JET. 36.] AND THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. 225 



demand of your Koyal Highness what circumstances 

 can justify the proceeding you have thus thought fit 

 to adopt ? 



" I owe it to myself, to my daughter, and to the 

 nation, to which I am deeply indebted for the vindi- 

 cation of my honour, to remind your Royal High- 

 ness of what you know, that after open persecution 

 and mysterious inquiries upon undefined charges, the 

 malice of my enemies fell entirely upon themselves ; 

 and that after the first I was restored by the King, 

 with the advice of his ministers, to the full enjoyment 

 of my rank in his Court upon my complete acquittal. 



" Since his Majesty's lamented illness, I have de- 

 manded, in the face of Parliament and the country, to 

 be proved guilty, or to be treated as innocent. I have 

 been declared what I am innocent. 



" I will not submit to be treated as guilty. 



" Your Royal Highness may possibly refuse to read 

 this letter; but the world must know that I have 

 written it ; and they will see my real motives for fore- 

 going in this instance the rights of my rank. 



" Occasions, however, may arise (one, I trust, is far 

 distant) when I must appear in public, and your Royal 

 Highness must be present also. 



" Can your Royal Highness have contemplated the 

 full extent of your declaration ? Has your Royal 

 Highness forgotten the approaching marriage of our 

 daughter, and the possibility of our coronation ? 



" I waive my rights in a case where I am not ab- 

 solutely bound to assert them, in order to relieve the 

 Queen as far as I can from the painful situation in 

 which she is placed by your Royal Highness ; not from 

 any consciousness of blame, not from any doubt of the 



VOL. II. P 



