This is the natural character of a successful, ambitious, and immoral man, who has risen from a low estate. The contrary is a proof of moral virtue. It is the strongest evidence in your favour, Madam, that Bergami was well qualified for the high office to which you advanced him, and that your discrimination was virtuous and noble. It is further much to be desired by all your friends, that Bergami and his whole family should be naturalized in this country, and enjoy the reward of their fidelity and honesty, either in your household or in some other employment. Your enemies may sneer at this, but it is not for you to consult their dispositions for a moment. Follow that same course you would have done if no charge whatever had been brought against you, and you will best maintain your own integrity and convince us of your innocence. If a man was falsely charged with being a pickpocket, it would become no fair reason why he should confine himself at home out of fear of further suspicion. The most open and determined conduct on your part will best carry you over the machinations of your enemies: whilst reserve will increase suspicion and give force to their slander. Your visit to the Metropolitan Temple was a well judged act, and it would be prudent that you should occasionally give the inhabitants of the metropolis a holiday, and enjoy their congratulations. It becomes daggers to your enemies and strength to your and the peoples cause. What must your husband have felt, peeping through one of the gloomy windows of Carlton Palace, to see you pass surrounded by as many people as could throng together in the public streets, without a drawn sword for your safeguard, but confiding in the honest courage, zeal, and congratulations of the independent part of those he calls his subjects. He never did, nor never will enjoy such a reception himself. He never yet moved in any procession, but he received more hissing and hooting than applause! You have done wisely in making Alderman Wood your confidant; cherish him and he will display to you what is the effect of the genuine support of the people. Alderman Wood is the only man you can rely upon, of all those who more immediately move in your presence, as a man who stands firm and well in the good opinion of the great body of the people. His professions are not quite so loud as some who seek the public approbation, but he is not a jot the less sincere and useful in his endeavours to do his best. His visit to you at St. Omers is a noble trait in his character. They are but few in the aristocratical part of the community, who would havé urged

you in spite of all intrigue to the English shore, and have given up their house for your reception. Your lawyer, Brougham, would have gladly urged your return to Italy, and then have come to London and paid his homage to the King for the service he had done him. He would have sold your honour and your future happiness, without doubt, had not your native courage, supported by your conscious innocence, and accompanied by the presence of Alderman Wood, urged you to the combat with your enemies. In his character of Attorney General, he might have done much more for you than he has done: be displayed a visible reluctance to state his case fairly, and seemed rather to defend the conduct of your persecutors than your own as his client. Such a man is a mass of sophistry, and his abilities are like those of many others in a lower, but not less honest, sphere in London, whose first desire is to prey upon the incaution and delusion of others. But do not lose sight of this grand maxim, which with a few slight exceptions so far, you have well followed that the great body of the people are your best guards: their advice will prove them to be your most able lawyers; they will act without a fee for you, and you may rely upon it, that as the fruitful soil nourishes every living substance, so will the people nourish, protect, and cherish you as their Queen, as long as you identify yourself with their interest.

Praise is particularly due to Lady Ann Hamilton for the. firm adherence she has shewn your Majesty, and I rejoice to see the various public meetings mindful of a vote of thanks for her amiable and admirable conduct. Some of our squeamish aristocratical titled ladies would have affected horror to have stood by you under such a mass of slander, but Lady Ann Hamilton has shewn them in what true virtue consists. It does not consist in affectation, or in intrigue and coquetry, but it does consist in protecting a slan. dered and injured female, and assisting her to display to the world her innocence and the guilt of her accusers. Let us consider for a moment how unpleasant, how forlorn, would your situation have been in returning to this country had it not been for the generous assistance and hospitality of Alderman Wood and Lady Ann Hamilton. But for their kind attentions, your Majesty might have had to take up your abode at an hotel in your own country, and under such circumstances you would have found your enemies assuming quite a different tone to what they have done. To Lady Ann Hamilton and Alderman Wood we are indebted for all

the good you have been able to do for this country, and I shall cherish the hope that you may sway the sceptre, and that the friends of your need may enjoy the reward due to their unshaken firmness and constancy. Alderman Wood has capped the climax of his integrity by the well-timed attentions he has paid your Majesty: his honour and good fame now stands on a pinnacle, whose base cannot be shaken by faction or envy, and on which the winds of calumny might blow in vain. Slander is now beginning to lose the use of her tongue towards both your Majesty and your friends, as the venom can no longer penetrate the good sense and sound discriminating judgment of the great body of the people. It is vain to write or to talk what nobody will believe, as ideas are not to be forced upon the mind unless they carry conviction with them. Thus it is that the portion of the Press which has asserted your rights and your innocence has been worked with a tremendous effect, when compared with that of your enemies. Well might the Printing-Press be called the artillery of Reason! This is a warfare worthy of mankind! It expands the mind but sheds no blood. It strikes home to our senses but to strengthen and not make a breach. It dispels all our prejudices, as cobwebs are swept from a neglected wall or a mouldering closet. It banishes our vices, and plants the standard of virtue in our bosom, as the citadel of the body. Knowledge is power, the sentiment of Lord Bacon, beginsnow to be echoed from one extremity of the island to the other. It is not to be wondered at, that despots should be anxious to place censorships over the Press, it is just the same as if a powerful enemy should first spike the guns of his opponent and then challenge him to the fight. A restricted Press can be compared to nothing but a conquered town garrisoned by the enemy. Our legislators and judges construe all opposition to licentiousness, and punish with severity what an impartial by-stander would consider nothing but a gentle and becoming murmur. It is vain to reason with them, as it is immediately construed into a contempt of court, and that aggravates the punishment! One would imagine that falsehood would be the proper object for censure and punishment, but our despots cherish falsehood and delusion, and denounce truth by punishing its advocates. But your Majesty has paid a much nobler tribute to the Press than I can pay, therefore it would be superfluous for me to press this point.

I have scarcely need to recapitulate the character of the

loathsome charges brought against your Majesty, the subject is now become stale and disgusting; every one sees their origin and knows well their object: but base and powerful as that object has been, thanks to the good sense and virtue of the people, it has been defeated. The degradation, the pains and penalties which were intended for you, Madam, have recoiled with a threefold force upon the heads of your enemies. It has afforded us an example, that in a free and enlightened country, the greatest punishment that can be inflicted upon a sensible individual is public disapprobation and scorn, and the greatest reward is public approbation and applause. Your enemies have brought upon themselves the former, and upon you the latter, in a degree that was never experienced before. They have fairly drawn the line between the virtuous and vicious part of the community, and have shewn us that the former preponderates even in the ratio of nine to one. The Printing-Press has worked a great moral change among the people of this country, and although they are in a measure shackled by unjust and partial laws, still they possess a towering freedom in mind. Had it not been for the efficacy of the independent part of the Press, the crimes and misconduct of our rulers would have created banditties throughout this country similar to those existing about Rome and throughout Italy. As it is, crime has reached a frightful magnitude, such as was never known before, and it is not to be wondered at, for it cannot be expected that men with families would sit and starve quietly. The society is in a most unnatural state, it is far worse than the ancient feudal system; it is worse than an avowed system of slavery, for in both those instances, the vassa's and slaves were well clothed and well fed, but in this country, at this moment, thousands of the most moral and most industrious men cannot obtain necessary food and clothing for themselves and families. There is more shew and splendour with the pensioned classes than at any former time, but this is the root of the evil, for honest industry is robbed to gratify the bad passions of the idle and the vicious, and all this is done by Acts of Parliament, and this Parliament is basely and falsely called a representation of the people. Your denunciation of this Parliament, Madam, has given it a staggering blow-your resolution to appeal to the people against the projected act of the Parliament intended for your destruction, has totally unnerved it. It may meet again for a session or two, but it is now so heavily laden with its own degradation, that it might be expected to destroy

itself ere long, if not annihilated by an external power! An assembly, of legislators that could sit near a month and listen to the wretches that were hired for your defamation, must either have been hereditary or packed by wicked men from among their companions in vice; had the Parliament of this country been the people's choice, never a word of defamation would have been heard against you. Your husband was well aware of the corrupt majorities held by his Ministers, and he knew it was but to get them to act to ensure his object. If Castlereagh had been a member of the House of Lords, instead of Liverpool and Eldon, he would have carried the Bill of Pains and Penalties through all its stages by a majority of fifty. Liverpool and Eldon were anxious to pass the Bill, but they bad not the courage and the nerve of Castlereagh, and by their ambiguity, fear, and shuffling, the Bill was lost. Castlereagh was continually present in the House of Lords to stimulate the timid creatures, but his not being a member, his not being able to pass an eulogium upon the integrity of Majocchi and his followers, his not being able to display his confidence and impudence by speechifying, lost the Bill. If Castlereagh had' once got it into the other House, of which he is master, he would have carried it to all intents and purposes, and in spite of all obstacles. The present Ministers have never lost a point in the House of Commons, unless it was one that trenched upon the pockets of their tools. Such was the Property Tax Bill-such was the Committee for a New Corn Bill last session. The refusal to increase the income of the Royal Family was a subject on which the Ministers themselves were indifferent, and cannot fairly be considered an exception. Wherever the liberty of the subject has been sought to be trenched upon, there have ever been overwhelming majorities in the House of Commons. And such would have been the case with the Bill of Pains and Penal

ties against yourself, Madam, if the infamy and external danger of the case had not deterred Lord Liverpool from sending it to the Lower House.

I can hardly say at present whether we ought to rejoice at its failure in the hands of the present Ministers; that can only depend upon future circumstances, and their future power to annoy. There is but one sentiment in the great body of the people respecting their Queen, and that is, that she should be placed above the malice and power of her enemies but there may be a difference in opinion as to which is the best method to effect that object. I am of