GENERAL HISTORY. 



[2J 



circumstance of the life and de- 

 meanor of the princess of Wales, 

 since her arrival in this country. 

 Did the noble lord know of this ? 

 Did the lord-chancellor know of 

 it i If not, who are the secret ad- 

 visers of the Prince Regent ? Mr. 

 Whitbread then desired to call the 

 attention of the House to another 

 circumstance. IntheMorningPost 

 and Morning Herald of last Satur- 

 day were published the depositions 

 of lady Douglas, In the latter of 

 these papers, edited by a rev. gen- 

 tleman who had lately been distin- 

 guished by honours and church 

 preferments, after these deposi- 

 tions, followed a train of disgusting 

 and atrocious documents,thefalse- 

 hood of which is known and ac- 

 knowledged, and which have been 

 put into the shape of a volume 

 bearing the name of the late Mr. 

 Perceval, by whom the press is 

 said to have been corrected. That 

 right hon. gentleman thought, that 

 for the sake of the princess's justi- 

 fication it was necessary to submit 

 these details to the public, and con- 

 sequently prepared a comment to 

 expose the falsehood of the story 

 and the villainy of those by whom 

 it had been raised ; but now that 

 he is dead, and her royal highness 

 has been declared innocent by two 

 cabinetSjtheseindecentstatements 

 are given to the public eye. After 

 some further obsers'ations on tlie 

 hardships to which the princess was 

 subjected, Mr. Whitbreadproceed- 

 fd (o say,that having been inform- 

 ed that a prosecution for perjury 

 would not lie, or that it would be 

 impossible to produce such legal 

 proof as would amount to a con- 

 viction, he should forego his in- 

 tended (notion for prosecuting sir 

 John and lady Douglas ; but he 



would state to the House reasons 

 to show that some step must be 

 adopted to bring the matter to 

 issue. Of the remainder of the 

 lion, gentleman's speech it is im- 

 possible to give an intelligible 

 abridgment in our allotted com- 

 pass ; we shall therefore only no- 

 tice some of the most remarkable 

 circumstances of the debate, and 

 its final result. Mr. Whitbread 

 was led, in tlie course of discussion, 

 to take a view of the evidence 

 against the princess of Wales, as 

 it had been published, and also, as 

 it appeared in a paper which had 

 been put into his hands that morn- 

 ing, professing to contain an au- 

 thentic copy of the examination of 

 Mrs. Lisle, a respectable lady who 

 had been long about the princess's 

 person. On this he made several 

 free strictures, tending to show, 

 that if the questions put to her had 

 appeared, the answerswould often 

 have borne a different aspect. In 

 fine, after solemnly calling upon 

 that house, the representatives of 

 the people of England, to become 

 the protectors of an innocent, tra- 

 duced, and defenceless stranger, 

 he moved the following resolution: 

 " That an humble address be pre- 

 sented to his royal highness the 

 Prince Regent, expressive of the 

 deep concern and indignation with 

 which this House has seen publi- 

 cations so insulting to the honour 

 and dignity of his majesty's royal 

 family, so oftensive to decency and 

 good morals, and so painful to the 

 feelings of all his majesty's loyal 

 subjects ; and that this House 

 humbly requests that his royal 

 highness will give directions that 

 proper measures may be taken to 

 discoverand bring to justice all tl'c 

 persons concerned >« committmg 



