STATE PAPERS. 



343 



«ir, to your daughter, and to your 

 people, if he counsels you to per- 

 mit a day to pass without a further 

 investigation of my conduct. I 

 know that no such calumniator 

 will venture to recommend a mea- 

 sure which must speedily end in 

 his utter confusion. Then let me 

 implore you to reflect on the situa- 

 tion in which I am placed without 

 the shadow of a charge against me 

 — without even an accuser — after 

 an inquiry that led to my ample 

 vindication — yet treated as if I were 

 still more culpable than the per- 

 juries of my suborned traducers re- 

 presented me, and held up to the 

 world as a mother who may not 

 €njoy the society of her only 

 child. 



*' The feelings, sir, which are 

 natural to my unexampled situa- 

 tion, might justify me in the gra- 

 cious judgment of your royal 

 highness, had I no other motives 

 for addressing you but such as re- 

 late to myself: but I will not dis- 

 guise from your royal highness 

 what I cannot for a moment con- 

 ceal from myself,— that the serious, 

 and it soon may be, the irreparable 

 injury which my daughter sustains 

 from the plan at present pursued, 

 has done more in overcoming my 

 reluctance to intrude upon your 

 royal highness, than any suffer- 

 ings of my own could accomplish ; 

 and if, for her sake, I presume to 

 call away your royal highness 

 from the other cares of )'our exalt- 

 ed station, I feel confident I am 

 not claiming it for a matter of in- 

 ferior importance either to yourself 

 or your people. 



♦' The powers with which the 

 constitution of these realms vests 

 your royal highness in the regula- 

 tion of the royal family, I know, 



because I am so advised, are ample 

 and unquestionable. My appeal, 

 sir, is made to your excellent sense 

 and liberality of mind in the exercise 

 of those powers ; and 1 willingly 

 hope, that your own parental feel- 

 ings will lead you to excuse the 

 anxiety of mine, for impelling me 

 to represent the unhappy conse- 

 quences which the present system 

 must entail upon our beloved 

 child. 



" Is it possible, sir, that any one 

 can have attempted to persuade 

 your royal highness, that her cha- 

 racter will not be injured by the 

 perpetual violence otFered to her 

 strongest affections — the studied 

 care taken to estrange her from 

 my society, and even to interrupt 

 all communication between us ? 

 That her love for me with whom, 

 by his majesty's wise and graci- 

 ous arrangements, she passed the 

 years of her infancy and childhood, 

 never can be extinguished, I well 

 know; and the knowledge of it 

 forms the greatest blessing of my 

 existence. But let me implore 

 your royal highness to reflect, 

 how inevitably all attempts to abate 

 this attachment, by forcibly se- 

 parating us, if they succeed, must 

 injure my child's principles — if 

 they fail must destroy her happi- 

 ness. 



«• The plan of excluding my 

 daughter from all intercourse with 

 the world, appears to my humble 

 judgment peculiarly unfortunate. 

 She who is destined to be the so- 

 vereign of this great country, en- 

 joys none of those advantages of 

 society which are deemed neces- 

 sary for imparting a knowledge of 

 mankind to persons who have in- 

 finitely less occasion to learn that 

 imt>ortant -lesson ; and it mays* 



