the Princess walk down the gravel walk (at Ramsgate) towards the sea with a tall man, at the time when Capt. Manby's ship lay off the downs. A woman at Charlton had washed some linen from the Princess's house, and thought it was marked with the appearance of a miscarriage.--This evidence never told Cole, that Mary Wilson had found a man at breakfast in the bed-room with the Princess, or that he was sworn to secrecy; or she would be turned away if she divulged what she had seen.

Mary Ann Wilson, the housemaid's evidence, exonerates the Princess from all suspicion; and Sam. Roberts, the footman, does the same. He never knew Sir Sir Sydney stay late, or remain with the Princess.

Thomas Stikeman, page to her Royal Highness, details the usual particulars as to the child, and says that he has seen the Princess and Sir Sidney sitting on the sofa, but access was to be had to the blue room at all times. He never knew the Princess's conduct was questioned, or questionable. At Ramsgate he never suspected any think improper from the frequent visits of Capt. Manby or from his conduct. He had seen the Princess ride out with Mr. Hood, once or twice, but never remembers Mr. Lawrence to sleep there.

duct of the Princess " any thing which could make her uncasy had she been her husband." Her evidence equally places Captain Manby, Sir Sidney, and Mr. Hood, out of suspicion of being friends improperly acquainted with her Royal Highness.-Harriet Fitzgerald, the companion of the Princess, details amiable traits of the Princess's goodness in the protection of two boys she placed under Capt. Manby's care, clears the before named gentsemen of suspicion, and pointedly contra dicts a statement advanced by Lady Douglas when she lay in was brought to bed.

Robert Bidgood in a farther Deposition, details more circumstances in confirmation of his former evidence, and says when Capt. Manby was at Southend, the Princess's behaviour to him was like that of a woman attached to a man; that when he suspected the Capt. slept at the Princess's, he has seen towels and water-jugs set out opposite the Princess's door in the passage; that she would always put out the candle herself, and that the servants used to talk and laugh about Capt. Manby.

the

men who came to visit her. Capt. Manby and Mr. Lawrence deny, on their solemn oath, the circumstances sworn to by Bidgood and Cole; Sir Sidney is at present abroad.

Lady Douglas's statement, detailing the first of her becoming acquainted with the Princess, and the latter's confession of her criminality, her disgusting wantonness, and plans to avoid lying-in with out detection, bear evident marks of absurdity and contradiction on the face of them.-We shall in our short limits notice but one. Lady Douglas had stated, that in May or June, 1802, the Princess came to her house, and informed her that she was pregnant, and that the child had come to life; that, as she was at breakfast at Lady Willoughby's, a few days before, the milk had flowed up to her breast, and came thro' her gown; that she threw a nap'kin over herself, and went with Lady Willoughby into her room, to prevent its being observed. This singular event is completely refuted by Lady Willoughby's declaration, and puts a negative upon all that Lady D. has advanced respecting the pregnancy of the Princess; and if the pregnancy he completely refuted, so ununblushingly maintained by Lady D. in her disgusting narrative, the minor parts of this malevolent farce become but airy vapours, floating in the brain of the accusing parties.

The Defence of the Princess is ably written by the late Mr. Perceval, and is most decisive and satisfactory. It appears that Cole had four times given evidence voluntarily, and each time much varied the complexion of

his evidence; that Bidgood held communication with Lady Douglas; that the tall man seen in the garden at night to enter her house was her Highness's watchman; that her walking down the gravel walk at Ramsgate with a Captain Manby, early in the morning, was in consequence of an appointment for an early water-party; that her placing the honour and her life in the power of Lady Douglas, was as improbable as absurd; that, as her ser vants were chiefly of the Prince of Wales's appointment, her removing of Cole to Carleton House from her own residence, on account of his obtrusive behaviour, was placing herself in the vortex of danger, had she felt any con, sciousness of fear. Her Highness complains of the evidence against her being only heard, and of the questions put to them being calculated to draw answers productive of unfair inferences, and affirms that all her communications with the gentlemen before spoken of were reproachless and unconcealed.

In short, the Defence of her Royal Highness is a complete answer to the calumnies fabricated against her, and we rejoice that she did not live in the time of that eminent Reformer Henry the Eighth, whose lust would have used force, when he found the plan of subornation fail.-— Like gold, she has appeared more amiable from the fiery ordeal, nor has the Commissioners' insinuation, that, the infamous stories of some of the evidence" deserve credit till decisively con tradicted," had any weight with the nation, since the case has been fully developed.

T. P.

Catholic Question..

MR. PALMER, WHEN those fallacious hopes were held out towards the close of the late year, which rumour offered to the greedy curiosity of the public, regarding the Catholics, and the views of the Ministry towards them, the writings of your journal were employed in examining the probability of removing the disabilities and the conditions upon which emancipation would be offered, if it were to be offered at all.

I felt very little disposition to believe that there was any thing of reality in those rumours, and, at any rate, that it was not reasonable to expect that a government, selfish of its privileges, jealous of its power, and suspicious of its defects, would ever willingly relinquish its monopoly. While these rumours were yet ringing in the public ear, other sounds were heard from the trumpet of report, that breathed "lamentation, and mourning, and woe." It was given out that out of a family celebrated at once for their official success, and their protesting, Catholic hating zeal, one was to hold a place in the ministry, and another, not yet initiated into VOL. II.-No. XII.

the lucre or the intrigue of state business, was to perform his first probationary essay, in a reply to the opening speech, when the Parliament should be convoked. The wiliness of English polities necessarily keeps alive upon all questions of oppression. Craft,delusion, and secrecy, are scarcely ever found engaged in the pur poses of freedom or virtue. Wisdom, as it confides in the ultimate and beneficent result, has no disposition for colouring or masking. the intervening circumstances. A government managed under the first dispensation may excite dread and astonishment, by its most insignificant movement; confidence and respect can only follow the last. There is an intermediate state which best represents our political condition; it is where a government, from its previous success and glory, is able to dazzle the public view, and excite hopes, which its secret inclinings are not in the least bent towards realizing, and of which the fulfilment is prohibited by its organization. Such is precisely the relation that exists between the Catholics and the government. It is one however, which will not endure; a year or two more will convince them that rumours ought not to affect B