Excellency the Bey of Tunis. She was also received by the Representative of the British Nation at Constantinople. In short, everywhere, and on all occasions, she was received by persons of the first distinction. Suffer me now, my Lords, the indulgence to look a little more narrowly at the case opened by the Attorney-General, and which has not been proved by him. The first thing worth remarking, which must have struck your Lordships, was, that it was marvellous, with all the means which the other side possessed, they had not only fallen short of the case which was opened, but short of any foundation for the charges against her Majesty. The parties are said not only to have used no caution, but to have cautiously used every means of discovery on themselves which their most malignant adversary could wish for. In proportion as the acts alleged are criminal, in the same proportion are the witnesses numerous and their opportunities good. In short, unless human nature is altered, no human beings could have acted as her Majesty and Bergami are said to have done. They are asserted to have several times saluted; but a kiss never occurs without care being taken that witnesses should be present. One of the

The

witnesses at Naples had left the rooin, and they wait until he returns, before they em brace. At Terracina they retire into a room, but not alone, and they wait until Majocchi enters before the familiarity takes place. They are seen sitting close together on a gun on the deck of a vessel; this is an act of a still higher colour, and it is there fore stated to be done in the presence of eleven persons; but when they are sitting in such a manner as to leave nothing to the imagination, this occurs in presence of all passengers and crew, and in the height of open daylight-But the case is not left here. The parties are nothing less than the allies of their accusers. So far is this done, that Bergami cannot retire into a room with the Princess to change their dres ses, to strip themselves from head to foot, but the honest Swiss waiting-maid is placed at the door, and told what they are going to do, and that she is to remain there until their purposes are accomplished. Was ever vice so unwary, was ever such folly exhibited, was ever passion so unmasked? Even when the blood was boiling in youth, was there ever beings so recklessly so insanely regardless of every consideration that belongs to human nature? Queen comes to England and confronts the witnesess which are brought against her, notwithstanding the threats with which she was overwhelmed, and refused every offer to compromise her honour. He (Mr B.) had read human nature very erroneously if these were not the symptoms of innocence unsuspected. First, what was the description of evidence brought forward? Servants who had lived for years in her Majesty's service; servants who had been well tutored abroad, and then were brought to this country, to which they might never return, and to speak before a tribunal of which they were unacquainted, and from which they had no reason to dread any thing, and in a country where they had no character at stake. These were the very persons conspirators would employ. foreigners are not made of these materials; but if there was one nation more adapted to such a plot than another, he was convinced it was the country of Augustus, where it was proverbial that evidence could always be procured for money from among the lower classes in Italy. You remember the Attorney-General opened his case with the description of a dancer; and endea voured to illustrate an exhibition the most brutal and humiliating to human nature. He describes the most indecent attitudes. I will show you how the Attorney-General knew this to be most important. After an interval of three or four days, he brings others to prove what the first witnesses had not swore. This ought to speak volumes against the evidence. Majocchi's general answer was, (you all know,) Non mi ricordo,

All

when questioned as to the attitudes of this dancer he had not seen, or did not remember. The Solicitor-General asked, Did he use any part of his dress?' Answer, No. Again, Did he move his trowsers?" Majocchi says his trowsers were always in the same state. Here, my Lords, was no shadow of proof. My Lords, I tell you plainly, that this dance has been witnessed by wives and daughters, as modest, virtuous, and unspotted, as any your Lordships are acquainted with. He next called the attention of their Lordships to the general nature of the testimony for the support of the Bill. Instead of witnesses being called to prove what the Attorney-General had dwelt upon with so much empha sis in his opening speech-instead of the ladies, who, as he had insinuated, had left the service of the Queen in consequence of the impropriety of conduct evinced by her Majesty, he, lest they should form a strange contrast with every witness brought forward for his case, with the exception of only two, omitted to

he alleged he had no watch. Mr. Brough am next exposed, his shuffling with respect to the money he had received, and showed that the facts he was swearing to could not have existed, or he must have remembered better what he had stated at Milan, from which the Attorney-General had stated, that he heard Bergami kissing the Queen, while Majocchi only swore he heard them whis pering. Mr Brougham next exposed the absurdity of his testimony, in swearing that the Queen went through his room on her way to that of Bergami, when she might have gone another way, by which she might have escaped detection, while her going through the room in which he (Majocchi) was sleeping, in a bed without curtains, and to whose eyes she held a candle, rendered detection and exposure inevitable. What he swore respecting his leaving her Royal Highness's service must be gross perjury; for he said, in one breath, that he would rather eat the grass than live in a house such as the Princess's; and in the next,

character

t

left this Princess, on whose 10 imputation had been, or could be cast, and them he had left to the defence. If the case was closed here-if he brought forward no witnesses to rebut the testimony for the Billcould their Lordships pass it? He thought not. Mr Brougham then, at one o'clock, expressed wish their Lordships would allow

his him

some

back, on his own admission, once; and when asked, had he not often applied, shis answer was-Non mi ricordo. Mr Brougham then passed to the Master and Mate of the polacre, who, he said, were the best paid witnesses, or even Italians, on record, and went on to show that the suns which they got for compensation far exceeded the income of the Italian nobility of the first

of

and to take some refreshment. After having been absent for an hour, he resumed He defied the wit of man to conceive cases of more flagrant perjury than those to be found in the evidence of Majoc. chi. In answer to the Attorney-General's questions, he stated that the room of Bergami was near and communicating with that of her Majesty, while those of the rest of the suite were distant, and apart; yet he is asked, on his cross-examination, where these other rooms were, he says he does not remember. As another sample of his veracity, Mr Brougham referred to his evidence respecting the positions of the rooms at the Villa d'Este, which he read, and demonstrated its inconsistency, observing that it w was by much the safest way to build a conspiracy on a foundation of facts, which, with little address, and a good deal of drilling, might endanger the life of an honest man, or the honour of an Illustrious Princess. As further evidence of Majocchi's perjury, Mr Brougham enumerated the instances in which his recollection was so precise as to enable him to state, to the very minute, the time at which any fact occurred, while under the examination of the Attorney-General: but on his cross-examination he could not even state how many hours at night they used to travel. In excuse for which forgetfulness

stated to be the annual profits of the Mate's vessel, which at Naples was equal to L. 16,000 or L. 20,000 in England and this was what no ship-owner in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies was worth. But the evidence of the Captain evidently proceeded from spite, as well as from the hope of reward. It was bottomed in revenge; for he had quarrelled with Bergami about not receiving 1-1300, which he said had been promised him; and the only knowledge which the prosecutor in this case had of the witness was, that he made a claim upon the government of this country for that L. 1300. Mr Brougham then pointed out the contradiction between the testimony of the Master and Mate, respecting her Royal Highness being seen sitting on the gun, and Bergami and she kissing; and dwelt upon that part of the Master's evidence where he says, that on seeing the Princess and Bergami leaning together over the side of the vessel, he had sent away the crew to another part of the ship, lest they might witness this familiarity He wished to remind their Lordships what kind of a person Madame Demont describ ed herself to be; he wished to take her own account. She said she was the enemy of mankind; she did not like mankind in the abstract. She had, however, formed an attachment to one man-an Italian

Gentleman she called him; she would not call him a servant. She loved sweet liberty, and to its pursuit this mountain nymph had devoted herself. She has a talent for telling a story, and it was her constant practice to deal in double entendres, so that it is impossible to arrive at her meaning. The whole universe believed her testimony to be false, and he hoped their Lordships would not prove an exception to all the rest of mankind. One thing he forgot to mention, was the affection Madame Demont had expressed for her sister, who was just coming into the world at the innocent age of fifteen, and she did all in her power to obtain a situation for that sister; a situation, if her own account is to be credited, the most unfit for any virtuous person, especially for Madame Demont's own sister. Here he reverted to the evidence of Sacchi a servant, an Italian, a courier, who pretends to be a gentleman, and says, "Thank God, he has always been independent." Indeed, my Lords, allowing that this man had received a pair of colours, this does not prove the Italians in the French army to be of a very scrupulous character. He went by three names, two of which we only know. When he first came here, he commenced double entendres. He also said he was in the service of a respectable Spanish family, and that he intended to commence a law-suit against her. Now, my Lords, I take leave to ask, how he has procured the place he now holds with a servant attending him. We must suppose he gets his money, not in a very creditable way, and that he is paid by some unknown party.-On asking him why did he change his name, he answered, account of the tumult;" happily, he does not recollect that he came over to this country in the year 1819, and that the tumult did not happen till the year 1820. The Attorney-General very properly did not press him further on this point. But Mr Brougham then proceeded to comment on the improbability of the facts sworn to by Sacchi on his drawing aside the curtains of the carriage. He asked what would be thought if he proved that carriage was an English carriage, with spring blinds, which Sacchi could not raise without putting his hands through the window. Sacchi was asked whether any person beside the Queen and Bergami was in the carriage, and for that question he provided the device of his celebrated predecessor-Majocchi, Non mi ricordo. Mr Brougham remarked on the improbability of this forgetfulness, but said it should not cover the gentleman, for he would prove there was a third person in the carriage. After remarking on some other parts of Sacchi's evidence, the House adjourned; it being four o'clock.

there was an extraordinary want of talents in the deputies who were employed to procure witnesses? In the whole of the Helvetic League, but a single witness, a waiting maid, could be found. In all the circles of Germany, there was also but one witness discovered, and she was the waiter, or cel, lar-maid, or servant of the waiter at an inn. In the capital of Germany no witness was obtained. Mr Brougham then commented with great ability on the evidence of Krantz. If there was a want of witnesses from Germany, there was no want of agents there to procure them; neither did these agents want resources, activity, or industry. I feel satisfaction, however, my Lords, in adding, that they were all German agents, and that not a single British subject is to be found among them. I introduce fearlessly to your Lordships the Baron Rhaden, the Minister of Wirtemberg, whose throne was filled by a Princess Royal of England. He had heard the Queen was about to arrive, and he most courteously gave up his own apartments, from which, as soon as he separated, the Queen took possession of them; and the moment she departed from them he returned, and set about examining everything; "running everywhere," to use Barbara Krantz's expression, looking into the sheets, and taking notes of what had passed, to please those who, I know and feel, were about sending him on such a duty. Yet he does not condescend to come forward as a witness; he does not show the same boldness in degrading himself before your Lordships, as when he degraded himself and his sovereign before the world. But his absence is of paramount importance, as there is no witness produced to support his story but Barbara Krantz. Let us pursue the testimony of this only witness. She tells you she was brought over by compulsion, and at the same time she made her bargain for her loss of time. Your Lordships sce in her evidence with what reluctance the amount of the compensation she had received was wrung from her. *Were you examined before? Yes: at Hanover. What had you for going there? It was so little I can't recollect. It was little-very little."-page 193. Why the less it was the more easily remembered. But this nothing turned out to be a larger sum by five times than the amount of her wages what if it was ten times greater? No man, in the employment of his plain understanding, will pretend to say he can believe this woman, who says she expects nothing in future! when her expectations must be measured by the past. I before observed to your Lordships, that the Ambassador is not here-there are others also not here. There are other persons belonging to the Queen's suite, whose absence I shall have to observe is most important. But let us

on

Oct. 4. Mr Brougham proceeded nearly as follows: My Lords, How comes it that

again cross the Alps. Except those I have mentioned, the other witnesses were mere ly make-weights. The character and nature of these were of the lowest class of society-some of them even degraded-whose testimony, after all the pains bestowed upon them, there was a total failure to clothe with the appearance of probability. Rastelli, who swears to the greatest abomination having been practised in the open face of day, had his lips practically sealed, never to be opened but before the Milan Commission, though belonging to a class of men who are appointed as gossips by their sta tion. Was it possible for the Princess of Wales to be sailing on the Lake of Como, or riding in the open face of day with her servant, in situations which no person could look at without a blush? He never did conceal it. He might have concealed it till he had hatched the story, but he kept it secret no longer than the commission at Milan demanded it, and rewarded him for his invention. Do your Lordships remember a wretch who kept the inn at Carlsrhue? Do your Lordships recollect his physiognomy; the damnable expression of his eye; the brutal passions pourtrayed by that mouth? Do your Lordships re collect the damnable eye of that old lecher? Him I recollect perfectly. He shall not go without punishment; he shall not escape without receiving the reward due to his villany. I have him here. There are many others who may escape without punishment; many who have sworn falsely-but him I will prevent. The Learned Gentleman here explained the horrible falsehoods of which this witness had been guilty. And then, with great ability, went over the fabrications of Demont, &c. respecting Naples. He next reminded their Lordships there were two witnesses who were not both called, though it was open to the Attorney-General to call them -the two maids who slept in the room next to the Queen.-Perhaps in the sister of Demont she is harbouring this moment a second viper. I shall present her to your Lordships, assuring you that it is perfectly gratuitous on her part; and in order to prevent any person from supposing that there exists a witness we dare not call. My Lords, I am told that Bergami was promoted from an humble sphere of life, and that his promotion is a just cause of suspicion. I should be sorry, my Lords, ever to see the day when, in this free country, deserved promotion would become a cause of suspicion. Let me observe, however, that the rapidity with which Bergami was promoted has been greatly exaggerated, and that it took place in a manner which could not have proceeded from love. My Lords, he was promoted, not from affection, but for merit. He was, as you will find, not, as has been asserted, of low origin; his fa

ther was what is called a considerable proprietor in the North of Italy; he had, however, the misfortune to get into difficulties-a misfortune, my Lords, which has befallen many honourable men, and his son sold his estates to pay his father's debts. Bergami was thus reduced; but he was a reduced gentleman; as such, too, he was considered and treated by all who knew him. When in General Pino's service, he dined at the General's table, while the latter was Commandant of Milan. During the Spanish campaign he was highly respected and esteemed he was encouraged, because they knew his former pretensions and his present merits. When he was hired he was proposed by a nobleman în the Austrian service as courier to the Queen, and was hired by her chamberlain without the knowledge of her Majesty.-. Mr Brougham then read a letter of the late King's to his daughter-in-law, then Princess of Wales, upon the subject of the charges then brought against her. The Learned Gentleman then read the celebrated Letter from the Prince of Wales to the Princess, in which he promised her tranquillity. I do not, he continued, call it a letter of licence, as it has been called, but I call it such an epistle as must have rendered it matter of great wonder to the person who received it, that her conduct should afterwards have been made the subject of such unscrupulous and unsparing scrutiny. Mr Brougham concluded his speech by the following eloquent appeal to their Lordships, which was delivered with corresponding animation." My Lords, I pray your Lordships to pause! You, my Lords, are standing on the brink of a dreadful precipice; your judgment will go forth to the world; if that judgment is against the Queen, it may be the last and only judgment you will ever pronounce! That judgment, my Lords, will fail in its object, and it will return with redoubled violence on those who give it! Save the country, my Lords, from the heaviest calamity of a civil war! Save yourselves, my Lords, from the situation in which you are now standing! Rescue that country of which you are the ornament, but in which you can flourish no longer when severed from the people, than can the blossom when it is cut off from the root and stem of the tree! Save that country, my Lords, that you may continue to be the ornament of it! Save the crown which is in jeopardy, and the aristocracy, which is shaken, as is also the altar itself, which never more can stand secure! If your judgment be against the Queen, it will shake to the foundation the kindred throne! You, my Lords, have willed, the Church and Crown have willed, that the Queen shall be left out of the solemn service, but she has had the prayers of the people; and, my Lords,